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The A.O.U. Check-list of North American Birds, Seventh Edition

showing birds seen, with date and location of sighting added

List of the 2,046 Bird Species (With Scientific and English Names) Known From the A.O.U. Check-list Area [826 observed, as of June 5, 2009]

The A.O.U. Check-list of North American Birds is the official source on the taxonomy of birds found in North and Middle America, including adjacent islands.

The geographic area covered includes North and Central America from the North Pole to the boundary of Panama and Colombia, including the adjacent islands under the jurisdiction of the included nations; the Hawaiian Islands; Clipperton Island; Bermuda; The West Indies, including the Bahama Islands, the Greater Antilles, Leeward and Windward Islands in the Lesser Antilles (ending with Grenada); and Swan, Providencia, and San Andrés Islands in the Gulf of Mexico. Greenland is not included in the coverage of the Seventh Edition of the Check-list, although it was included in earlier editions and will be in the next edition.

Author notes: for the purposes of my list, I have in a couple cases separated out families which the AOU currently considers subfamilies, or has placed into INCERTAE SEDIS. I believe there is reasonable justification for doing so, although this isn't the place to provide it - suffice it to say, the taxonomy is very largely in line with AOU with only a few exceptions, motivated mostly by an interest like that expressed by Don Roberson at his Creagrus site. Notable examples of the liberties I've taken with AOU definitions are the monotypic families COEREBIDAE and DONACOBIIDAE, currently treated quite differently in the actual AOU checklist.

Notes: "(A)" = accidental/casual in AOU area; "(H)" = recorded in AOU area only from Hawaii; "(I)" = introduced into AOU area; "(N)" = has not bred in AOU area, but occurs regularly as nonbreeding visitor; "" preceding name = extinct. "" preceding name = observed. (Mouse over the checkmark when present to see date and location of first-ever sighting.) Species without symbols are non-introduced species that have nested at least once in non-Hawaiian portion of the AOU area. The symbol "*" preceding name indicates a species that is probably misplaced in the current phylogenetic listing but for which data indicating proper placement are not yet available.