AviList: The world’s first harmonised classification of birds

A researcher from the National University of Singapore (NUS) is at the helm of a global consortium that has published the first-ever harmonised taxonomic checklist for all species of an entire animal class: birds.

The classification of the world’s animals follows the Linnaean hierarchy, whereby each species is given a scientific name and assigned to a specific place within a system consisting of families, orders, classes and many other nested categories. However, with growing insights, especially from phylogenetics, our understanding of a species’ position within the Linnaean system can change. For instance, species can be transferred across families, or families can be expanded or contracted according to the latest research. This lack of taxonomic consensus leads to frequent differences in name usage, with negative impacts on communication among scientists, government agencies, commercial entities and other stakeholders. There is no official body that decides which particular usage must be adopted. Hence, many biologists have expressed concern about the taxonomic chaos that reigns in animal classification.

For the first time in history, dozens of scientists from across the world have come together to create an official unified taxonomic list that harmonises the incongruences among previous species lists for an entire animal class: birds. The new list, known as AviList, was launched on 11 June 2025 following years of work involving numerous world experts under the leadership of Associate Professor Frank RHEINDT from the Department of Biological Sciences, NUS, who is the Chair of the Taxonomic Committee of AviList. AviList is freely accessible online (www.AviList.org) to all stakeholders in avian classification, including government agencies, trade and business organisations, aviculturists, conservationists and birdwatchers. The global taxonomic checklist published by AviList is a living document that will be regularly updated annually to reflect the latest changes in classification from growing scientific insights.

A common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), one of the ~11,000 bird species worldwide covered by  AviList – the world’s first unified global taxonomic checklist for all birds. [Photo by Boris Smokrovic on Unsplash]

Associate Professor Rheindt said, “AviList is a first of its kind and we hope that it may provide a blueprint for scientists working on other organismic groups to follow in our footsteps.”

The success of AviList underscores the need for similar collaborative initiatives to address the challenges posed by taxonomic incongruence in science communication and other fields of human endeavour.

Reference

Rheindt FE*; Donald PF; Donsker DB; Gerbracht JA; Iliff MJ; Lepage D; Norman JA; Rasmussen PC; Schodde R; Schulenberg TS; Areta JI; Brammer FP; Chesser RT; Dowsett RJ; Peterson A; Alström P; Stervander M; Remsen JV; Garnett ST; Homberger DG; Lei F; Christidis L*, “AviList: a unified global bird checklist” Biodiversity and Conservation DOI: 10.1007/s10531-025-03120-y Published: 2025.