Talk:List of North American birds: non-passerines
Taxonomy
[edit]The consensus for group and species bird accounts is to use Handbook of Birds of the World for the northern hemisphere and HANZAB for the southern. This because different regions use different classification systems (at least four English language ones for North America, Britain and Ireland, South Africa and Australia and New Zealand).
Whilst it is reasonable for a regional list to use its local system, as in this major article, obviously we want to avoid say Peregrine Falcon being constantly moved between Accipitiformes, Falconiformes and Ciconiiformes.
The use of the term unfortunately is blatently POV regardless of the goodness or badness of extinction. To address you concern however, extinction is a naturally occuring event that can open new niches in the ecosystem allowing increased diversity in the ecosphere. While I personaly hold the view that extiction is in geenral harmful in the short term, and that man made extictions may be harmful in the long term, such topics are mroe rightly addressed under the article Views of Extinction. AQBachler 07:09, 22 Dec 2003 (UTC)
As currently constituted, the List of North American birds is not really a list of North American birds at all, but is more properly a list of the birds of the continental United States and Canada. As ecognized by geographers, the North American continent also includes Central America from Mexico through Panama, plus the Caribbean Islands. A comprehensive list of the birds of North America is readily available in the AOU’s Check-list of North American birds; one only has to delete those species recorded only in the Hawaiian Islands. Instead, the current list is arbitrarily confined to that portion of North America covered by the ABA Checklist (i.e., the continental United States and Canada), thereby creating an incomplete and anglo-centric view of the continents birdlife. The reasons given for doing so--(1) a comprehensive list would be too long, and (2) most North American bird field guides restrict themselves to the U.S. and Canada--ring hollow. I see two possible solutions: (1) use the AOU Check-list of North American birds to create a truly comprehensive List of the birds of North America, or (2) rename this list the List of birds of the continental United States and Canada. John Trapp 14:08, 7 Feb 2004 (UTC)
owls
[edit]HBW lists Northern Pygmy Owl as Glaucidium californicum and Mountain Pygmy Owl as G. gnoma. Is this a new split? jimfbleak 07:22, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)