This chapter is packed with succinct sections on species and groups of birds for which recent research have led to changes in our understanding of their taxonomic relationships, and there is so much information in this chapter that it is only possible to hint at its contents here. The review could not leave out an account of ancestral birds but, as might be anticipated, the bulk of this essay describes our present understanding of the relationships amongst modern, extant birds. Large numbers of very well-preserved fossil terrestrial birds have been found and described the last two decades, and Fjeldså describes how study of these new fossils, and not just the advent of sophisticated genetic analyses, has led to revolutionary thinking about the evolution, origins, and relationships of many of the birds we know today.
are functional assemblages of species that contain groupings of species with different evolutionary origins despite their appearance of being related. These are particularly useful and informative at higher taxonomic levels – Fjeldså elegantly describes, for example, how molecular data revealed that “flycatchers” and “warblers” etc. During this period, many relationships have been significantly revised, most often on the basis of results provided by improved molecular techniques. The first of these essays provides a comprehensive introduction to the changes in avian macrosystematics over the past two decades. Both of these chapters make fascinating reading (though you will need to set aside a whole day!) and are beautifully illustrated with photos, paintings, and diagrams. This Partnership coordinates and implements an impressive, diverse global programme of targeted research and conservation action, such as: single-species conservation initiatives a Global Seabird Programme, aimed at reducing seabird bycatch across the world’s major fisheries the identification of the world’s Important Bird Areas and a much lesser-known, but hugely important and pioneering, project to restore a forest logging concession in Sumatra.įollowing the Foreword on BirdLife International, Jon Fjeldså has contributed two chapters, the first being a 70-page essay entitled Avian classification in flux, followed by a 39-page treatise on The discovery of new bird species. In total, there are now around ten million personal members and supporters of the BirdLife Partnership – sufficient to have considerable influence on government policy-making in some countries. The essay charts the development and outlines some of the major programmes and achievements of this organisation from its very modest beginnings as ICBP, to its present-day partnership with national representatives in 116 countries and territories, and activities and influences on a planetary scale. Handbook of the Birds of the World, Special Volume: New Species and Global Index starts with a Foreword on “The world’s largest civil society Partnership for Nature”, an informative chapter by Nick Langley on the history and other important aspects of the BirdLife International organization, which commemorates the 20th anniversary of the BirdLife Partnership and the 90th anniversary of its predecessor, the International Council for Bird Preservation. What HBW has produced, however (and despite the fact that the Global Index runs to 310 pages), is something much more than this and, perhaps unexpectedly, an altogether wonderfully illustrated and fascinating book to end the series.
But as the series was getting close to finishing, the editors decided to provide an additional Special Volume for three main reasons – to provide an overview of how avian systematics has developed over the 20-year lifetime of the HBW project, to provide species accounts for those new bird species described subsequent to publication of their respective volumes, and to provide an overall index to the entire series. When Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) started, Volume 16 was to have been the last volume of this magnificent series.