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General books about bird taxonomy.

The list is are arranged chronologically with the most recently published at the top.

Die Vogelarten / The Bird Species: Systematics of the Bird Species and Subspecies of the world, Volume 2

Norbert Bahr

2014

Bilingual: German / English

This is the second volume of a multi-volume series that will provide an overview of the systematics and taxonomy of all bird species and subspecies of the world. This volume covers the Columbidae, Pteroclidae, Mesitornithidae, Phoenicopteridae, Podicipedidae, and Phaethontidae."

Die Vogelarten / The Bird Species: Systematics of the Bird Species and Subspecies of the world, Volume 1

Norbert Bahr

Bilingual: German / English

2011

"This is the first volume of a multi-volume series that will provide an overview of the systematics and taxonomy of all bird species and subspecies of the world. This volume covers the Charadriiformes."

Priority! The Dating of Scientific Names in Ornithology: A Directory to the Literature and its Reviewers

Edward C. Dickinson, Leslie K. Overstreet, Robert J. Dowsett and Murray Bruce

2011

"This is the first book to explain the importance of priority in relation to names in ornithology and in the context of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Backgrounds are first provided on the Code and on printing and publishing over the last 250 years. The compilers then bring together reports on 148 books and 121 periodicals in zoology which, between them, present almost all the challenges that can make date determination problematic. The reports provide links to the published authorities and are supported by tables containing extensive detail about the subsidiary parts or issues with their pagination and dates. This book and the included CD Rom are a searchable treasure trove."

A Glossary of Bird Names: Includes generic, family, and order names

Manjula Wijesundara

2010

"This glossary defines the common, generic, family, and order names of birds. It is primarily aimed at bird and nature lovers who seek definitions for unfamiliar bird names that they encounter in ornithological literature. It is also a valuable reference work for the interested non-specialists who would like a small definition for any unfamiliar bird name that they may come across in their day to day lives. An introduction to birds in general has also been provided, including brief accounts on feathers and flight, migration, evolutionary history, and classification of birds."

Avian Subspecies

Editors: Kevin Winkler and Susan M. Haig

American Ornithologists' Union

2010

A 200 page edition that collects 13 papers on avian subspecies that were delivered at the meeting of the A.O.U., the Cooper Ornithological Society and the Society of Canadian Ornithologists in Portland, Oregon during August 2008.

Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names

James A. Jobling

2009

"Many scientific bird names describe a bird's habits, habitat, distribution or a plumage feature, while others are named after their discoverers or in honour of prominent ornithologists. This extraordinary work of reference lists the generic and specific name for almost every species of bird in the world and gives its meaning and derivation. In the case of eponyms brief biographical details are provided for each of the personalities commemorated in the scientific names. This fascinating book is an outstanding source of information which will both educate and inform, and may even help to understand birds better."

Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds

Les Christidis and Walter E. Boles

2008

"Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds lists all those species of birds that have been recorded from the Australian mainland, Tasmania, island territories and surrounding waters. Based on the authors original book, The Taxonomy and Species of Birds of Australia and its Territories, it includes any new species for which records have been accepted by the Records Appraisal Committee of Birds Australia. It also includes all extant and recently extinct (post-1800) native species, as well as new species, accepted vagrants and introduced species that have become established and continue to survive in the wild.The book provides brief explanations for taxonomic changes in the literature and for those adopted within it, including the citations for such work. Its geographical coverage includes Christmas Island, Cocos-Keeling Islands, Heard Island, Lord Howe Island, Macquarie Island, Norfolk Island and the islands of Torres Strait, and also Ashmore Reef, owing to the number of vagrant species that have recently been reported from there. It also includes vagrants from the Australian Antarctic Territory that have not been recorded elsewhere in Australia or its territories; incorporates extensive systematic and taxonomic changes since 1994; and, includes recently extinct native species as well as established introduced species."

The Tree of Life: A Phylogenetic Classification

Guillaume Lecointre and Hervé Le Guyader

2007

"Did you know that you are more closely related to a mushroom than to a daisy? That crocodiles are closer to birds than to lizards? That dinosaurs are still among us? That the terms "fish," "reptiles," and "invertebrates" do not indicate scientific groupings? All this is the result of major changes in classification, whose methods have been totally revisited over the last thirty years. Modern classification, based on phylogeny, no longer places humans at the centre of nature. Groups of organisms are no longer defined by their general appearance, but by their different individual characteristics. Phylogeny, therefore, by showing common ancestry, outlines a tree of evolutionary relationships from which one can retrace the history of life. This book diagrams the tree of life according to the most recent methods of classification. Each branch of the tree is a group that includes the hypothetical ancestor and all its descendants. The basis for classification is the evolutionary adaptations that the unique ancestor passed to its modern-day descendants. By showing how life forms arose and developed and how they are related, "The Tree of Life" presents a key to the living world in all its dazzling variety."

Speciation and Biogeography of Birds

Ian Newton

2003

"This book should be of value to anyone interested in bird evolution and taxonomy, biogeography, distributional history, dispersal and migration patterns. It provides an up-to-date synthesis of current knowledge on species formation, and the factors influencing current distribution patterns. It draws heavily on new information on Earth history, including past glacial and other climatic changes, on new developments in molecular biology and palaeontology, and on recent studies of bird distribution and migration patterns, to produce a coherent account of the factors that have influenced bird species diversity and distribution patterns worldwide."

Phylogeny and Classification of Birds: A Study in Molecular Evolution

C.G. Sibley and J.E. Ahlquist

1991

"This book presents the results of a study of the evolutionary history and classification of living birds based on comparisons of the DNAs (genetic material) of about 1700 species. Sibley and Ahlquist's "DNA-DNA hybridization" technqiue is a biochemical method that measures the degree of genetic similarity between the DNAs of different species of other groups of organisms, but this book includes the largest set of DNA comparisons for any group. Divided into two sections, the book first covers the methodology used and then presents the phylogeny and classification of birds based on this method. The latter section provides a chronological survey of the classification of birds since Linnaeus (1758) and details for each group of birds since that time. The history of the classification of each order and family is reviewed, morphological chracters are noted, and evidence of the phylogeny and genetic relationships of each group is given."

Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World

C.G. Sibley and B.L. Monroe

1990

"In this book, ornithologists Charles G. Sibley and Burt L. Monroe Jr, present descriptions of the geographic distributions, and comments about the species-level taxonomy, of the living birds of the world. The accounts of the 9672 species are arranged according to the classification developed by Sibley, Monroe, and Ahlquist. The authors provide new information on the distribution of each species; an appendix includes 24 maps and a gazetteer of the place names mentioned in the text. This volume also provides a cross-referenced index of scientific and English bird names of species."

Hawks and Owls of the World: A Distributional and Taxonomic List

Dean amadon, John Bull

1988

Taxonomy of the Cracidae (Aves)

Charles Vaurie

Bulletin Of The American Museum Of Natural History, Volume 138

The American Museum of Natural History

1968

From the introduction: "The present study is restricted to the living Cracidae and to forms that have become extinct recently, and is based chiefly on external morphology and geographical distribution. General habits, broad ecology, and isolating mechanisms were taken into consideration, but I have not enlarged upon these subjects, which, together with the life history, will be contained in a book being prepared by my colleagues Jean Delacour and Dean Amadon.

Species Taxa of North American Birds: A Contribution to Comparative Systematics

Ernst Mayr and Lester Short

1967

A Study Of The Structure Of Feathers, With Reference To Their Taxonomic Significance

Asa C. Chandler

1916

From the introduction: "Although as a class birds have received more attention from nearly all classes of zoologists than any other group of vertebrate animals, their natural classification presents a great many problems difficult of solution, and no satisfactory phylogenetic arrangement has yet been devised for them. It was with the hope of throwing light on some of the dark places in the taxonomy of birds that the writer attempted the work, the results of which are presented in this paper, since it was believed that the comparative morphology of feathers would almost certainly be of some taxonomic value in establishing the relationships of various groups of birds. Since feathers are external and in constant contact with the environment, they would naturally be expected to be among the first structures of the body to feel the influence of environmental changes and shocks, and would still be as liable to change by hybridization, orthogenesis or any other method of evolution, as any of the other structures."