Overview of systems for encoding bird names

The author's tools for managing wild bird records are in transition. Here are drafts of the new tools:

• A system for representing bird taxonomy. This is the infrastructure that deals with the ever-changing taxonomy and nomenclature of North American birds.
• Bird taxonomy system: internal maintenance specification. Internals of the nomenclatural support programs, written in the Python language, and documented in the "literate programming" style.
• A system for encoding bird field notes. How the author uses XML to structure field notes for both scientific and recreational access.
• The author's online field notes, produced by the system described above.
• The abalist program: computing American Birding Association list totals. Another literate programming exposition of tools to compute species totals for recreational birding.

Older bird nomenclature pages

• `Design goals for bird code systems'
• The AOU Check-List: The reference names for North American bird records
• `A robust bird code system: the six-letter code': The six-letter codes used in The Christmas Bird Count database project
• A variant six-letter code invented by Bruce Bowman.
• The Bird Banding Lab (BBL) system: Common but limited and error-prone. Even if you are familiar with this system, please see my critique.
• AOU Numbers: An older, flawed system
• The Breeding Bird Survey system: A minor variation on the BBL system
• The ``birder's code'': Another BBL variant

Last updated: 2005/02/02 23:36:21
URL: http://www.nmt.edu/~shipman/z/nom/homepage.html