I am considering a purchase of Birder's Diary and  am pretty clear that I should purchase an Advanced license.

My question is about which taxonomy or taxonomies I should purchase to go with it?

I live in Australia so the obvious choice seems to be Birds - Australia, New Zealand, 2008 @ $49.00. However, I do some birding in North America (mainly Canada) every year or so and that means I need to supplement the Australian taxonomy with something like Birds - AOU - 2009 for $49.00, adding up to $98.00 in total. If I then did some birding in Europe, I would need in addition to purchase something like Birds - BOU - 2009 for $39.00 and so on it goes ...

It almost seems like the best thing to do would be to purchase Clements/ Cornell for the World at $99.00 and presumably this would meet my local (Australian) needs as well. Does this sound correct?

Paul

Hi Paul,

Good question that comes up often.

Most folks purchase a taxonomic list which agrees with their home authorities and then the Clements World list for birding outside of their home country. The reason is that Clements will not agree in all cases with the Australian tax list - mostly in common name use; but also in recognition of species vs subspecies and classification.

That is what most folks do. Let me know if I can assist further.

Jeff

Hi Paul,

The Aus/NZ taxonomy was created in and based on the 2008 version of the RAOU, I believe. So, I guess it needs updating. Thanks for the input.

Did you realize you can quickly change the preferred common name that each tax list uses for a bird? You can change just about everything in BD, where data is concerned.

To change the common name used by the Aus/NZ tax list for the Dollarbird do the following:

1. Open Rosetta Stone feature
   1. Type "Dollarbird" (no spaces) into the common name field
   2. Click the Lookup button
   3. You will see that two tax lists reference this bird -Clements and Aus/NZ
   4. Note that the thing referenced by both (the underlying reference) in the bottom grid is 'Dollarbird'; you need this for the next step.
2. Open the Tax Edit feature
   1. In the Thing text field at the top, type in 'Dollarbird' from 1.d above
   2. Select your Aus/NZ tax list from the dropdown
   3. From the Preferred Common Name dropdown, change it to Dollarbird.
   4. Click the Update button

Now, whenever you use the AUS/NZ tax list, it will refer to this thing/bird as the 'Dollarbird'.

Let me know if I can assist with anything else.

Jeff

Jeff

There is an online reference for the latest Australian taxonomy at http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/birds/checklist.html.

This new taxonomy is dated 2008 but was probably released later in 2008 than when you set up your taxonomy.

If you like, I could go ahead and update your "Birds - Australia - New Zealand - 2008" taxonomy using the Taxonomy Editor and the new official taxonomy (which I have now downloaded) and export the result to you in comma-delimited format. Would that be of use?

Cheers, Paul

Steve

I won't be updating it, mainly for the reasons you give.

I started to work on it but realised that, in some cases, changes needed to be made with the Thing editor as well as with the Taxonomy editor. I wasn't too sure what the result would be  - I will leave it to Jeff.

Paul

Actually, my previous post prompts another question.

I am currently using the trial version of Birder's Diary. Will my local changes to the ANZ Taxonomy and to Things persist when I purchase and install the software and taxonomies? Or do hey get reset to the "official" versions?

Paul

Hi Paul,

All of your data is saved. And, when you purchase, all you do is to enter your new license IDs - no need to reinstall BD. You have the real version. But if you did, it would not overwrite or remove your data.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff

The only question in my mind now is when to make the purchase. Prudence dictates that I should hold out for another 23 days till my trial expires, just in case you  get version 3.7 released.

However, if that is not about to happen, then I could purchase right now?

Paul

 Ok... I am done laughing now.

 But seriously, no. More like 2-3 months at a minimum. But, how's this, if I release 3.7 in the next month, I will give it to you for free. So you can feel safe in purchasing 3.6 now.

Jeff

Sounds good Jeff ...