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Special Member AccessIn 2026, six new species were introduced to Birds of the World. In this article we explain what those are and explore how taxonomists here at Birds of the World define a new species.
The 20th installment of updates following the publication, in 2007, of the 6th edition of The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World has been published.
This year finally sees the split of Eastern Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris) and Western Marsh Wren (Cistothorus paludicola). eBird Central will automatically convert records from the western third of North America to Western Marsh Wren, and records from the eastern third to Eastern Marsh Wren.
Birds of the World is a powerful resource that brings deep, scholarly content from four celebrated works of ornithology into a single platform where biologists and birders can find comprehensive life history information on birds. Every bird has a story. Discover them all with Birds of the World.
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Text: Take a deep dive into the remarkable world of birds with:
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The IUCN (2025) Red List is based on a different taxonomy than Birds of the World. As such, we can only display conservation status for taxa where the two taxonomies match at the species level. For all unmatched taxa, the conservation status is "Unknown".
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