In its fourth edition, the Brazilian Ornithological Records Committee (CBRO) presents an updated checklist of the Brazilian birds (1822 species). Besides adding new taxa and new occurrences for the Brazilian territory, several alterations were implemented on the sequence and on the spelling of taxa, based on the most recent published works.

The CBRO – a “forum to discuss the classification, nomenclature and distribution of the Brazilian birds” – was created in April of 1999 and recognized in 2004 as a study group of the Brazilian Ornithological Society (SBO).

The structure of the list, particularly the sequence, continues greatly based on the checklist of the South American Classification Committee (SACC), an official committee of the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU).

(http://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.html).

However, there are several divergences, implemented generally based on new published works considered well-founded by the CBRO.

The CBRO follows the GLC – General Lineage [Species] Concept (de Queiroz, 2005. PNAS 102: 6600-6607) to drive its decisions concerning species limit. Because it accommodates several stages of the continuous speciation process, the GLC allows such stages to be explicitly recognized. There is a less arbitrary search for distinct evolutional units, which can be revealed from several types of evidence (see also Helbig et al. 2002. Ibis 144: 518-525).

We gave a special attention to authorship and date of the taxa, including those of higher taxa. Recognizing the instrumental role of this checklist, incertae sedis taxa were not indicated as such, but rather put in their traditional loci.

Unfortunately, English names are not provided, just Portuguese.

Besides the primary list (the main list) of Brazilian birds, there are two other lists: secondary and tertiary lists, which will be permanently organized and updated by the CBRO as well. Their technical definitions are given on the right.

This document includes all the species from both the Primary and the Secondary lists (the latter appear between brackets).