Annotated checklist of the birds of Brazil by the Brazilian ornithological records committee / Lista comentada das aves do Brasil pelo Comitê Brasileiro de Registros Ornitológicos

Since 2005, the Brazilian Ornithological Records Committee (CBRO) has published updated checklists of Brazilian birds almost every year. Herein, we present a completely new and annotated version of our checklist. For the first time, we list all bird subspecies known from Brazil that are currently accepted by at least one key ornithological reference work. The inclusion of the subspecies should be seen as a synthesis, and not as a taxonomic endorsement. As such, we include in the new checklist 1919 avian species, 910 of which are treated as polytypic in reference works (2042 subspecies), totaling 3051 taxa at the species and subspecies level. We anticipate that several of the subspecies included in our list may be subject to future taxonomic upgrades to species status, while others will probably be shown to be invalid in the light of future taxonomic studies. The results highlight Brazil as a megadiverse country and reinforce the need for proper enforcement of political tools, laws and international commitments assumed by the country to preserve its biodiversity

AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds

Functional traits offer a rich quantitative framework for developing and testing theories in evolutionary biology, ecology and ecosystem science. However, the potential of functional traits to drive theoretical advances and refine models of global change can only be fully realised when species-level information is complete. Here we present the AVONET dataset containing comprehensive functional trait data for all birds, including six ecological variables, 11 continuous morphological traits, and information on range size and location. Raw morphological measurements are presented from 90,020 individuals of 11,009 extant bird species sampled from 181 countries. These data are also summarised as species averages in three taxonomic formats, allowing integration with a global phylogeny, geographical range maps, IUCN Red List data and the eBird citizen science database. The AVONET dataset provides the most detailed picture of continuous trait variation for any major radiation of organisms, offering a global template for testing hypotheses and exploring the evolutionary origins, structure and functioning of biodiversity