For Christmas 2023, we're giving the gift of birds to all BUBO Pan-species Listers!
As many of you will be aware, since October we've been introducing a new Pan-species List (PSL) into BUBO Listing. This list is based on the UK Species Inventory, hosted by the Natural History Museum on behalf of the biological recording community, and currently comprises over 76,000 of animals, plants, fungi and other organisms. To make this a somewhat less intimidating list for people, we've been adding these species in taxonomic batches over the last couple of months.
We've kept the birds out of the PSL until near the end. But of course, all your birds should count towards your PSL too. In fact, for many long-standing BUBO Listers, they may well comprise the majority of species you've identified so far. So now, all of the birds that you could add to British or Irish lists in BUBO are also available on PSL lists. You can add them directly, one at a time, or via the Batch Edit tool. However, for those of you with both a PSL and an existing bird list, you may like to speed up the job with the Combine Lists feature. You can find this under the My Lists header when logged in. You should be able to pull your birds into your PSL in just a few mouse clicks! Hopefully this will stop you getting into trouble with your family on Christmas morning by not spending ages typing birds into BUBO...
If you've not yet created a PSL, but do have an existing bird list, this could be an ideal time to start. Simply go to Create New List, pick the PSL location, and there's an option at the bottom to 'Copy from existing list'. Dead easy - you've got a bird-anchored PSL that you can then start adding other wildlife to, from oak trees to orchids, butterflies to frogs, or whatever you've come across in your travels. It's that easy, and using the PSL framework to expand your taxonomic horizons could be a great New Year's Resolution for 2024.
Note that we've been recommending most people create a PSL based on the 'Britain, Ireland, Isle of Man & Channel Islands (PSL)' location, to maximise the comparability of lists between people. This means that you can bring in bird species from this slightly broader area too. Of course, if you wish to create a PSL for a smaller area such as a county or site, then that's fine too, but you'll have less opportunity to compare your targets vs other lists. Apologies to our BUBO Listers in the rest of the world, but PSL will not be available outside Britain and Ireland for the foreseeable future.
Read more details about Pan-species Listing.
Finally... all these additional species are, as ever, provided to you entirely free of charge. However, BUBO Listing is not free to us to run, and we would encourage anyone who appreciates using it to make a donation. There is no obligation but any amount is appreciated, whether one-off or regular. Use the Donation button on the left, or Contact Us to donate by bank transfer.