When I was in college, the USFWS had an extensive research capacity, with several research stations around the country and cooperative research units at quite a few state universities. The entire capacity was moved over to the USGS during the 1990’s, if I remember correctly, with no particularly goo…

My point there was that the “AOU list” wasn’t produced by the AOU (now the AOS, of course). IBP gave it that name because they were using the AOU checklist to determine what species they needed to include.

[image] AOU-like codes added for species not occurring in North America AOU Why isn’t the 6 letter code based on the scientific name used instead of a 4 letter code based on the common name. I would think there would be less chance of duplication.

[image] bbk-htx: Why isn’t the 6 letter code based on the scientific name used instead of a 4 letter code based on the common name. Maybe because four letters are one-third shorter than six? [image] AOU-like codes added for species not occurring in North America (I say “there’s a morning …

Given the origin of these codes, I don’t have an answer to this question. I’m sure that 4 rather than 6 had to do with database memory issues (memory used to be much more expensive than it is now…) But the codes were first made for banders, and I would think that using the scientific name would have…

[image] psweet: I’m sure that 4 rather than 6 had to do with database memory issues (memory used to be much more expensive than it is now…) Interestingly, my first exposure to these kinds of codes was for vegetation surveys. Vascular plants had 4-letter codes (ACTR – Achlys triphylla; PSME – …

In the case of birds, they bend the rules for the 2 species. The worst pair I know of for that is Blue Grosbeak and Blue Grouse (before they were split, of course). They ended up with BLGK and BLGU, I believe.

Quiscalus nicaraguensis has one of these 4 letter codes on it’s iNat taxonomy page despite it being a Central American species, not a North American species. I’m not sure who listed it, but if it’s actually official… it needs to be changed. If it isn’t, it should be removed.

[image] anhingas: I’m not sure who listed it, but if it’s actually official… it needs to be changed. If it isn’t, it should be removed. See original thread: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/aou-like-codes-added-for-species-not-occurring-in-north-america/45167

Yes, just flag these and/or delete - at this point, it seems clear they should be deleted. Actually, that looks like a real AOU-code which has its own lexicon, so that one seems ok.

The AOS these days has two checklists, a N. American and a S. American one. The N. American one includes Central America, so if you search the N. American checklist for Q. nicaraguensis, you’ll find it there. Given that the IBP codes that sort of started this discussion were based on the AOS checkli…

AOU Codes Discussion

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Topic		Replies	Views
AOU-like codes added for species not occurring in North America General	18	1205	December 11, 2023
How to add AOU codes General question	4	585	September 28, 2021
Maybe we should have BOW codes on iNaturalist General	8	677	February 16, 2024
Adding a 'eBird Global 4-Letter Code' lexicon? General	12	489	September 29, 2021
Mosses or Mexican Chickadees General	25	1011	May 5, 2026

AOU Codes Discussion

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