AviSys can import and completely integrate the Official James Clements and Shawneen Finnegan World-Wide Nation Checklists as provided in BirdArea from Santa Barbara Software Products. This add-on provides the most authoritative and up-to-date individual nation checklists of the 254 nations and other important geographic entities of the world -- the ranges of more than 9,900 species over 254 nations -- 2,514,500 data points!
This monumental work, performed over several years and continually updated, is originally the result of an incredible effort by Shawneen Finnegan, an experienced world-wide birding professional. It has a bibliography of 585 books, checklists, and papers. Shawneen had access to 14 personal and institutional libraries, assistance from more than 35 authorities around the world, and input from national records committees. The depth and quality of these checklists are simply unmatched. Upon Shawneen's retirement from the project in 2005, Dr. James Clements took over responsibility for periodic updates, and now updates are continuing via the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
The Nation Checklist Add-On (BirdArea) was available from www.avisys.net for $59.95 plus $4.00 S&H ($2 S&H with a new copy of AviSys) We provide simple instructions on how to integrate the data with AviSys. Annual updates were available from SBSP for a modest charge.
After an easy installation, the range data become seamlessly and tightly integrated with AviSys -- no other use of the BirdArea software is required.
When this facility is integrated with AviSys, AviSys provides the most powerful, useful, and authoritative nation checklist function of any available birding software. The depth of features and ease of use in AviSys are simply unmatched anywhere.
Just click on a bird. Then, when the Nation Checklist Add-On is present, clicking the Range button instantly produces a dialog listing every nation where the species can be seen, grouped by ABA Region. Clicking the Alphabetic button changes the display mode to an alphabetic listing of the nations. The range can be printed.
The Nation Checklists are handled exactly like the Tony White State Checklists. When you invoke a nation checklist, the range data for that nation is integrated within the Master Checklist. The species in the checklist are bold on screen, and the species not in the checklist are dimmed. Species you have seen within the geography of the invoked checklist are marked with a '' and species you have seen anywhere else are marked '. Depending on the setting of the Options / Endemics menu item, birds endemic to the nation are marked with a . or ! or not marked at all. This depth of informational annotation is Another AviSys Exclusive!
You can print a nation checklist from the Reports/Checklist menu, and you have the options of printing the ' and '' markers, endemic markers, and checkoff boxes. Like all reports from AviSys, you can select any number of columns with any font and font size. You can have Latin names printed under the English names, and can select the use of italics with the Latin Names. (Typically beautiful AviSys output -- Another AviSys Exclusive!) Click here to see a Print Preview
As you can with the Tony White State Checklists, you can produce nation hit lists:
* A list of the birds of any nation that you have not seen in that nation
* A list of the birds of any nation that you have not seen anywhere
A Species Seen Report with a Nation Checklist invoked acts just like one with a state checklist invoked. Species seen that are not in the Nation Checklist are listed separately in the Accidentals section - Another AviSys Exclusive!
With the Nation Checklist add-on, you can also create and invoke checklists of the nine ABA Regions, and six ABA Areas:
ABA Regions |
ABA Reporting Areas |
| Africa | Asia |
| Australasia | Central America |
| Eurasia | Europe, West Pal |
| South America | Oceanic |
| North America - (AOU) | West Indies |
| South Polar | ABA Area - ( North America ) |
| Atlantic Ocean | US - All 50 States |
| Pacific Ocean | Lower 48 States |
| Indian Ocean |
The Region/Area checklists function with the same power as individual nation checklists, including ' and '' sighted markers and endemic markers.
With or without the Nation Checklist add-on, the ABA Area, state, province, United States, Canada, and Lower 48 checklists are provided by the Tony White State Checklist data.
With the Nation Checklist add-on, by using the Z-LIST facility you can easily and quickly create checklists of groups of nations. For instance, if you are planning a trip to three Central America nations, you can quickly create a checklist that encompasses the aggregate of the three nations' checklists, including ' and '' markers on screen and in printed output. You can store these groups away for future use.
With or without the Nation Checklist add-on, you can now easily and quickly create multiple (aggregate) state checklists using the Z-LIST facility. For instance, you might create a Z-LIST for the Northwest containing OR, WA, ID and BC. (Store it away as 'NORWEST.ZLS' for future use.) You can then create a Northwest checklist by invoking that Z-LIST from the Checklist menu. When invoked, these checklists include ' and '' markers on screen and in printed output.
This new function is used once when the Nation Checklist data is installed and when Nation Checklist updates are installed. It ensures that the bird list of the nation checklist data matches the AviSys Master Checklist.