Prof. Per Alström is an expert ornithologist working at at Uppsala University, affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, deputy Editor-in-Cheif of the international ornithological journal Avian Research and a former member of the AviList Core Team.
He has been involved in descriptions of 7 species and 3 subspecies of birds new to science and is the author of approximately 140 scientific paper on, especially, systematics, taxonomy, evolution, two books (a Field Guide to the Rare Birds of Britain and Europe, Lewington, Alström & Colston 1991; Pipits and Wagtails of Europe, Asia and North America, Alström & Mild 2003), multiple book chapters (e.g. in Handbook of the Birds of the World, del Hoyo et al., Eds., 2004, 2006) and The Largest Avian Radiation: The Evolution of Perching Birds, or the Order Passeriformes, Fjeldså, Ericson & Christidis, Eds., 2020) and aproximately 80 popular science papers (mainly on identification of difficult species), blogs and Birds of the World (birdsoftheworld.org) accounts.
In his conference, Per will talk about how accurate scientific names are essential for clear communication across science, law, conservation, and education. Taxonomic inconsistencies lead to confusion and hinder global collaboration, and due to differences among the four major global bird checklists, ornithologists and birders have faced challenges.
As a result, it has been developed AviList (avilist.org), a unified global avian taxonomy created collaboratively by experts and institutions, which includes 10,980 living and 151 extinct species. It resolves over 1,000 species-level and many genus-level discrepancies among existing checklists. AviList supports key bird platforms like eBird, Merlin Bird ID, and the IUCN Red List and will replace the other main global checklists. Ongoing updates by a global community will ensure its long-term scientific relevance.
Web page: https://www.uu.se/en/contact-and-organisation/staff?query=N99-636
Birds of the World/Cornell University Feb 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPvjByEkVpE
BirdLife Finland Dec 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDuUMbUOXJs
