Resource

The Copenhagen global avian distributional database

Author/Contact:

Carsten Rahbek
Full Professor in Macroecology , Director of CMEC


crahbek@snm.ku.dk

Publication date:

Resource description:

Distributional data for more than 10 000 species of birds for all land and non-pelagic species was mapped for each species at a resolution of 1x1 latitude-longitude grid cells.

Requirements:

  • Maps represent a conservative extent-of-occurrence of the breeding ranges based on museum specimens, published sight records, and spatial distribution of habitats between documented records, which have subsequently been validated by ornithological experts
  • More than 1600 references have been used for the mapping. The distributions of species are matched to the global taxonomies provided by the International Ornithological Congress.
  • The database is dynamic, and since compilation began in 1993, new data are added almost daily.

Advantages:

  • The data are being used for research. By stacking the individual species maps on top of each other, we obtain species richness estimations, which can then be analyzed in relation to phylogenetic, environmental and social information

Constraints:

  • N/A

Licence:

  • Free, no licence

Development stage:

  • Full, working product