Bird Journal Tips and Tricks - How to add preferred species names using synonym lists.

Synonym lists can be used to change bird species names to names that are more familiar.  For this example let’s take the species Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus) and the subspecies Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus hudsonius) from the Birds of the United Kingdom (BOU) Checklist.  Start by creating a new entry and add both species into the sightings list like the example below.  Note: To enter subspecies go to the Options next to the species textbox field and make sure to select the show ‘Species and Subspecies’. 

As you may know, the species Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus hudsonius) is known elsewhere as Northern Harrier (American).  However, with the BOU selected as the Primary Taxonomy, the species will be displayed in the entry page like the example below: 



Now if you wanted to change the display name of Hen Harrier (hudsonius) to Northern Harrier (American) we can use the synonym list feature to change the display name.  The following tutorial shows how to create new synonym names: http://www.bluebirdtechnology.com/BirdJournalTutorials.aspx?ref=10

Once the synonym list is in place, it will be silently running in the background and will automatically change Hen Harrier (hudsonius) to Northern Harrier (American) throughout the journal.  The entry page will now display the species names like the example below. 



For your convenience I have attached the synonym list file created using Bird Journal, feel free to import the list into Bird Journal (note: the file is a closed format and cannot be viewed by opening it directly, it must be viewed within Bird Journal).

Prefered Species Names.bjs (336.00 bytes)

We hope you find this tutorial useful and kindly let us know if you have any questions.