About the project

Not one list.
A map of evidence.

Bird lists look fixed until taxonomy changes, a rare visitor arrives, or old bones rewrite an island’s past. This atlas keeps those layers visible.

A field guide designed to keep opening doors.

The Birds of Puerto Rico is a source-preserving compilation of birds documented from the Puerto Rico archipelago and its surrounding waters. It includes the inferred current checklist core alongside introduced, accidental, extirpated, extinct, and prehistoric records.

Every profile is connected to related species, habitats, families, occurrence types, conservation groupings, audio, observations, and source records. The goal is simple: any bird should lead naturally to the next useful discovery.

Why the totals differ

Five numbers.
Five source scopes.

370SOPI overviewA public-facing snapshot using a different category and taxonomy frame.

380Avibase reported coreThe Clements 2025 Puerto Rico page headline count.

384Avibase rendered rowsThe same page visibly renders four additional uncertain-origin rows.

389Wikipedia live listAll live bird bullets, including historical and introduced records.

402This reconciled unionThe source-preserving union plus primary-literature fossil records.

Reconcile, don’t flatten

Conflicting totals and names remain visible rather than being silently forced into one interpretation.

Separate status systems

Global IUCN, Puerto Rico DNER, federal ESA, and historical DRNA status are kept in distinct fields.

Preserve media rights

Only photographs confirmed as PD, CC0, CC BY, or CC BY-SA are displayed, with source and creator attribution.

Connect every record

Each of 402 bird pages has eight deterministic relatives and at least four collection memberships.

The field guide is open

Start with one bird.

Explore all 402 birds ↗Browse 95 collections →