Salvatore Urso‡, Giuseppe Martino‡, Eugenio Muscianese‡, Manuela Policastrese‡, Mario Pucci‡, Maurizio Vena‡, Pierpaolo Storino‡Corresponding author: Pierpaolo Storino ( stazioneornitologicacalabrese@gmail.com ) © Salvatore Urso, Giuseppe Martino, Eugenio Muscianese, Manuela Policastrese, Mario Pucci, Maurizio Vena, Pierpaolo Storino. This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Urso S, Martino G, Muscianese E, Policastrese M, Pucci M, Vena M, Storino P (2026) Updated checklist of the birds of Calabria (southern Italy). ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e195998 |  |
Information on the avifauna of Calabria is still incomplete, with much of it contained in isolated studies, local reports, and unpublished observations. More than thirty years have passed since the publication of the first regional checklist. The last ten years have seen an increase in fieldwork and collaboration among local ornithologists, now coordinated by the Stazione Ornitologica Calabrese (StOrCal).
We provide an updated checklist of the birds of Calabria, revised through 31 December 2025, representing an increase of 43 species compared to the historical checklist (320 species). The total number of taxa is 363 species and 9 subspecies divided as follows: 336 AERC category A, 12 B, 7 C, 5 AC and 3 E. General status codes were assigned to 258 regular species, 20 irregular species, 64 accidental/vagrant species and 21 historical species. Breeding status was assigned to 143 regularly breeding species, 8 irregular, 3 occasional and 4 former breeding species. 125 species are included in Annex I of Directive 2009/147/EC. National IUCN categories are known for 230 species, including 9 Critically Endangered, 21 Endangered and 32 Vulnerable species. Taxonomy and status coding are from the national CISO–COI checklist.