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  1. Kirk Roth

    Iberian Chiffchaff dilemma

    Merlin is notorious for misidentifications - unusual (e.g. out of range/season) sound "IDs" need to be backed up by other evidence and never taken as confirmation just by itself. I believe that Merlin's own guidance declares this. As with any tool used in birding - multiple lines of evidence...
  2. Kirk Roth

    Petition to AOS Leadership on the Recent Decision to Change all Eponymous Bird Names

    I think you and I are on a different pages. You seem to be arguing the outcomes of a potential case, and I don't dispute your interpretations. I also don't dispute that there are differences with past cases - but that leads directly to my point. My concern is that its something someone will...
  3. Kirk Roth

    Petition to AOS Leadership on the Recent Decision to Change all Eponymous Bird Names

    I would suggest doing some research if you are interested - two of my examples (Masterpiece Cakeshop v Colorado Civil Rights Commission) and Kim Davis (the County Clerk in Kentucky) were both workplace-related cases. There are other examples (both "religious" and not - the motivations in many...
  4. Kirk Roth

    Petition to AOS Leadership on the Recent Decision to Change all Eponymous Bird Names

    Ha! - yes, the First, thank you. Let's hope that the Second Amendment doesn't become involved in the bird names argument! Note that I used a publication only as an example, and only because there was a question about field guides. The law says: "The division shall use the English-language...
  5. Kirk Roth

    Petition to AOS Leadership on the Recent Decision to Change all Eponymous Bird Names

    You can see my thoughts above referring to the goshawk. You do make a good point about Western Flycatcher using one interpretation of the law - and I'll use this as an opportunity to take another potshot at it. The law says: "The division shall use the English-language name assigned to a...
  6. Kirk Roth

    Petition to AOS Leadership on the Recent Decision to Change all Eponymous Bird Names

    I agree that is the likely intent. However, Accipiter (gentilis) atricapillus is not exactly a "new" taxon - it existed before 2020 and its name was Northern Goshawk. The point is taken that Accipiter atricapillus is a current species that had no English name prior to 2020, but again the law...
  7. Kirk Roth

    Petition to AOS Leadership on the Recent Decision to Change all Eponymous Bird Names

    To be clear, the law applies only to "The division" which refers to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. This is not really evident from this snippet of law, but if someone were to read the whole section, then "The division" would be defined as such. So the law only has jurisdiction over...
  8. Kirk Roth

    Petition to AOS Leadership on the Recent Decision to Change all Eponymous Bird Names

    The AOS stopped officially naming subspecies decades ago, and while they have stated for years that they want to get back to defining subspecies (not necessarily naming them), they have instead prioritized other matters (if I may be a bit cheeky!) The short answer is, no - no "nationally...
  9. Kirk Roth

    Petition to AOS Leadership on the Recent Decision to Change all Eponymous Bird Names

    Its important to note that this is a law that only applies to state agencies in Utah - so to be clear there would only be the loosest relevance to birds in the U.K. That said, to get to the spirit of your question - the law leaves a bit to interpretation. The bit that says "the division may...
  10. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    "Provisional" in ABA vocabulary used to mean a bird you weren't sure would end up being accepted in a big year. That is different than eBird's definition of a Provisional bird - meaning "semi-established." So if you saw a Eurasian Sparrowhawk in Alaska, that might be a countable species but a...
  11. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    I believe there was a policy change among the reviewers and they have not yet cleaned up all the old reports before the change. This one bird was reported many hundreds of times, if not over a thousand - so if it takes some time to get things "clean" I understand. There are cases like this all...
  12. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    The treatment of these Hawaiian birds seems especially interesting to me, especially with regard to equity with other states. When eBird rolled out its new exotics policy, there were guidelines on how the categories were assigned, but it was for the most part established using the local...
  13. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    Speaking of which, Cattle Tyrant would be added to the list above - currently "Provisional" status and expected to be reviewed by ABA in the next year.
  14. Kirk Roth

    Edit Wiki

    Anyone can - including yourself. There is an "edit" button on the top right of every Wikipedia page. I deleted the picture, but I'll leave it to someone else to put in a better one.
  15. Kirk Roth

    Picidae

    Ah, I think I was thrown off by their term "hairy-mimicking downy woodpeckers" and missing that crucial hyphen. It leads me to more head-scratching, however, as I believe the study found Downies to be (nonsignificantly) more aggressive than expected - so then their case for aggressive mimicry...
  16. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    My understanding in Tijuana is just the opposite - are you aware of any reports after 2022 or of more than a pair of a birds at a time? At the three Tijuana River Valley parks (in the U.S.), yes those things are evident, but if there are lots of these birds in Tijuana, Mexico they don't seem to...
  17. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    Exactly. In the bigger picture, its as if ABA is handing over (yet) more of its "listing authority" to eBird. Just my speculation, but it makes sense if the ABA is steering toward redefining its role as an organization.
  18. Kirk Roth

    eBird and Birding on the move

    I think you are exactly correct. There are other databases with other purposes and goals. And eBird does some of these things in a limited capacity, but when you explore the Science tab, you see a heavy emphasis on global trend sort of information; and I'm sure they present it prominently...
  19. Kirk Roth

    Latest IOC Diary Updates

    Presumably these four plus the rest of these changes (except the Brush Cuckoo) are an alignment with Clements. Just getting ahead of any knee-jerk reaction equivocating this with the AOS common names situation.
  20. Kirk Roth

    Picidae

    I think I need to explain in more detail then. In several of his writings, E.O. Wilson would demonstrate that what he called "Just So Stories" could be misused within evolutionary biology. In this usage, a "Just So Story" is a hypothetical explanation for some evolutionary phenomenon, but...
  21. Kirk Roth

    Petition to AOS Leadership on the Recent Decision to Change all Eponymous Bird Names

    Here is a link to the state code: https://le.utah.gov/~2024/bills/static/HB0382.html You can do a word search for the section of law: 23A-12-102 or the title "Naming Conventions for Birds" or just scroll down to line 981
  22. Kirk Roth

    Petition to AOS Leadership on the Recent Decision to Change all Eponymous Bird Names

    This is an issue that goes well beyond what the bird forum can really address. Your perspective would be called "Libertarian" here in the U.S. (and I recognize that term does not mean the same thing in every country), but very broadly it means that the role of the government should be limited...
  23. Kirk Roth

    Petition to AOS Leadership on the Recent Decision to Change all Eponymous Bird Names

    Absolutely agreed that this was entirely predictable (even if I'm saying so myself!) and that more consequences and counter-consequences are likely to come. It will be difficult to get the bird names genie back into the ornithological society bottle - now that other people feel the issue...
  24. Kirk Roth

    Petition to AOS Leadership on the Recent Decision to Change all Eponymous Bird Names

    I commend you for speaking with the rep, and I'm certain they defended their decision in as professional a manner as possible. But to an outsider, the law looks far more sloppy than a scientist or someone with a biology background should be putting out: 988 (2) (a) The division shall use the...
  25. Kirk Roth

    Picidae

    However, note from the abstract "Our empirical data thus offers no support for the strict Interspecific social dominance mimicry (ISDM) hypothesis as an explanation for downy–hairy woodpecker plumage convergence." Leighton speculates that there may be mimicry in response to some third-party...
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