BOU list 9th edition (1 Viewer)

The BOU has now published the 9th edition of its checklist, this time following IOC taxonomy. There are three records of Eastern Yellow Wagtail; Fair Isle 1909, Devon 2010 and Shetland 2011. The Fair Isle bird was accepted as ‘one of the eastern subspecies, probably plexa, tcshutschensis or simillima’, while the 2010 Devon bird, from which a DNA sample was obtained, was accepted as one of these three races. The 2011 Shetland bird was a sight, sound and photographed record, so none of the eastern races could be eliminated. I thought there might be a problem here. In the IOC list simillima is subsumed within tcshutschensis, so no problem there, but plexa is considered to belong in the Western group. How has the BOU got around this, if plexa cannot be eliminated? Has it just been ignored?

I found the ‘Isabelline’ Shrikes surprising as well; 8 accepted as Turkestan, and just 5 as Daurian (and 94 not assigned to species), whereas it seemed to me that most were generally considered to be Daurian. Can anyone supply a list of which birds were accepted as Turkestan and Daurian?

Brett

Brett Richards said:

I found the ‘Isabelline’ Shrikes surprising as well; 8 accepted as Turkestan, and just 5 as Daurian (and 94 not assigned to species), whereas it seemed to me that most were generally considered to be Daurian. Can anyone supply a list of which birds were accepted as Turkestan and Daurian?

Brett

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If you have access to RBA previous records database, they are all on there. I believe Birdguides has something similar

Bismarck Honeyeater said:

If you have access to RBA previous records database, they are all on there. I believe Birdguides has something similar

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The RBA database has 20 records of Daurian and 11 records of Turkestan as well as 89 records of Isabelline Shrike sp. Therefore, it does not tally to the list even if you treat the list as predating the 2016 BBRC report.

It has 10 Siberian Stonechat - 3 maurus and 7 variegatus - and 3 Stejneger's Stonechat as well as 406 records of Eastern Stonechat sp. That is what I had expected.

It does not list as separate entries Fea's/Desertas and Fea's/Desertas/Zino's but the six accepted former are identified within the 179 overall.

A good piece of work but I am left wondering what if anything the BBRC are going to try to do to review the Isabelline Shrike sp. and Eastern Stonechat sp. and I wonder what county committees are going to do to try and tackle for instance the Bean Geese on county lists. I looked back at some 1980's Norfolk Bird Reports and they did not identify their Bean Geese to (sub)species.

All the best

Paul Chapman said:

The RBA database has 20 records of Daurian and 11 records of Turkestan as well as 89 records of Isabelline Shrike sp. Therefore, it does not tally to the list even if you treat the list as predating the 2016 BBRC report.

It has 10 Siberian Stonechat - 3 maurus and 7 variegatus - and 3 Stejneger's Stonechat as well as 406 records of Eastern Stonechat sp. That is what I had expected.

It does not list as separate entries Fea's/Desertas and Fea's/Desertas/Zino's but the six accepted former are identified within the 179 overall.

A good piece of work but I am left wondering what if anything the BBRC are going to try to do to review the Isabelline Shrike sp. and Eastern Stonechat sp. and I wonder what county committees are going to do to try and tackle for instance the Bean Geese on county lists. I looked back at some 1980's Norfolk Bird Reports and they did not identify their Bean Geese to (sub)species.

All the best

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Thanks Paul & BH.

I presume the birds listed on RBA include the officially accepted birds, in which case I need Daurian Shrike! I have seen 10 'Isabellines', including the Cemlyn Turkestan (so alright there) and the 2007 Buckton bird, which was surely Turkestan even though not officially accepted as such. Of the other 8, most were believed to be Daurian (including the 2013 Flamborough bird) but none has been accepted as such. Like Paul, I wonder if BBRC is going to leave it at that or do a review of all the records. In the meantime I may have to go for an adult male Daurian if we get one, although I would be reluctant to go off mainland.

It seems to me that birding is getting a bit silly at times.

Brett

They seem to be selective, introducing new splits immediately, but ignoring at least two papers advocating 'lumps' of Brown/Common/Arctic Redpoll and Carrion/Hooded Crow.

Jurek,
BOU follows IOC taxonomy as of January 1st 2018,
James

Brett Richards said:

Thanks Paul & BH.

I presume the birds listed on RBA include the officially accepted birds, in which case I need Daurian Shrike! I have seen 10 'Isabellines', including the Cemlyn Turkestan (so alright there) and the 2007 Buckton bird, which was surely Turkestan even though not officially accepted as such. Of the other 8, most were believed to be Daurian (including the 2013 Flamborough bird) but none has been accepted as such. Like Paul, I wonder if BBRC is going to leave it at that or do a review of all the records. In the meantime I may have to go for an adult male Daurian if we get one, although I would be reluctant to go off mainland.

It seems to me that birding is getting a bit silly at times.

Brett

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Brett

I'll give you Daurian Shrike - it is what most of the autumn first-winters are - and you can give me the Donna Nook Stejneger's Stonechat. Alternatively, we can both end up twitching Shetland for something that we've already seen......... B

According to the RBA statistics, I have seen accepted Turkestan (Cemlyn) & accepted Daurian (Nene Washes).

All the best