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  1. M

    not my record: What would you make of this rather dark Stonechat | Hokkaido, JP | aug 2023

    Thank you Mike. That's a diplomatic note. It doesn't make clear that some have accepted a split, but others haven't. Common Stonechat and Siberian Stonechat aren't two different species within either of which Amur Stonechat might be included as a subspecies. Using 'Common Stonechat' does not...
  2. M

    not my record: What would you make of this rather dark Stonechat | Hokkaido, JP | aug 2023

    In post #3 I said: Now, I realise that I got things quite back to front. It seems that Japanese ornithologists have stuck with S. torquata/torquatus for the single-species bird from way back, calling it simply Stonechat or Common Stonechat. This is not strictly wrong. WIkipedia summarises...
  3. M

    not my record: What would you make of this rather dark Stonechat | Hokkaido, JP | aug 2023

    By the way, I've also just checked 'Birds of the World' online which is now run by Cornell University, and is linked with eBird, the Macaulay photo site, and Merlin ID software. They have all the splits, including Amur Stonechat, and they use distribution maps from eBird for each new species...
  4. M

    not my record: What would you make of this rather dark Stonechat | Hokkaido, JP | aug 2023

    I think part of the problem is that Japan is very slow at accepting splits, and also at changing English names. I don't know what the official procedure is (and I don't plan to find out), but an experienced foreign birder I know told me he has quit the Japan Wild Bird Society because he's fed up...
  5. M

    not my record: What would you make of this rather dark Stonechat | Hokkaido, JP | aug 2023

    Stonechats only pass through my area of Japan on migration (both ways), so we don't get the full plumage. I get the impression that after splitting into several species, there is now a tendency to go back to treating African Stonechat (S. torquatus) as the base and some at least of the others...
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