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  1. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    I think the following is illuminating regarding the standing of AOS-NACC (emphasis mine): Vega Gull (Larus vegae), VEGU. This species is added based on the split of the “herring gull” complex into four species by Clements/eBird in October 2024. The CLC has assigned ABA Code 3 to this species...
  2. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    Yes, it could be that there is just a new publishing normal. It used to be that ABA would issue an article or blog post when they get new additions - maybe the effort cost of updating the checklist is so now low that they can push them out whenever they feel like it. It wasn't a thought of...
  3. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    Good eye on the pheasant - yes, it is strange that it got added with no mention. While I'm not baffled at all by the absence of Black-throated Magpie-Jay, I will agree that there is more of a justification than for what seems to me to be a hybrid swarm of perhaps less than 20 cockatoos...
  4. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    That's fair, but I don't have any reason to think Clements will change their mind on the gulls - in fact some of their communications with eBird reviewers practically confirm that they won't. If a goober like me is aware of what will happen, then certainly the ABA is. To flip your comment on...
  5. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    In the newest checklist, Great Tit is added to the provisional list. Also, the Hawaiian population of Lavender Waxbill is added to the main list September 2024 ABA Checklist...
  6. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    ABA put out a checklist update this weekend. In it, they adopt the ABA taxonomy changes related to Scopoli's Shearwater, Cocos Booby, Siberian Pipit, and Redpoll, but notably do NOT adopt Clement's Herring Gull split, so touché.
  7. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    I don't think the ABA or eBird is going to be comparing it to native species - and also disagree that it is comparable (there was a Gray-headed reported in Fairbanks last week). Also the Gray-headed Chickadee occurs in a remote and underbirded area, not a regional district with 500+ checklists...
  8. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    I agree there are huge differences. Still, if it is many years between sightings - is that really a bird that is "established?" Certainly not more so than many species which are not even under consideration... On the Great Tit, I have good but not shareable reasons to think it is just as you...
  9. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    It was brought to my attention that, at least according to eBird, there hasn't been a Silver Pheasant reported in Nanaimo BC since 2013. I'm guessing that bird is not long for remaining on "provisional lists" in either the ABA or eBird systems.
  10. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    Yes, and this is more of an either/or statement than what was said before. My prediction would be that the ABA follows Cornell because that is what they have been doing in the past several years including the latest checklist. It would be very anomalous for them to carve out an exception for...
  11. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    That's precisely what I was thinking. You stated: "The recent Herring Gull decision will be the first case where there will be a discrepancy in number of species in ebird versus ABA as a result of a taxonomic split." If not from the ABA, where did you get this information?
  12. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    So it sounds like you're saying the article says they are not adopting the split - is that correct? And you can't say its the first case of discrepancy - but its the first case of discrepancy in the four years (I think) since they went with Clements. If I recall correctly, it all started with...
  13. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    Is it certainly extirpated in the past two years? Regardless, it should be noted that Salmon-crested and White Cockatoos are still on the list even though they have been "extirpated" or at least relegated to a hybrid swarm. Despite what the Hawaiian reviewers seem to approve, recent photos of...
  14. Kirk Roth

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    Yellow-headed Parrot is in the main list and the Provisional A list, so maybe that bird can count twice on the new life lists. But as you note, Great Tit doesn't get the same treatment.
  15. 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...
  16. 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...
  17. 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...
  18. 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.
  19. 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...
  20. 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.
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