2019 eBird/Clements taxonomy update - convergence with IOC/HBW mentioned (1 Viewer)

Cream-eyed Bulbul P. pseudosimplex & Blue-throated Hillstar O. cyanolaemus have been added...this could be a very long process...best wait for the spreadsheet!

If somebody spots the spreadsheet online, please let us now on this thread - thanks

cheers, alan

aythya_hybrid said:

Sorry if this is a dumb question but, as a relative newcomer to ebird, I'd be curious to know why ebird doesn't simply adopt IOC taxonomy? I've recently been transferring my entire life list onto ebird which, while useful in terms of list management, has meant I've "lost" a handful of species (Green-winged Teal, Scopoli's Shearwater are two that spring to mind). The ebird taxonomy has struck me as a little conservative, at least in terms of Neararctic and European species. Not a big problem in the grand scheme of things but it did pique my curiosity.

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IOC doesn't follow or consider itself bound by taxonomic decisions of local authorities, such as the AOS (formerly AOU), in the US. Virtually all US birders and field guides follow the latter for nearctic birds, so eBird needs to as well to avoid confusion. That is the reason they have given in the past for following Clements rather than any of the other checklists.

Jeff hopkins said:

Your wish is my command!

Chaco Nothura
Forsten's Scrubfowl
Schouteden's Swift
Norfolk Island Pigeon
Red-billed Gull
Changeable Hawk-Eagle
Orange-bellied Trogon
Restinga Antwren
Margelanic Whitethroat
Mountain White-eye
Enggano White-eye
Lord Howe Island White-eye
Kivu Ground-Thrush
African Scrub-Robin
New Hanover Munia
African Quailfinch
Black-chinned Quailfinch
Jackson's Pipit
Damara Canary
Vincent's Bunting

.

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Of the lumps, the scrubfowl, swift, antwren, munia and bunting seem to remain, while the others are out.

gusasp said:

Psilopogon chrysopsis
Amytornis whitei
Amytornis oweni
Amytornis rowleyi
Myzomela nigriventris
Zosterops anjuanensis
Zosterops comorensis
Aethopyga tibolii

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And among the above, only the barbet is deleted.

Except for Hawaii, it’s definitely August 8, not 7. I appreciate and respect the massive work behind the update, but why promote a public release date if you can’t keep it?

gusasp said:

Except for Hawaii, it’s definitely August 8, not 7. I appreciate and respect the massive work behind the update, but why promote a public release date if you can’t keep it?

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In years past it has taken several days. I saw name changes and a few slash species appearing starting before the 7th, and anticipate work will continue for several more days yet. There is usually an “all done” type announcement at the end.

I agree with PB, the behind the scenes work has been announced to take several days.

Niels

The work-behind-the-scenes-taking-time is Ebird working on people's checklists. If the Cornell checklist is fixed and finalized, it should be published. On Cornell's website.
I remember in some years, Ebird published the list before the official publication date, with the proper warning that it might not be final.

Although it does not concerns me, I find it a bit weird that Ebird is changing people's checklists without telling them what they're doing, just letting them find out by themselves.

Sorry, guys. I agree with Sandee.

I think they are saying what they are doing: https://ebird.org/news/2019-ebird-taxonomy-update

Yes, the spreadsheet has not been uploaded, but the news item above is stating what is going on.
Niels

njlarsen said:

I think they are saying what they are doing: https://ebird.org/news/2019-ebird-taxonomy-update

Yes, the spreadsheet has not been uploaded, but the news item above is stating what is going on.
Niels

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No they're not saying what they are doing. Just that they are changing things around. And they do it according to a list that is Cornell's, and that nobody gets to see.

Just entered a checklist and discovered that hirundines now come in the middle of warblers !!! Acrocephalus, Locustella, then hirundines, then back to warblers. Weird or what ?

Steve

Steve Lister said:

Just entered a checklist and discovered that hirundines now come in the middle of warblers !!! Acrocephalus, Locustella, then hirundines, then back to warblers. Weird or what ?

Steve

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Weird, until the genetics told a different story. (Old World) Warblers are split up into a number of families after genetic research revealed that hirundines (and larks, bushtits, babblers and bulbuls) are part of the assemblage as well.

Steve Lister said:

Just entered a checklist and discovered that hirundines now come in the middle of warblers !!! Acrocephalus, Locustella, then hirundines, then back to warblers. Weird or what ?

Steve

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Actually on one of my checklists bulbuls follow hirundines, then Phylloscs and bush-warblers.

Hmmm

Edit: gusasp beat me to it!

Another discovery: Mountain White-eye (Zosterops montanus) is gone, likely lumped in with japonicus, like IOC.

Digging further, Oriental White-eye is renamed Indian White-eye, Japanese White-eye renamed Warbling White-eye, and Zosterops Simplex split off as Swinhoe's White-eye.

Violet Crow is split from Slender-billed.
Papuan Grassbird is split from Tawny.
Stierling's Wren-warbler split from Miombo.
Hartert's Camaroptera split from Green-backed (but it doesn't look like grey-backed was split).
Bar-throated Apalis split 4 ways.
Kabobo Apalis split from Chestnut-throated
Winding Cisticola split 5 ways.
Ruwenzori Hill-babbler split from African
Broad-ringed White-eye split 6 ways.
Naung-Mung Scimitar-babbler split from Short-tailed
Mt. Victoria Babax from Chinese
White-tailed Alethe split from Fire-crested
Cape Parrot split from Brown-necked
Blue Chaffinch split into Tenerife Chaffinch and Gran Canaria Chaffinch
Amami Thrush Split from Scaly
Abyssinian and Kivu Ground-Thrushes lumped.
Miombo Sunbird split into eastern & western species
Eastern Double-collared Sunbird split 3 ways.
Golden-winged Grosbeak split into Arabian Grosbeak and Socotra Grosbeak
West African Seedeater split from Streaky-headed
Zarudny's Sparrow split from Desert
Angola Waxbill split from Swee
Aceh Bulbul split from Orange-spotted
Eastern Mountain-Greenbul split 4 ways.
Santa Cruz Shrikebill split from Black-throated
Fanti Drongo split from Velvet-mantled
Glossy-backed Drongo split from Fork-tailed
Square-tailed drongo is split into Common Square-tailed and Western Square-tailed Drongos
Variable Pitohui split 3 ways
Papuan Sitella split from Variable
Ashy Cuckooshrike split into Madagascar and Comoros
Black-headed Batis split into Eastern and Western
Dimorphic Jewel-babbler split from Blue
Dulit Partridge split from Long-billed
Black-fronted Francolin from Chestnut-naped
Tibetan Eared-pheasant split from White-eared
Barred Honey-buzzard split into Philippine and Sulawesi
Papuan Marsh-harrier split from Eastern
Madagascar Harrier split from Reunion
Morepork (including Tasmanian ssp.) split from Southern Boobook

Jeff hopkins said:

Another discovery: Mountain White-eye (Zosterops montanus) is gone, likely lumped in with japonicus, like IOC.

Digging further, Oriental White-eye is renamed Indian White-eye, Japanese White-eye renamed Warbling White-eye, and Zosterops Simplex split off as Swinhoe's White-eye.

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It's not nearly as simple as anything being renamed, assuming it's inline with what happened in the IOC. A lot of species boundaries moved, and new subspecies created and others restricted, so you can't just rename your sightings and be done - you'll pretty much have to go back to localities and try to puzzle it out from scratch.

sandee said:

No they're not saying what they are doing. Just that they are changing things around. And they do it according to a list that is Cornell's, and that nobody gets to see.

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The eBird/Clements taxonomy is public, and the newest version is published around the same time each year. Last year I think it was a day or three after the taxonomy update was finished on eBird. A changelog is included and it's not terribly difficult to read through and see what your changes will have been.

However I understand your point that it would be nice to see the changes more readily - like a personalized report or a way that species affected by the most recent taxonomic update would be highlighted in your lists. I would love some feature like this.

However eBird is free, is developed by a University with limited staff on a limited budget, and cannot magically be everything to everyone. They have a wishlist of public wants a mile long, I know, as well as their own development priorities. It's ever improving but of course I too have things I've been pining for for years.

awiner said:

It's not nearly as simple as anything being renamed, assuming it's inline with what happened in the IOC. A lot of species boundaries moved, and new subspecies created and others restricted, so you can't just rename your sightings and be done - you'll pretty much have to go back to localities and try to puzzle it out from scratch.

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Yeah, I knew I probably oversimplified it. The good news is I probably have all three species still covered (excluding the loss of Mountain White-eye). Not sure about Hume's.

Now I know what its like for people who collapse in tears when Instagram is down. Ebird is down.
Thank you everyone for your patience while eBird is down—we’re working to bring things back up soon. In the meantime we recommend tracking sightings using offline checklists on eBird Mobile, and submitting when the website is back up.
https://twitter.com/Team_eBird/status/1159656612656766976 .