Jeff no rats. Where I come from snitches get stitches.
White eye:
The [ongoing] taxonomic update in eBird includes some changes not already
familiar to many birders (i.e., not adopted by the AOS, whose annual
published updates are familiar to most of you).
Especially relevant to Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties [feel
free to cross post to those listserves] is the new treatment of
white-eyes. eBird/Clements has adopted the conclusions of Lim et al
["Molecular evidence suggests radical revision of species limits in the
great speciator white-eye genus *Zosterops," *Journal of Ornithology
160:1-16, 2019]. The upshot is:
"Our" birds are considered to be Swinhoe's White-eyes, *Zosterops simplex*.
I hasten to add that this is VERY TENTATIVE -- we still have no firm proof
that this is what the southern California birds are, but it is the current
best guess. This taxon was formerly considered a mainland China and se.
Asia subspecies group of the Japanese White-eye, *Z. japonicus*, but has
now been split from that species. eBird has automatically changed all
previous entries for "Japanese White-eye" in southern California to
Swinhoe's White-eye.
"Japanese White-eye" has gone away. *Zosterops japonicus* is now called
the "Warbling White-eye" and includes populations from the Japanese
archipelago (mostly nominate *japonicus, *also introduced to and abundant
in the Hawaiian Islands) as well as various subspecies in the Philippines
and Indonesia which were formerly considered the Mountain White-eye, *Z.
montanus *(which has also gone away). So if you were used to entering
white-eyes from southern California into eBird as "Japanese White-eye,"
this is no longer the correct option (and, in fact is not even an incorrect
option as the name Japanese White-eye has been retired in favor of Warbling
White-eye).
Also, the "Oriental White-eye," *Z. palpebrosus*, is on a few old eBird
lists since it was established in the San Diego area back in the 1970s to
early 1980s. Because of the recent taxonomic revisions, that species is
now largely restricted to the Indian subcontinent and has been rechristened
"Indian White-eye."
So my recommendation is to enter white-eyes here as Swinhoe's (*Z. simplex*)
in your eBird lists, although you certainly still have the more
conservative option of "white-eye, sp. (*Zosterops*, sp.). " L. A. County
[and San Diego] filters have been set at "0" for white-eyes -- hence, all
entries are flagged and you need to "Show Rare Species" or use the "Add
Species" function to find them on the checklist. We've done this to make
certain there is a clear pattern of establishment before we stop requiring
documentation. We emphasize that there is still little indication of
colonization of the inland portion of the L. A. Basin and the valleys [or
the majority of San Diego], so reports from those area should always
include documentation.
Kimball
Kimball L. Garret