• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

2024 ABA Checklist update (2 Viewers)

Regardless, I still want to know what's going on with Great Tit.
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

The checklist report states that "The CLC is currently in discussion with the eBird regarding further updates to these Provisional lists." I would expect or hope that this discussion would address some of the "Provisional" species that I think are problematic, nevertheless, Silver Pheasant and the White/Salmon-crested Cockatoo are still in List A.
 
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.
Why would they? The actual ebird update won't be published for a couple of months. The clements list update isn't published yet or implemented yet...the link going around was the working draft of the changes, and not official.
 
Why would they? The actual ebird update won't be published for a couple of months. The clements list update isn't published yet or implemented yet...the link going around was the working draft of the changes, and not official.
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 its head - why would they publish an updated ABA list if they believe they are going to change it next month? But then again, an update in July followed by another in September was unexpected. So if they go ahead and publish a third time this year, I suppose you'll be up on me 2-0.
 
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

The checklist report states that "The CLC is currently in discussion with the eBird regarding further updates to these Provisional lists." I would expect or hope that this discussion would address some of the "Provisional" species that I think are problematic, nevertheless, Silver Pheasant and the White/Salmon-crested Cockatoo are still in List A.
The Silver Pheasant being included is new, and this is not noted in the published update overview. Interesting. Still baffled by the lack of inclusion of the magpie-jay, especially when they're including the cockatoos.
 
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 its head - why would they publish an updated ABA list if they believe they are going to change it next month? But then again, an update in July followed by another in September was unexpected. So if they go ahead and publish a third time this year, I suppose you'll be up on me 2-0.
I don't think there is much rhyme nor reason to when they would publish...seems like whenever they get a batch of accepted additions they do a update. I suppose the benefit of being online means you are now bound by a written timeline (See SACC for a good example of a checklist committee that doesn't bother to really keep a set schedule and just posts whenever.

To clarify...I don't really have skin in the game. While I would prefer to see ABA follow ebird than AOS, the Herring gull split does nothing for my ABA list anyway, as within the ABA region I only have American Herring, although I have seen Vega in Japan and European Herring in the UK. But they are already on my list as the IOC has had them split for years.
 
The Silver Pheasant being included is new, and this is not noted in the published update overview. Interesting. Still baffled by the lack of inclusion of the magpie-jay, especially when they're including the cockatoos.
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?

However, I don't think any of these birds in the ABA area are "Exotic Species with Populations that may be Becoming Established" as the List A caption reads.
 
I don't think there is much rhyme nor reason to when they would publish...seems like whenever they get a batch of accepted additions they do a update. I suppose the benefit of being online means you are now bound by a written timeline (See SACC for a good example of a checklist committee that doesn't bother to really keep a set schedule and just posts whenever.

To clarify...I don't really have skin in the game. While I would prefer to see ABA follow ebird than AOS, the Herring gull split does nothing for my ABA list anyway, as within the ABA region I only have American Herring, although I have seen Vega in Japan and European Herring in the UK. But they are already on my list as the IOC has had them split for years.
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 mine that our personal lists were really playing into the discussion (and for what its worth, I view IOC as my "real" life list). Personally, I would like to see the ABA utilize the Herring Gull split because I think it better reflects reality, so if I have "skin in the game" it is that. I'm mind-reading here, but if you are referring to my "2-0" comment, that joke was intended to refer to a tally of our predictions of ABA-NACC behavior, not life list competition.
 
It wasn't a thought of mine that our personal lists were really playing into the discussion (and for what its worth, I view IOC as my "real" life list). Personally, I would like to see the ABA utilize the Herring Gull split because I think it better reflects reality, so if I have "skin in the game" it is that. I'm mind-reading here, but if you are referring to my "2-0" comment, that joke was intended to refer to a tally of our predictions of ABA-NACC behavior, not life list competition.
Nope...wasn't implying that, just simply stating that my desires to split Herring Gull are not simply so I can get a few more ticks on my lifelist.
 
The cockatoos have been removed from the Provisional list, the Silver Pheasant remains on it: American Birding Association Checklist Committee Report, November 2024 - American Birding Association

They rejected Great White Pelican from the main list though, what are they on?

I do find this eBird/listing tie up all a bit odd. Hedging bets rather than having clear criteria and just maintaining a list on the basis of that criteria.

"The CLC also opted not to add Great White Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) to the ABA Checklist, on a split vote (3–5), based on a record of a returning bird in Florida over the six-year period 2016–2021. The identification was not at issue, but a majority of members would prefer to see a better pattern of vagrancy before accepting this bird as a vagrant; such a bird could have traveled naturally via a trans-Siberian route, a scenario entertained by those who accepted the record. The Great White Pelican was already placed on eBird’s and ABA’s Provisional List of species plausibly being of natural occurrence (or confirmed ship assistance), and it will remain on this list and be countable by ABA members (see Pyle 2024 for details)."

In the UK, the eBird dataset is all over the place with some allocations sometimes on the same bird at the same location with differing classifications as Wild, Naturalized, Provisional or an Escapee let alone inconsistencies within species... A couple of dozen species are obviously involved including Spur-winged Plover, Chestnut-flanked White-eye, Village Weaver, Atlantic Canary, Monk Parakeet, Black Swan, Great White Pelican, Wood Duck, Demoiselle Crane & Meadow Bunting but there are probably more. Some clear errors. Some a lack of clarity on approach that mirrors some Committee challenges.

Two sightings of Great White Pelican in the UK eBird dataset show as provisional whilst the same bird is treated as an escapee on the same day at the same site in other Checklists. It is not considered to be a genuine vagrant. All other records are treated with an Escapee status.

All the best

Paul
 
Last edited:
Surprised on the hesitation over European Herring Gull. My understanding is reliably identified birds were fairly regular (once every winter, at least a few years ago) in St. John's Newfoundland. But I guess "reliably identified" is relative when it comes to Larus gulls.
 
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 based on rare but regular occurrence in the ABA Area, in particular in Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands, resulting in no CLC circulation needed to add this species to the Checklist. As part of this taxonomic revision, American Herring Gull (L. smithsonianus, AHGU) also replaces Herring Gull (L. argentatus) on the Checklist and precedes Vega Gull in sequence. We will now be listing species recognized by Clements/eBird but not (yet) by the AOS, so these will be listed as American Herring Gull (Herring Gull), Larus smithsonianus (argentatus), and Vega (Herring) Gull, Larus vegae (argentatus), reflecting our protocol of listing the Clements/eBird nomenclature followed by that of the AOS in parentheses.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top