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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jurek" data-source="post: 3235789" data-attributes="member: 3357">On a recent trip, we named two categories of birds.Half-species is a species with few differences, either not recognized by all authorities, or recently split. It is also of little interest besides another tick on list.Example: 'We seen one and a half new species today: Spotted Sandgrouse is one, and 'long-billed' Crested Lark is really half'.Map bird is a species so visually similar to others (often also recently split) that birders in practice identify it by locality rather than field characters.Examples: 'Is is really Atlas Flycatcher? Its forehead looks like Iberian Pied Flycatcher in Collins Guide.  - We are in Atlas mountains, so it is Atlas by red color on map. If you want, we see two or three more to be sure one is right.''This mauritanica Tawny Owl is not so well barred or dark as in Collins Guide.  - We are in Morocco, there is no normal Tawny Owl here, so it is mauritanica by red color on map.'In Morocco there is also another map bird described in Gosney site guide. It is reiseri or Desert Olivaceous Warbler, for which birders are directed to one particular area of tamarisk scrub on the desert with precise words: 'for being sure of what you've got'.</blockquote>