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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Latest IOC Diary Updates (3 Viewers)

I am not sure I understand you well, Mysticete. Promoting unused bird names to the detriment of lots of normal birders and for the benefit of few reviewers seems to be an illogical 'chart-ahead-of-a-horse' thinking.

About Moorhen / Common Gallinule - I think the confusion is very unlikely. The Old World form was only documented once in the Americas, and none vice versa. And any potential vargant would be surely very publicized otherwise, because of the need of detailed evidence, and therefore easily findable. Leaving aside the problem, that such rarities may be unidentifiable anyway, other than by ring or DNA evidence.
I've recently queried the name of what most people and all official lists, refer to as 'Oriental' Turtle Dove yet ebird seem to be alone in promoting 'Rufous', is it a push from certain quarters against the use of Oriental?

If so and I'm not sure it is, it's the unofficial renaming of species to suit a certain political class and hoping the names will stick but I stress again, I don't know if this is the case as no one answered my query, here......

 
I know we are going off topic here, but I don't understand how this is happening on ebird to any significant extent, so long as the regional reviewers have set-up their species filters correctly. I just tried to input a record of "Common Moorhen" at a random wetland in NY, and even if I expand the list options to include rare species, it doesn't appear. I have to manually input it as an additional species, and when I do that I get a message stating that it is a rare species for the location and to add supporting comment, and documentary evidence.

I cancelled the record at this point, but I know it would have been put into quarantine and would not be visible until manually accepted by a reviewer. It is really very little work for a reviewer to reject obviously erroneous records like this, literally a single click in a bulk review.

That isn't to say that splits don't cause real issues of this nature, especially where distributions of the different taxa are complex and not fully known - the Golden-spectacled Warbler complex for example, is a bit of a nightmare.
So, a few things.

One, while the record isn't fully visible, it does trigger a rarity alert for those who are subscribed to that location. Has to work this way - can't wait until a reviewer confirms a record or, well, people can't get out to confirm the record!

There are also places where there is not one common and one exceptionally rare species. East coast of the US has neither Short-billed nor Common Gull in any appreciable numbers; they're both good (though not exceptional) rarities. Name one of them Mew, and there's going to be a ton of mistakes. And there's areas where Pacific Wren and Winter Wren both occur, and erroneous reporting of Pacific Wren as Winter Wren was rife. (I'm still bitter about reusing Winter Wren as a name - just a thoroughly awful decision.)

Finally, I'll note that I've seen many faulty records sneak through in eBird in areas with limited reviewer coverage. Observer comments "that's what my field guide says it is" or "that's what my tour guide said it is", just because their field guide predates the split or tour guide was unaware of it (or the trip just ran before the change). Not much of a problem in areas with adequate reviewers - much more of a problem in parts of Africa and SE Asia.
 
So, a few things.

One, while the record isn't fully visible, it does trigger a rarity alert for those who are subscribed to that location. Has to work this way - can't wait until a reviewer confirms a record or, well, people can't get out to confirm the record!

There are also places where there is not one common and one exceptionally rare species. East coast of the US has neither Short-billed nor Common Gull in any appreciable numbers; they're both good (though not exceptional) rarities. Name one of them Mew, and there's going to be a ton of mistakes. And there's areas where Pacific Wren and Winter Wren both occur, and erroneous reporting of Pacific Wren as Winter Wren was rife. (I'm still bitter about reusing Winter Wren as a name - just a thoroughly awful decision.)

Finally, I'll note that I've seen many faulty records sneak through in eBird in areas with limited reviewer coverage. Observer comments "that's what my field guide says it is" or "that's what my tour guide said it is", just because their field guide predates the split or tour guide was unaware of it (or the trip just ran before the change). Not much of a problem in areas with adequate reviewers - much more of a problem in parts of Africa and SE Asia.
1. I didn't know that. I've never used rarity alerts, or even know such a function existed. I guess that's more of a US thing.
2. I was talking specifically about Common Gallinule / Moorhen. I acknowledge that this is an issue with some species.
3. Ebird is full of clearly erroneous records, mostly unrelated to taxonomic confusion. A significant degree of user caution is required.
 
1. I didn't know that. I've never used rarity alerts, or even know such a function existed. I guess that's more of a US thing.
2. I was talking specifically about Common Gallinule / Moorhen. I acknowledge that this is an issue with some species.
3. Ebird is full of clearly erroneous records, mostly unrelated to taxonomic confusion. A significant degree of user caution is required.
Well, last month, I got an alert for Pale-throated Martin in East Lothian, 10 of them!

David
 
While going off topic a bit, ebird's alert system is incredibly useful if you live in an area with at least moderate coverage by ebirders. I tracked down my state Dickcissel this morning thanks to reports, at a spot I didn't even know existed. Great for birds that maybe are not rare enough to get reported via traditional means, and a good way of finding new spots. It does require regular year round ebird entries, unless you want to get an email with 50,000 Canada Goose records. Which of course is exactly how its designed, to also encourage you to enter in data.
 
Well, last month, I got an alert for Pale-throated Martin in East Lothian, 10 of them!

Such completely out of place errors are at least immediately visible. Mistakes between widespread birds are much more common - but practically impossible to spot, unless you go to a place supposed to have 4 rather common species and see none, and no good habitat either.

Anyway Cornells ebird is a strange specimen - organized for the benefit of ornithologists, not of users.
 
I've recently queried the name of what most people and all official lists, refer to as 'Oriental' Turtle Dove yet ebird seem to be alone in promoting 'Rufous', is it a push from certain quarters against the use of Oriental?

If so and I'm not sure it is, it's the unofficial renaming of species to suit a certain political class and hoping the names will stick but I stress again, I don't know if this is the case as no one answered my query, here......

As far as I'm concerned, its just the name I grew up with. Even at my tender years(!), I lose track of what many species are called nowadays. So, to me, its a Rufous. Or an Oriental when I feel like it. No other agenda! I also have a vague recollection that if meena did get split from orientalis then the names Rufous and Oriental would be used respectively, but I could be mis-remembering that.
 
As far as I'm concerned, its just the name I grew up with. Even at my tender years(!), I lose track of what many species are called nowadays. So, to me, its a Rufous. Or an Oriental when I feel like it. No other agenda! I also have a vague recollection that if meena did get split from orientalis then the names Rufous and Oriental would be used respectively, but I could be mis-remembering that.
When you have one in your garden you can call it whatever you like.
 
some small errors:

21621 range of Arabian Lark "AF : Syria to Jordan and through Saudi Arabia to Oman" --> should be "EU: Syria to Jordan and through Saudi Arabia to Oman"
24715 range of Javan Scimitar Babbler "OR : Java" --> should be "OR : Java and Bali"
25496 range of Palawan Fairy-bluebird: "OR : OR : w Philippines (Palawan, Busuanga, Balabac, Culion and Calamian)" --> double "OR: "
 
some small errors:

21621 range of Arabian Lark "AF : Syria to Jordan and through Saudi Arabia to Oman" --> should be "EU: Syria to Jordan and through Saudi Arabia to Oman"
24715 range of Javan Scimitar Babbler "OR : Java" --> should be "OR : Java and Bali"
25496 range of Palawan Fairy-bluebird: "OR : OR : w Philippines (Palawan, Busuanga, Balabac, Culion and Calamian)" --> double "OR: "

Thanks, Tom. Just in time. We're closing 11.2 to any more changes this morning. Anything else that comes up will be incorporated into IOC 12.1.

David
 
As far as I'm concerned, its just the name I grew up with. Even at my tender years(!), I lose track of what many species are called nowadays. So, to me, its a Rufous. Or an Oriental when I feel like it. No other agenda! I also have a vague recollection that if meena did get split from orientalis then the names Rufous and Oriental would be used respectively, but I could be mis-remembering that.
For me it tends to come down to which field guide I used when I first became familiar with the bird. Or what my guide called it when I saw and mentally registered the name.

FTR, I call it "oriental"
 
I have been working through the updates lists and noticed a few blips....

Collared (Dove) written as Collard twice
Cerulean with the wrong spelling
Black-capped Babbler rather than Black-crowned Babbler to be changed to Visayan Babbler

Steve
 
I have been working through the updates lists and noticed a few blips....

Collared (Dove) written as Collard twice
Cerulean with the wrong spelling
Black-capped Babbler rather than Black-crowned Babbler to be changed to Visayan Babbler

Steve
Caerulean is a valid spelling afaik if that's what it is Steve?
 

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