2024 eBird Taxonomy Update

As part of our commitment to data quality, accessibility, and ease of use, we strive to use an integrated taxonomy across eBird, Macaulay Library, Birds of the World, Merlin and other Cornell Lab of Ornithology projects. Our 2024 update includes 3 newly-recognized species (one is newly-described), 141 species gained because of splits, and 16 species lost through lumps, resulting in a net gain of 128 species and a new total of 11,145 species worldwide.

The update process is ongoing — please do not start editing your lists until we alert you that the process is complete. This includes your My eBird lists, range maps, bar charts, region and hotspot lists; data entry should be behaving normally, but you may notice unexpected species appearing on eBird Alerts as eBirders continue to learn the new taxonomy (this issue will diminish with time). If you see unfamiliar bird names in the list, please refer to the story below to understand the change and why it happened. If you still see records appearing in unexpected ways please write to us.

Also, please check out these two important pieces of news in celebration of Taxonomy Time from the Birds of the World team (and note that they have already released accounts for all new species from this update; navigate there easily from eBird by clicking the link at the bottom of any species page, like this one).

Open access period: This year, we are opening Birds of the World for an extended period to allow for deeper exploration of these species. For those that don’t already have access, BOW open access will be from 12:00 pm ET Oct 23 to 11:59 am ET on Oct 28. Feel free to share this news within your community.

Taxonomy webinar: In related news, our taxonomy team (Pam Rasmussen, Marshall Iliff, and Shawn Billerman) will give their annual What’s New in Avian Taxonomy webinar on 14 November at noon ET. At that time, we’ll again leave the site open from 14–18 November to encourage more exploration. Registration link for the webinar is here. The webinar will be in English.

2024 eBird Taxonomic Update

This year’s update is v2024 of the eBird/Clements Checklist. The eBird/Clements Checklist is an integrated global taxonomy for the birds of the world, including all species and subspecies, as well as additional taxa useful to field birders to report in eBird. The list of species available in eBird is the eBird Taxonomy (v2024) and includes all species, subspecies groups (which we call identifiable sub-specific forms or ISSF), hybrids, intergrades, spuhs (e.g., scoter sp.), slashes (e.g., Short-billed/Long-billed Dowitcher), domestics, and forms. The Clements Checklist includes only species and subspecies, along with subspecies groups which are further identified as monotypic (consisting of one subspecies) or polytypic (consisting of more than one subspecies). Read more about the eBird Taxonomy.

The Clements Checklist provides two update pages (overview and 2024 updates & corrections) and also provides all three files (eBird/Clements, Clements, and eBird) for download, each as either an Excel spreadsheet or comma-delimited (csv) format.

The Clements Checklist 2024 updates & corrections provides details (including references) for all species splits and lumps, new species descriptions, revisions to subspecies groups (ISSFs) or subspecies, and other changes relevant to the Clements Checklist. We refer anyone wishing to learn more about these splits to that page.

A list of all the taxonomic changes is below. This year’s changes incorporate the latest supplement to the AOS-NACC checklist, the 65th supplement as well as many changes adopted by AOS-SACC as revisions to the South American Checklist through through 27 July 2024.

The below summary is largely in sync with the above Clements update; references are not listed in full, but are included in the Clements update. Since this is a long article, here is a short index:

• Introduction
• Languages
• Species splits
• Species lumps
• New species
• Subspecies reshuffles
• Shuffles of other taxa and subspecies group lumps
• New subspecies groups
• New hybrids and intergrades
• New forms
• New domestics
• New slashes and spuhs
• Common Name changes
• Scientific Name changes
• Additional changes

SUMMARY

The below article is a long, detailed accounting of all taxonomic changes in this cycle. Many of the changes are in Indonesia and Melanesia, where island-specific species diversity is shown to be higher and higher each year, and much of the remainder are elsewhere in Southeast Asia and Africa. Indonesia alone should see its total species list increase by 26 (31 species gained through splits, 5 lost from lumps; 56 total species are affected by splits or lumps in this cycle in Indonesia!). Below are two tables with a quick summary of changes away from those areas:

 

 

INTRODUCTION

When the taxonomy is updated in eBird, many of the changes are fairly simple to implement. When a common name changes, a scientific name changes, or when the taxonomic sequence is revised, those changes roll through and appear in eBird output fairly quickly. Staying on top of name changes is a challenge, and consulting Avibase is one of the best ways to keep track. Just type any bird name in Avibase and Avibase will show you the history of that name, and—if it differs from eBird—it will show what the eBird equivalent is for that name. Try it with « Louisiana Heron », for example.

When species are ‘lumped’ (e.g., two taxonomic entities that used to be considered separate species, but are now one), eBird usually retains the former species as an identifiable group. In these cases, your records may shift to the lumped form and your totals may (or may not) drop by one. The actual entity that you observed and reported has not changed in any way other than being changed from species to subspecies. For example, this year, those who have birded in the Northern Hemisphere (and New Zealand) will notice that your previous reports of Lesser Redpoll Acanthis cabaret, Hoary Redpoll Acanthis hornemanni and Common Redpoll Acanthis flammea, have changed to Redpoll Acanthis flammea, but note that each will still carry the subspecies group (formerly species) expressed as Redpoll (Lesser) Acanthis flammea cabaret,  Redpoll (Hoary) Acanthis flammea hornemanni/exilipes and Redpoll (Common) Acanthis flammea [flammea Group].

When splits occur, the process is more complicated. In most cases, we have had subspecies options available for reporting in anticipation of the split. All records reported to a subspecies group level update automatically to the new species. When a bird is reported at the broader species level (without a subspecies listed on your entry), and then that species is split, we update the records in eBird to one of the « child » species whenever possible. We try to be very conservative with this. When two species do not overlap in range (i.e., they are allopatric) we go ahead and make the change. When the species do overlap (i.e., are sympatric), and do not have clear seasonal or habitat differences, we usually do not make the change. This results in your records being left as the more conservative « slash » option. An example this year is Red-rumped Swallow. Birds breeding in Europe are distinctive in plumage, having a full rufous collar and bicolored rump, and become European Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis rufula. Migratory birds from India and ne. Kazakhstan to the east are more heavily streaked, darker in the face, and have a uniform chestnut rump and are lumped with Striated Swallow to become Eastern Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis daurica. Those in sub-Saharan Africa have more extensive dark caps and are largely unstreaked below, and become African Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis melanocrissus. Duriong breeding season most records can be safely assigned, although both European and Eastern may breed in nw. India (e.g., Ladakh), Pakistan, and e. Kazakhstan, so some records In those regions will be assigned to European/Eastern Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis rufula/daurica. A much trickier problem is sub-Saharan Africa where African and European Red-rumped overlap extensively In winter and–worse–birders do not have a history of distinguishing between the taxa as subspecies groups. As a result, a large number of records from that region will be left as European/African Red-rumped Swallow unless photos or other factors (behavior, presence at known breeding site, etc.) can help clarify the species-level identification.  These slash options are a very important part of data integrity at eBird.

If you want to review your records of European Red-rumped Swallow, Eastern Red-rumped Swallow, or African Red-rumped Swallow, there are a couple ways to do this through the My eBird tools. The easiest is to go to My eBird, click on your Life List number, and then use the search option at the top to find whichever species you are looking for. You can then review the records in full. Importantly, in 2023 we added the ability to also view all your records of hybrids, slash, and spuh taxa. Reviewing slash taxa is especially useful during eBird Taxonomy Updates, and to find your European/African Red-rumped Swallow records please go to My eBird > Life List and then expand the « Detailed Stats » option and then select « Additional Taxa ». The search at the top of the page is a species-level search, so sorting taxonomically and searching on the page (perhaps using a browser search) will help you find any European/African Red-rumped Swallow. Click « View all » to see all your records. Note that we do provide direct links to relevant slashes from this year’s splits and the direct link for the European/African Red-rumped Swallow slash is this: https://ebird.org/lifelist?r=world&time=life&spp=y01284.

 

There are some other ways to find your records too. If you know the checklist it is on, you can find the list in « Manage My Checklists » and edit it as needed. If you can find your checklist on the range map then you can just click on the marker for your list and open it from there. Another option to review your records is to go to My eBird and then click Download My Data from the left side. This downloads your entire eBird database as a CSV file that can be opened in Excel or a similar spreadsheet program. From there, you should easily be able to sort by name or search for any species or taxon you are looking for to find your records. Then you can scroll to the correct date or just replace the Submission ID in the URL for a checklist view.

Finally, there are some significant changes to taxonomic sequence this year, as the sequence of orders is revised to match some new family trees for all birds. Also, the linear sequence of species within a few other families are adjusted (see details at the end of this article), most notably in Caprimulgidae (nightjars), Rallidae (rails), Cathartiformes (new world vultures) and Accipitriformes (hawks), Meropidae (bee-eaters), and Turdus thrushes. See the Clements narrative for more details on these changes.

This may be a bit disorienting if you have memorized the sequence of species, but please be aware that Quick Entry makes it very easy to find and enter any species during data entry. Did you know that typing « 37 weca » in eBird mobile will quickly add 37 Western Capercaillies to whatever total you have already entered? (Learn how!). Also, learning to search for a species within your browser may be helpful too, since this works to quickly jump to a species in any species list (e.g., bar chart, Location Explorer) on eBird.

GLOBAL CHECKLIST ALIGNMENT

There are three or more major world taxonomies, including BirdLife International Checklist, the IOC World Bird List, and eBird/Clements Checklist. Importantly, this revision continues the collaborative process of aligning global bird checklists, with the goal of a single consensus taxonomy. The AviList (formerly Working Group Avian Checklists or WGAC) involves representatives from eBird/Clements, BirdLife International, the IOC World Bird List, Avibase, AOS-NACC, AOS-SACC, and other global experts in taxonomy, nomenclature, and classification. Phase I is now complete, with 100% of species-level differences between these taxonomies now explicitly reviewed and decided on by the AviList committee. Formal publication of version 1 of AviList is expected in 2025. Future versions will continue to maintain species-level taxonomy and Phase II will begin to address subspecies and other taxonomic ranks. It will take at least another year (maybe two) for eBird to fully incorporate these changes but we are committed to improving the clarity, efficiency, and accuracy of bird taxonomy through support for this team effort.

LANGUAGES

We provide bird names in eBird for some 62 languages (e.g., Arabic, Bulgarian, Thai, etc.), as well as 45 additional regional versions of some languages (total 107). For example, Pluvialis squatarola is known as Black-bellied Plover in our taxonomy, but known by its winter dress in some areas such as the United Kingdom, where it’s called Grey Plover. You can access name preferences under « Preferences » from most eBird pages, which is also where you can set the names to show as common names or scientific names. One option is English (IOC), which gives a full translation of species names into the IOC World Bird List (v14.2) nomenclature. Note that these names are exact taxonomic matches, so they reflect as slashes when a species is split by IOC and not by eBird; similarly, species split by eBird will appear as subspecies groups for IOC. Our Bird Names in eBird article explains more about regional common name preferences.

SPECIES SPLITS

The species below were split in eBird. To see a map of the new species, click « map ». To see your personal lists in My eBird, just make sure you are logged in and click « My Records ». If you have seen the species but don’t have any records shown, then please enter your sightings! Full details for all below accounts can be seen at the Clements Updates & Corrections page. We encourage all birders to carefully review the below splits and check your personal records and to update them if you think we made an error.

As with last year, we are documenting more explicitly the logic rules we have used to make bulk changes that assign records to a given species (later, the normal review process may help to correct or refine records, especially those with photos). These are highlighted in red-orange text: Regional Record Change Logic. In almost all cases (except very obvious errors by users and/or reviewers) we have retained the original identification by the observer. If the observer specified a subspecies, which later was split to become a species, that identification is retained. If the observer did not specify a subspecies, then we have tended to convert the record to the expected species if and only if the alternative species is impossible or extremely remote. However, since the probability of bird occurrence across space and time has infinite shades of gray, we need to make judgment calls. As an example, all Mexico records of Brown Booby (Sula sula, sensu lato) from the Pacific coast should pertain to the expected taxon, Cocos Booby (Sula brewsteri) and we are not aware of any photos that pertain to Brown Booby from the Pacific coast of North America between Costa Rica and British Columbia (Alaska has one though!). But Brown Booby is a common breeder in Hawaii, where Cocos Booby is rare, so in Hawaii we assume records pertain to Brown unless they were specifically identified as Cocos Booby. But at sea in between, and in parts of the Panama Canal Zone where the two oceans connect, we are more cautious with records and treat them as Brown/Cocos Booby. 

Below are the splits for this update:

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Spot-bellied Bobwhite Colinus leucopogon of northern Central America is split from widespread Crested Bobwhite Colinus cristatus, which occurs from sw. Costa Rica through Panama and much of northern South America (introduced in some Caribbean islands). While their songs are similar, their plumages are quite different. The only country with both species is Costa Rica, where Spot-bellied is common in fields in the northwest (e.g., Guanacaste and northern Puntarenas) while Crested Bobwhite is known from just a few eBird records from the southern half of Puntarenas on the Pacific coast. 

• Spot-bellied Bobwhite Colinus leucopogon [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Central America, from s. Guatemala to west-central Costa Rica
• Crested Bobwhite Colinus cristatus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: sw. Costa Rica to sw. Colombia, n. Brazil, and the Guianas

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Burchell’s Coucal Centropus burchellii is split from White-browed Coucal Centropus superciliosus. These two species differ strikingly in plumage: White-browed is well-named and had a broad and obvious supercilium on a very white-streaked head, while Burchell’s has an all-black head similar to several other coucals (e.g., Senegal Coucal C. senegalensis and even the larger Coppery-tailed Coucal C. cupreicaudus; Blue-headed Coucal C. monachus is also similar but does not overlap in range). To identify Burchell’s in areas of overlap, focus on voice, size (Burchell’s and Senegal are much smaller than Blue-headed) and the barred uppertail area (Senegal is black in his area).

• White-browed Coucal Centropus superciliosus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE:sw. Arabia and Socotra Island south through East Africa to Uganda, n. Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, and Angola
• Burchell’s Coucal Centropus burchellii [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: e. Tanzania to South Africa and west to e. Zimbabwe, s. Malawi, s. Zambia, and e. Botswana

These two species seem to come in contact over a broad area, so careful eBird records and photos will help elucidate their ranges. Hybrids occur with regularity across a broad swath where these two species approach each other. We encourage reporting of birds with intermediate characters as hybrids and using the slash option in areas where either species–or hybrids–could occur.

• White-browed/Burchell’s Coucal Centropus superciliosus/burchellii [map] [media] [my records]
• White-browed x Burchell’s Coucal (hybrid) Centropus superciliosus x burchellii [map] [media] [my records]

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Split monotypic Olive-capped Coua Coua olivaceiceps from Red-capped Coua Coua ruficeps. These two ground-loving cuckoos (sort of like colorful roadrunners) are Madagascar endemics, where there are 8 other species of surviving coua as well. They are well-separated by range and habitat, occurring on the drier western side, with Olive-capped occupying the southwestern quadrant and Red-capped isolated to a patch in the northwest. Since their ranges don’t overlap, there is no confusion between these two species, but in reviewing these records we found a large number of erroneous coua reports from visiting birders, presumably because eBird filters in Madagascar are not yet well-tuned to catch errors (please be careful with your entries!).

• Red-capped Coua Coua ruficeps [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: lowlands of northwestern Madagascar
• Olive-capped Coua Coua olivaceiceps [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: lowlands of southwestern Madagascar

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The highly range-restricted island endemic Mentawai Malkoha Phaenicophaeus oeneicaudus is split from Chestnut-breasted Malkoha Phaenicophaeus curvirostris. Mantawai Malkoha differs in its green (vs. chestnut) belly, entirely green tail (vs. chestnut on the outer half) and generally darker plumage including its darker chestnut breast; the eye color difference shown here is due to sex (males in both species have pale blueish eyes, while females have orange or reddish eyes). The Mentawai archipelago west of Sumatra is increasingly known for endemic taxa.

• Chestnut-breasted Malkoha Phaenicophaeus curvirostris [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: southern Myanmar (Tenasserim), through the Thai-Malay Peninsula including Singapore, and on Sumatra and Bangka, Java and Bali, Borneo, and the Palawan group in the southwestern Philippines
• Mentawai Malkoha Phaenicophaeus oeneicaudus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Mentawai Islands (off southwestern Sumatra)

 

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Split Pied Bronze-Cuckoo Chrysococcyx crassirostris from the widespread Little Bronze-Cuckoo Chrysococcyx minutillus; the two are strikingly different in plumage, but Pied occurs on only a few islands with no resident eBirders, although it is easy to find if you can get there.

• Little Bronze-Cuckoo Chalcites minutillus [map] [media] [my records]
  • `Little Bronze-Cuckoo (Little) Chalcites minutillus [minutillus Group] [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: far s. Thailand and Malay Peninsula, n. Sumatra and w. Java, e. and e. Borneo, Moluccas, Lesser Sundas, and n. Australia including Melville Island, e. Australia (southeastern Queensland to northeastern New South Wales)
  • Little Bronze-Cuckoo (Gould’s) Chalcites minutillus [poecilurus Group] [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: se. Borneo, s. Philippines, Sulawesi and nearby islands, Flores to Alor in the central Lesser Sundas (populations on Timor and Wetar may represent an undescribed taxon), lowlands of coastal New Guinea and adjacent islands, ne. Australia (n. and e. Queensland)
  • Little Bronze-Cuckoo (Banda) Chalcites minutillus rufomerus/salvadorii [map] [media]
    • RANGE: Lesser Sundas (Romang, Kisar, Leti, Moa, Sermata, Damar, and Babar Islands)
• Pied Bronze-Cuckoo Chalcites crassirostris [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Moluccas (Tayandu and Kai islands) and Tanimbar Islands (Yamdena and Larat)

And since Little Bronze-Cuckoo and Shining Bronze-Cuckoo are similar, may co-occur on some islands, and could evade conclusive identification, a slash is available:

• Shining/Little Bronze-Cuckoo Chalcites lucidus/minutillus [map] [media] [my records]

Regional Record Change Logic: Records from the breeding range of Pied Bronze-Cuckoo are presumed to pertain to that species, while all other records are presumed to pertain to Little Bronze-Cuckoo. If you have seen either taxon out of range, be sure to correct your records.

 

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A deep dive into the vocalizations and phenotypes (appearance) of Brush Cuckoo Cacomantis variolosus across its wide range led to a bold new taxonomic arrangement, advanced in a recent paper (Wu et al. 2022). The new breakdown suggests Australian Brush Cuckoo Cacomantis variolosus, Sunda Brush Cuckoo Cacomantis sepulcralis, Sulawesi Brush Cuckoo Cacomantis virescens, Manus Brush Cuckoo Cacomantis blandus, and Solomons Brush Cuckoo Cacomantis addendus. Details on ranges are below and details on vocalizations can be seen in the media galleries or in the above paper. 

• Sunda Brush Cuckoo Cacomantis sepulcralis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: s. Myanmar and s. Thailand through the Thai-Malay Peninsula, the Greater Sundas, western Lesser Sundas (eastward at least to Sumba and Flores), and Philippines and Sulu Archipelago
• Sulawesi Brush Cuckoo Cacomantis virescens [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Sulawesi region including Banggai and Sula islands (off eastern Sulawesi) and Buton and Tukangbesi (to southeast)
• Sahul Brush Cuckoo Cacomantis variolosus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: n. Moluccas (Morotai to Obi), e. Lesser Sundas (Timor, and possibly eastward to Tanimbar Islands), New Guinea and most satellite islands, Bismarck Archipelago, and New Britain, n. and e. Australia; Australian population winters to Moluccas and New Guinea
• Solomons Brush Cuckoo Cacomantis addendus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Solomon Islands
• Manus Brush Cuckoo Cacomantis blandus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Admiralty Islands

Recall also that an additional species within this complex has long been recognized:

• Moluccan Brush Cuckoo Cacomantis aeruginosus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: northern and central Moluccas

and also note that an apparently undescribed taxon exists on Tanimbar and could represent an additional species:

• Tanimbar Brush Cuckoo (undescribed form) Cacomantis [undescribed form] [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Tanimbar Islands (Banda Sea)

Since Sahul Brush Cuckoo is migratory it may overlap with several other species, with the most likely two being listed below. These migrant birds are less likely to sing, which complicates identification and understanding of status. For birds that are not singing, identification can be a major challenge, so please use the slash option liberally for silent birds in areas of potential overlap. For records that fit less neatly into two species options, Cacomantis sp. is always a useful option (and might be needed if Sahul Brush Cuckoo is suspected on Sulawesi, but not confirmed, or if a Brush Cuckoo occurs on an island where no species is known).

• Sunda/Sahul Brush Cuckoo Cacomantis sepulcralis/variolosus [map] [media] [my records
• Moluccan/Sahul Brush Cuckoo Cacomantis aeruginosus/variolosus [map] [media] [my records]
• Cacomantis sp. Cacomantis sp. [map] [media] [my records]

Regional Record Change Logic: Manus and Solomons Brush Cuckoos don’t overlap with other species, so those records are easy to convert. Likewise, Sahul Brush Cuckoo is the only species in Australia and New Guinea, and a broad swath of Southeast Asia only has Sunda Brush Cuckoo. The breeding ranges approach each other in the Lesser Sundas and Moluccas, and migrant Sahul Brush Cuckoos mean that either species could occur at certain times on some islands. However, the breeding species in any particular location tends to be the overwhelmingly more encountered taxon, so records are converted unless specifically noted as the other species by the observer. Please make sure to convert your records manually if you think you had a non-resident taxon of Brush Cuckoo anywhere across Indonesia and Australasia.

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Split monotypic Karimui Owlet-nightjar Aegotheles terborghi from Barred Owlet-nightjar Aegotheles bennettii. Highly restricted in range, as of this writing eBird has just two observations of Karimui.

• Barred Owlet-nightjar Aegotheles bennettii [map] [media] [my records]
  • Barred Owlet-nightjar (Barred) Aegotheles bennettii bennettii/wiedenfeldi [map] [media]
    • RANGE: central to southeastern New Guinea
  • Barred Owlet-nightjar (Dwarf) Aegotheles bennettii plumifer [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Goodenough and Fergusson, in D’Entrecasteaux Archipelago (off southeastern New Guinea)
• Karimui Owlet-nightjar Aegotheles terborghi [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: eastern highlands of Papua New Guinea (Karimui basin region)

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Split Ecuadorian Rail Rallus aequatorialis from Virginia Rail Rallus limicola. These two species are widely separated by range and have notable vocal differences. They have long been split by other taxonomies (e.g., IOC), and with the AviList endorsement they are now treated as separate species here too. Marsh habitats in the Pacific slope of Ecuador and Peru are imperiled, so this is a species of some conservation concern. Its status remains poorly known in Peru, where there are just a few verified records, but plenty of opportunity for sharp eBirders to seek out these secretive marsh denizens and load up eBird with observations, photos, and audio recordings.

• Virginia Rail Rallus limicola [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: widespread in North America south to s. Mexico
• Ecuadorian Rail Rallus aequatorialis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Andes of far s. Colombia (Nariño and far western Putumayo), Ecuador (south to northern Loja), and coast of Peru (La Libertad to Arequipa); possibly formerly occurred north to northwestern Ecuador (Imbabura)

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Gull nerds worldwide rejoice. eBird has finally joined the 21st century and adopted the big gull split that we all knew was coming: Herring Gull is split into four species! Most gull book authors have long treated these as separate species, including Amar Ayyash in his hot-off-the-presses The Gull Guide. And with apologies to George Armistead and others who hoped for a bit of fun with gull names, we at eBird remain allied with the dull-and-boring taxonomists in electing not to give vegae, nor smithsonianus, nor argentatus the much-anticipated, desperately hoped-for (and sometimes appropriate) English name of (The) Sea Gull. Alas, with a bit more daring from the taxonomic and nomenclature class, we could all stop correcting our friends and relatives… 

Without further ado, split Herring Gull Larus argentatus into monotypic American Herring Gull Larus smithsonianus, which is widespread in North America; and monotypic Vega Gull Larus vegae which breeds in e. Siberia and winters in east Asia; monotypic Mongolian Gull Larus mongolicus, which breeds in Central Asia (Mongolia and southern Russia to the Yellow Sea coast of South Korea); and polytypic European Herring Gull Larus argentatus (with Larus argentatus argentatus of northeastern Europe and L. a. argenteus of western Europe), which is remarkably well-named and barely occurs outside the continent.

Note that Larus mongolicus had been sometimes lumped with vegae under Vega Gull by past taxonomies (e.g., IOC World Bird List). That has created some confusion, as birders following that taxonomy have reported Vega Gull in eBird far inland in the breeding, migratory, and wintering range of mongolicus; note that true vegae is a coastal species in migration and winter and that inland records (from e.g., China) should be exceedingly well-documented.

• American Herring Gull Larus smithsonianus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: northern North America (Alaska to Atlantic coast); winters to Central America
• Vega Gull Larus vegae [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: northeastern Siberia; winters southward to China
• Mongolian Gull Larus mongolicus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: southeastern Altai and Lake Baikal to Mongolia; winters southern Asia
• European Herring Gull Larus argentatus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: n. Europe, winters s. Europe; uncommonly to n. Africa and vagrant to Israel, Greenland, North America

For the most part these species don’t come in contact, but Vega and Mongolian are the exception, since they overlap broadly in their wintering range along the coast of East Asia. In winter in Japan, the Korean Peninsula, and much of China, it is possible to find either species. Inland records should be identified with caution as well, since either species is possible in migration, although Mongolian is more regular at inland sites in much of East Asia.

Contact between American Herring and Vega is limited in western Alaska. In the western Aleutians, the western Seward Peninsula, and Saint Lawrence Island, almost all birds are Vega Gull and American Herring is a very rare vagrant. In the eastern Aleutians, the Pribilofs, and the North Slope (e.g., Uqtiavik)

• American Herring/Vega Gull Larus smithsonianus/vegae [map] [media] [my records]
• Vega/Mongolian Gull Larus vegae/mongolicus [map] [media] [my records]
• American/European Herring Gull Larus smithsonianus/argentatus [map] [media] [my records]

Get ready for some hybrid gull insanity. Below are the known or suspected hybrids that eBird will be providing in the Herring Gull complex after this split…

• Ring-billed x American Herring Gull (hybrid) Larus delawarensis x smithsonianus [map] [media] [my records]
• Caspian x European Herring Gull (hybrid) Larus cachinnans x argentatus [map] [media] [my records]
• Kelp x American Herring Gull (hybrid) Larus dominicanus x smithsonianus [map] [media] [my records]
• Caspian/European Herring Gull Larus cachinnans/argentatus [map] [media] [my records]
• European Herring/Yellow-legged Gull Larus argentatus/michahellis [map] [media] [my records]
• Caspian/European Herring/Yellow-legged Gull Larus cachinnans/argentatus/michahellis [map] [media] [my records]
• American Herring x Great Black-backed Gull (hybrid) Larus smithsonianus x marinus [map] [media] [my records]
• European Herring x Great Black-backed Gull (hybrid) Larus argentatus x marinus [map] [media] [my records]
• American Herring x Glaucous Gull (hybrid) Larus smithsonianus x hyperboreus [map] [media] [my records]
• Vega x Glaucous Gull (hybrid) Larus vegae x hyperboreus [map] [media] [my records]
• European Herring x Glaucous Gull (hybrid) Larus argentatus x hyperboreus [map] [media] [my records]
• American Herring/Vega/European Herring x Glaucous Gull (hybrid) Larus smithsonianus/vegae/argentatus x hyperboreus [map] [media] [my records]
• American Herring x Lesser Black-backed Gull (hybrid) Larus smithsonianus x fuscus [map] [media] [my records]
• European Herring x Lesser Black-backed Gull (hybrid) Larus argentatus x fuscus [map] [media] [my records]
• Herring complex/Lesser Black-backed Gull Larus smithsonianus/vegae/mongolicus/argentatus/fuscus [map] [media] [my records]
• American Herring x California Gull (hybrid) Larus smithsonianus x californicus [map] [media] [my records]
• American Herring x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) Larus smithsonianus x glaucescens [map] [media] [my records]
• American Herring/Glaucous-winged Gull Larus smithsonianus/glaucescens [map] [media] [my records]
• Vega x Slaty-backed Gull (hybrid) Larus vegae x schistisagus [map] [media] [my records]
• American Herring x Iceland Gull (hybrid) Larus smithsonianus x glaucoides [map] [media] [my records]
• American Herring/Iceland Gull Larus smithsonianus/glaucoides [map] [media] [my records]
• European Herring/Iceland Gull Larus argentatus/glaucoides [map] [media] [my records]

Regional Record Change Logic: First and foremost, any record reported to the subspecies level by observers will be retained (one exception is some vegae reports in inland Asia). Otherwise, North American (and the few South American) records change to American Herring Gull and European records (and adjacent areas of Asia and Africa) to European Herring Gull ; we trust that observers who have detected vagrant gulls will have used the correct subspecies for those. Exceptions are Hawaii (where only Larus smithsonianus is known but vegae should be watched for; we change these records to American Herring/Vega Gull in cases where the observer did not designate the subspecies. In Alaska, it is complicated (thanks to Zak Pohlen for the map below). American Herring is the default in most of the state, but on Saint Lawrence Island, the western Seward Peninsula (e.g., Nome), and the western Aleutians, Vega Gull predominates and all records are presumed vegae (unless the observer has reported at the subspecies level). On the Pribilofs and inner Aleutians, North Slope, and base of the Seward Peninsula we change records to American Herring/Vega. In East Asia, most records change to Vega/Mongolian Gull, unless observers specifically designated which taxon they observed. Note that you may be able to assign many of your own records based on your photos or a finer-grained understanding of probability of a given taxon in a given place, but we cannot make these changes in bulk for you. Given the above-mentioned confusion between vegae and mongolicus in the eBird records, we change breeding-season reports of vegae from Mongolia, Nei Mongol, China, and southern Russia (Irkutsk and Buryatia near Lake Baikal, and west to Novosibirsk Oblast) to mongolicus. We have done our best with hybrids and slashes too, although we acknowledge that specifying both parents is largely guesswork based on the likely parents in given regions.

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Seabird gurus have long been expecting the split of Cory’s Shearwater Calonectris diomedea into Cory’s Shearwater Calonectris borealis from Scopoli’s Shearwater Calonectris diomedea and it has finally arrived. The fact that these birds can tell each other apart (probably using smell more than we might expect) doesn’t mean that our birding lives will be better or easier–these are VERY hard to identify in the field! Also, make sure you pay attention to the tricky switcheroo on the names: the English name stays the same on one and the sciname switches and the reverse happens for Scopoli’s.

The main thing to know about these two is that Scopoli’s breeds primarily in the Mediterranean Sea and then disperses out from there, while Cory’s breeds primarily on Atlantic islands (e.g., Azores, Canary Islands) and disperses widely from there.

• Cory’s Shearwater Calonectris borealis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: eastern Atlantic, breeding from Azores southward to Canary Islands and eastward to Galicia (northwestern Spain) and Berlengas Islands (off west-central Portugal); outside breeding season ranges widely in Atlantic, but mainly in upwelling systems of the Benguela and Agulhas currents
• Scopoli’s Shearwater Calonectris diomedea [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: breeds Mediterranean islands, outside breeding season moving to winter mainly in upwelling systems of tropical eastern Atlantic

For detailed field ID, be sure to refer to Flood and Gutiérrez (2021), which give detailed information on the range of variation in both species and stress that while entirely dark underprimaries can be a safe field mark for Cory’s, safe identification of Scopoli’s requires a tenth primary (p10) that shows 20% or more white (as measured from the white underprimary coverts). Other traits like structure (Scopoli’s is more delicately built on average), extent of dark on the underwing coverts, and presence of one or two spots on the underprimary coverts can be supportive, but that the extent of whitish on the tenth primary is by far the most important field mark. Extent of white on the ninth, eighth, and other primaries seems to have extensive overlap so should not be used as a field mark.

Even after reading and re-reading (and re-reading) Flood and Guitiérrez though, you should expect to have a lot of birds « get away » unidentified, either because of distance or because, even with excellent looks and point blank photos, they were intermediate or showed inconsistent field marks. Please use the slash option below liberally (and remember, we are treating almost all eBird records as slashes unless the user has specified the finer-scale ID themselves.

• Cory’s/Scopoli’s Shearwater Calonectris borealis/diomedea [map] [media] [my records]

and, since other species are always a concern for distant shearwaters, these slashes also exist:

• Cory’s/Scopoli’s/Cape Verde Shearwater Calonectris borealis/diomedea/edwardsii [map] [media] [my records]
• Cory’s/Scopoli’s/Great Shearwater Calonectris borealis/diomedea/Ardenna gravis [map] [media] [my records]

Regional Record Change Logic: Because these species are so similar and their ranges so poorly known, we are not converting records based on location or time of year. So the only records of Cory’s in the Atlantic will be those where the observer designated them and the same will be true for Scopoli’s. In this case, we won’t make assumptions for you, since we don’t think they are safe at this stage. The main region where we have been willing to assume undesignated birds were one taxon is inside the Mediterranean, where Scopoli’s is abundant and Cory’s is at best extremely rare, so we change records east of the French Riviera to Scopoli’s. Other areas where we have changed records include the upper Gulf of Aqaba, where only Cory’s is known (many Israel records, one Jordan record).

 

 

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Split polytypic Cocos Booby Sula brewsteri, from the Pacific coast of North and South America (including etesiaca breeding from Central America to Colombia) from Brown Booby Sula leucogaster, which thus has two subspecies: nominate which occurs in the tropical Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico; and S. l. plotus of the central Pacific.

• Brown Booby Sula leucogaster [map] [media] [my records]
  • Brown Booby (Atlantic) Sula leucogaster leucogaster[map] [media]
    • RANGE: islands in Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and tropical Atlantic
  • Brown Booby (Forster’s) Sula leucogaster plotus[map] [media]
    • RANGE: breeds on islands in the Red Sea, tropical Indian Ocean, and tropical western and central Pacific Ocean
• Cocos Booby Sula brewsteri [map] [media] [my records]
  • Cocos Booby (Brewster’s) Sula brewsteri brewsteri [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: islands in Gulf of California and off western Mexico
  • Cocos Booby (Colombian) Sula brewsteri etesiaca [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Pacific islands off Central America and Colombia

The identification of these two species is extremely challenging and just being worked out. See VanderWerf (VanderWerf, E. A. 2018. Geographic variation in the Brown Booby: Field identification of males and females by subspecies. Birding 50 (5): 48–54) for the best treatment on separation of adults; key field marks are shown below:

• adult male brewsteri (and to a lesser extent, etesiaca) are highly distinctive with variable amounts of frosty white coloration on the head, neck, nape, and forehead; any pale coloration in this area on birds of any age distinguishes Cocos Booby from both subspecies of Brown Booby, which always has a dark brown head
• female brewsteri and estesiaca can be quite dark headed, so focus on other field marks:
  • compared to plotus, a yellow-based bill that is pinkish from the midpoint to the tip should indicate Cocos; plotus is always yellow with a faint green cast
  • plotus averages a smaller dark spot in front of the eye compared to brewsteri
• On all ages, brewsteri averages more dark in the underwing coverts, usually showing a line of dark partially bisecting the white of the underwing
• brewsteri has a slimmer bill
• Not mentioned in the article, but maybe worth watching: it seems that plotus consistently shows a narrow band of bar skin behind the eye, while in brewsteri (and etesiaca?) the pale orbital ring touches dark feathering at the rear of the eye. In preliminary assessments, this field mark seems to hold on young birds as well as adults.

Even with the above identification tips though, a large number of distant or tricky birds will evade identification. Please use the slash liberally when needed!

• Brown/Cocos Booby Sula leucogaster/brewsteri [map] [media] [my records]

Regional Record Change Logic: All records from the Pacific coast of the US and Canada, Mexico, Central American countries, and northern South America (Colombia, Ecuador, and northern Peru) are converted to Cocos Booby, while those from the Atlantic, Indian, and South Pacific remain as Brown Booby. Records from Hawaii and other central Pacific islands (with breeding colonies of plotus) also remain as Brown Booby, although Cocos Booby appears to be occurring ever more often there, including as far west as Japan!

In the eastern Pacific, records within 200 nmi of the West Coast are treated as Cocos, but those between the mainland and Hawaii are treated as a slash, except when photos can help identify them to species. Since Brown Booby (Forster’s) S. l. plotus breeds in Hawaii, but since Cocos strays there from the East, those records should all be identified with care.

The trickiest area has proven to be the Panama Canal, and ocean on either side. Given the MANY records from Lago Gatún, it seems clear that boobies transit the canal either under their own power or while riding on the many ships that cross the canal. This may explain why Cocos Booby has a photo confirmed record from the Atlantic Basin off northeastern Panama. We are working through the photos, but currently have a lot of boobies in purgatory here as Brown/Cocos Booby, even though many records in the ir proper ocean are clear.

Inland records are also tricky, but at the moment we believe the Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas records all pertain to Brown Booby (Atlantic) Sula leucogaster laucogaster and that inland Arizona, Nevada, and California records all involve Cocos Booby (surely S. b. brewsteri). An inland record from Nicaragua has no photos so is treated as a slash.

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 Barn Owl Tyto alba is split into three species, generally separated at the continental level: American Barn Owl Tyto furcata, of North and South America; Western Barn Owl Tyto alba of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East (east to central Iran); and Eastern Barn Owl Tyto javanica which occurs Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka east through Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and Australasia. These owls generally look similar, but some subtle differences in coloration and pattern may be apparent, although each has multiple subspecies which also vary intraspecifically. Genetic differences were one of the main reasons for the split, but are supported by vocal differences, especially the unique clicking vocalization made by American Barn Owl which appears not to be present in other Barn Owl taxa. The ghastly, unpleasant, ghoul-like screeches and screams that Barn Owls give have not traditionally lent themselves well to vocal analyses by humans (any Tyto owls out there in eBird-land looking for dissertation ideas?), but some authors (especially the Sound Approach team) have picked up on vocal distinctions that hold promise to understand these species-specific vocalizations better. We anticipate that a deeper look at vocalizations and genetics of American Barn Owl, especially on the Galapagos and in the Caribbean, could support additional species diversity; in Eastern Barn Owl some of the Indonesian taxa are worth a look and listen too.

• Western Barn Owl Tyto alba [map] [media] [my records]
  • Western Barn Owl (Eurasian) Tyto alba [alba Group] [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Europe, North Africa, Middle East west to western Iran, possibly central Iran; may be expanding its range with increasing agriculture in desert areas at its eastern range boundary.
  • Western Barn Owl (Madeiran) Tyto alba schmitzi [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Madeira and Porto Santo islands (Madeira Archipelago)
  • Western Barn Owl (Canary Is.) Tyto alba gracilirostris [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: eastern Canary Islands (Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, and Alegranza)
  • Western Barn Owl (African) Tyto alba poensis [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: sub-Saharan Africa (including Bioko, Zanzibar, and Pemba), Comoros, and Madagascar
  • Western Barn Owl (Cape Verde) Tyto alba detorta [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Cape Verde Islands
  • Western Barn Owl (Sao Tome) Tyto alba thomensis [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: São Tomé (Gulf of Guinea)
• Eastern Barn Owl Tyto javanica [map] [media] [my records]
  • Eastern Barn Owl (Eastern) Tyto javanica [javanica Group] [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Indian subcontinent to northern Sri Lanka, sw. China, Malay Peninsula to Greater Sundas, Sumba (Lesser Sundas), Timor to Australia, Solomon Islands, Loyalty Islands (New Caledonia), and Samoa, e. New Guinea, including Manam and Karkar islands, Reef, Nendö, and Vanikoro (Temotu, southeastern Solomon Islands), and Banks Islands to Efate (northern to central Vanuatu)
  • Eastern Barn Owl (Boang) Tyto javanica crassirostris [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Tanga Island, off New Ireland (northeastern Bismarck Archipelago)
• American Barn Owl Tyto furcata [map] [media] [my records]
  • American Barn Owl (American) Tyto furcata [tuidara Group] [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Widespread in North America and South America
  • American Barn Owl (White-winged) Tyto furcata furcata [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Cuba, Cayman Islands, and Jamaica
  • American Barn Owl (Curacao) Tyto furcata bargei [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Curaçao
  • American Barn Owl (Lesser Antilles) Tyto furcata nigrescens/insularis [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Dominica, St. Vincent, Bequia, Union, Carriacou, and Grenada
  • American Barn Owl (Galapagos) Tyto furcata punctatissima [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Galapagos

South central and eastern Iran may be the only area where this is needed, since records from that area could possibly refer to either taxon. We have a slash, just in case, since the field ID will be challenging!

• Western/Eastern Barn Owl Tyto alba/javanica [map] [media] [my records]

Regional Record Change Logic: Records fall easily into the different species except in south-central and eastern Iran, where we will move a few records to the slash option pending more clarity on which taxon occurs there.

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Split Yellow-billed Barbet Trachyphonus purpuratus into Western Yellow-billed Barbet Trachyphonus goffinii (including ssp. togoensis) and Eastern Yellow-billed Barbet Trachyphonus purpuratus. These species have surprisingly large plumage diversity, and it may well be that togoensis also deserves species status (BirdLife International has split it in the past). Note also that the genus has changed for these birds.

• Western Yellow-billed Barbet Trachylaemus goffinii [map] [media] [my records]
  • Western Yellow-billed Barbet (Western) Trachylaemus goffinii goffinii [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Sierra Leone eastward to Ghana/Togo border
  • Western Yellow-billed Barbet (Togo) Trachylaemus goffinii togoensis [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: far eastern Ghana to southwestern Nigeria
• Eastern Yellow-billed Barbet Trachylaemus purpuratus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: southern Mozambique to eastern South Africa

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Red-fronted Tinkerbird Pogoniulus uropygialis is split into Northern Red-fronted Tinkerbird Pogoniulus uropygialis and Southern Red-fronted Tinkerbird Pogoniulus pusillus. These two species are widely separated in range, with a large gap between the range of Southern (Southern Africa north to far southern Mozambique) and Northern (East Africa south to southern Tanzania). Although these two species look similar, they differ vocally and do have subtle face pattern differences, with whiter throat and eyebrow in the northern bird (more yellow in the south) and a golden cast to the wing marking in the south (vs. yellow in the north). Habitat also differs, with Southern being a bird of tall forest and Northern preferring lower Acacia scrub. More info can be found in the paper that proposed splitting them.

• Northern Red-fronted Tinkerbird Pogoniulus uropygialis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: se. South Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia south to Uganda and s. Tanzania
• Southern Red-fronted Tinkerbird Pogoniulus pusillus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: southern Mozambique to eastern South Africa

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Guatemalan Flicker Colaptes mexicanoides is split from the widespread Northern Flicker Colaptes auratus. This split has been anticipated for a while, especially since it is far more different from Northern Flicker in appearance and voice than is Gilded Flicker Colaptes chrysoides. While it occurs throughout the highlands of Guatemala, the flicker is not an endemic since it also occurs in the highlands of Chiapas, n. El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

• Northern Flicker Colaptes auratus [map] [media] [my records]
  • Northern Flicker (Cuban) Colaptes auratus chrysocaulosus [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Cuba
  • Northern Flicker (Grand Cayman I.) Colaptes auratus gundlachi [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Grand Cayman Island
  • Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) Colaptes auratus auratus/luteus [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Alaska, e. Canada and e. United States
  • Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) Colaptes auratus [cafer Group] [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: w. Canada and e. United States
  • Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted x Red-shafted) Colaptes auratus luteus x cafer [map] [media]
• Guatemalan Flicker Colaptes mexicanoides [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: highlands of southeastern Mexico east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec from western Chiapas eastward to northwestern Nicaragua

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Pronounced vocal differences in the Long-tailed Woodcreeper Deconychura longicauda have meant that Neotropical birders have long anticipated a split here. That split has now been ratified by the AviList committee (and formerly by BirdLife) and SACC, and AOS-NACC can be expected to follow suit, we hope. Their ranges segregate out completely, and the English names here used help highlight the characteristics of each bird’s voice. With so many woodcreepers that are most distinctive based on voice, these are the first that have been named for vocal traits.

• Piping Woodcreeper Deconychura typica [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Middle America from se. Honduras to w. Panama, e. Panama (Darién), and n. Colombia
• Whistling Woodcreeper Deconychura longicauda [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: the Guianas and Brazil north of the Amazon River (from Rio Negro eastward to Amapá)
• Mournful Woodcreeper Deconychura pallida [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: nw. Amazonian Brazil to e. Ecuador and Peru to n. Bolivia and w. Brazil

Note also that an additional taxon in the genus has yet to receive a name, although most experts expect it to be granted full species status once it is formally described. It can be found in eBird as Yungas Woodcreeper (undescribed form) Deconychura [undescribed form] with range « east slope of the Andes of Ecuador and Peru »

Regional Record Change Logic: We don’t know of overlap in the range of these species, so all are assigned based on understandings of established range. Note that some records have been moved to the undescribed taxon above.

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Similar to the woodcreepers above, pronounced vocal differences have also led to a three-way split in Plain Xenops Xenops minutus, along similar (but slightly different) biogeographical lines. The new species include Northern Plain-Xenops Xenops mexicanus, of Central America, northern Colombia, and northern Venezuela, Amazonian Plain-Xenops Xenops genibarbis of Amazonian lowlands of South America, and Atlantic Plain-Xenops Xenops minutus of the Mata Atlantica from e. Brazil to e. Paraguay and ne. Argentina.

• Northern Plain-Xenops Xenops mexicanus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Middle America (from tropical s. Mexico south) to nw. Colombia, w. Ecuador, and northernmost Venezuela
• Amazonian Plain-Xenops Xenops genibarbis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Broadly distributed in Amazonia, from tropical e. Colombia, s. Venezuela, and n. Brazil south to s. Brazil and n. Bolivia
• Atlantic Plain-Xenops Xenops minutus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: e. Brazil (north to s. Bahia) to e. Paraguay and ne. Argentina

Regional Record Change Logic: The trickiest region for conversion is the east slope of the eastern Andes of Colombia and south slope of the Andes of Venezuela. Most of these records seem to pertain to Northern Plain-Xenops, but the fine details of distribution in this region may need to be worked out with additional sound recordings.

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Split Rufous Grasswren Amytornis whitei into monotypic Pilbara Grasswren Amytornis whitei and monotypic Sandhill Grasswren Amytornis oweni. These similar birds are well-separated by range, so field ID should not be a problem.

• Pilbara Grasswren Amytornis whitei [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: stony hillsides of Cape and Pilbara ranges of Western Australia
• Sandhill Grasswren Amytornis oweni [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: central western Australia, from Western Australia to southwestern Northern Territory and south-central South Australia

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Split Dusky Myzomela Myzomela obscura into polytypic Moluccan Myzomela Myzomela simplex, monotypic Red-tinged Myzomela Myzomela rubrotincta, monotypic Biak Myzomela Myzomela rubrobrunnea, and polytypic Dusky Myzomela Myzomela obscura. So many myzomelas, so little time! Four more myzomelas with this update, and six new names. Note that the Red-tinged Myzomela co-occurs on Obi with a very different-looking myzomela similar to Bacan Myzomela Myzomela batjanensis and which likely represents an undescribed species (see Obi Myzomela (undescribed form) Myzomela [undescribed form] under new additions below). Dusky is a widespread bird, occurring broadly in Australia; the outlier populations formerly combined with it are all well-known areas of endemism, of course.

• Moluccan Myzomela Myzomela simplex [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: n. Moluccas (Halmahera, Damar, Ternate, Tidore, Bacan, Morotai)
• Red-tinged Myzomela Myzomela rubrotincta [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: northern Moluccas (Obi and Bisa)
• Biak Myzomela Myzomela rubrobrunnea [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Biak (Cenderawasih Bay, off northwestern New Guinea)
• Dusky Myzomela Myzomela obscura [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: s. New Guinea (Bird’s Head Peninsula to Port Moresby), Aru Islands, Australia (Torres Strait Islands, Northern Territory, n. and e. Queensland

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Split Reddish Myzomela Myzomela erythrina from Red Myzomela Myzomela cruentata. If you are trying to identify them, start by looking at a map rather than trying to figure out if you myzomela is truly red or actually is just reddish.

• Red Myzomela Myzomela cruentata [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: New Guinea including Yapen (Cenderawasih Bay, off northwestern New Guinea), New Britain and Duke of York (southeastern Bismarck Archipelago)
• Reddish Myzomela Myzomela erythrina [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Bismarck Archipelago (New Hanover, Tabar Island, Dyaul Island, New Ireland)

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The polytypic Large Cuckooshrike Coracina macei is rearranged into three species: Indian Cuckooshrike Coracina macei of peninsular India and Sri Lanka, Malaysian Cuckooshrike Coracina larutensis from isolated mountains on the Malay Peninsula in Malaysia, and Oriental Cuckooshrike Coracina javensis occurring much of the rest of Southeast Asia, from the Himalaya throughout Indochina These cuckooshrikes don’t overlap in range much, if at all (maybe in south Himalayan foothills?), and look quite similar. But their voice and genetics signal a split which is now recognized. But be aware, we also have a lump here, since Javan Cuckooshrike Coracina javensis is lumped with Large Cuckooshrike Coracina macei, resulting in this new combination of Oriental Cuckooshrike Coracina javensis. NOTE: the affinities of rexpineti remain uncertain and should be an area for further study!

• Indian Cuckooshrike Coracina macei [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: central and southern India from Uttarakhand eastward to West Bengal and Odisha, and southward to Kerala, and Sri Lanka
• Oriental Cuckooshrike Coracina javensis [map] [media] [my records]
  • Oriental Cuckooshrike (Javan) Coracina javensis javensis [map] [media]
    • RANGE: Java and Bali
  • Oriental Cuckooshrike (Oriental) Coracina javensis [nipalensis Group] [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: ne. Pakistan, nw. India through the Himalayan to s. China and south to Indochina and peninsular Thailand; also Andaman Islands and Hainan
  • Oriental Cuckooshrike (East Asian) Coracina javensis rexpineti [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: se. China (Fujian, Guangdong, and Yunnan) to n. Laos and Taiwan
• Malayan Cuckooshrike Coracina larutensis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: peninsular Malaysia

As a new taxonomic division that is not particularly well-known, this one will be a learning curve for birders, especially in South Asia. Our eBird India team provided these tips from a south Asian perspective, noting that both female Oriental and male Indian share a gray throat and upper breast with barring below; however, these traits can be useful when noted:

• Indian Cuckooshike Coracina macei: Barring on the breast and throat (females)
• Oriental Cuckooshrike Coracina javensis: Completely unbarred underparts to very little barring (males and some extreme plumages of females), more prominent white fringing to wings; vocalizations often difficult to separate, but note less piercing call and the spectrogram that doesn’t rise as much and is wavy.

Regional Record Change Logic: Malayan Cuckooshrike is isolated, and does not overlap with other species, so converting those records is straightforward. Oriental Cuckooshrike generally occurs in Southeast Asia, extending west to eastern India and the Himalaya, while Indian Cuckooshrike occurs in the lowland areas of South Asia south of the Himalaya. They come close where lowlands give way to mountains.

Nepal and Bhutan, and Bangladesh, Myanmar, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India have only Oriental Cuckooshrike, while Sri Lanka has only Indian Cuckooshrike (not a perfect English name when seen in Sri Lanka, of course!). Within India, the taxa get very close to coming in contact. Records from all states south of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar will move to Indian Cuckooshrike, while records from north and east of Bangladesh will safely move to Oriental Cuckooshrike (this includes Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim), along with records from the Himalayan regions in far nw. India (Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Chandigarh)

This leaves four states (below) with both taxa where finer-scale logic is used, including liberal use of the slash in areas of uncertainty; after the state name we give the names of the districts where eBird will be presuming one species or the other to occur, but please try to identify all cuckooshrikes critically and please get recordings when you can!

• West Bengal (Oriental: South 24 Parganas, Uttar Dinajpur, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar; Indian: Bankura, Jhargram, Purulia, Paschim Medinipur, Purba Medinipur, Paschim, Bardhaman, Birbhum; Oriental/Indian: Hooghly, Howrah, Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, Purba Bardhaman, Nadia, Murshidabad, Malda, Dakshin Dinajpur)
• Bihar (Oriental: northern, mountainous districts: Katihar, Purnia, Araria, Kishanganj, Madhubani, Sheohar, Supaul, Sitamarhi, Purba; Indian: southern lowland districts: Jamui, Munger, Nalanda, Gaya, Arwal, Rohtas, Nawada, Aurangabad, Kaimur, Champaran, Pashchim Champaran; Indian/Oriental: all other districts in the state).
• Haryana (Indian: Rewari, Gurugram; Oriental: Yamunanagar, Panchkula; Indian/Oriental: remainder of state)
• Uttar Pradesh (Oriental: northern, mountainous districts: Bahraich, Balrampur, Bareilly, Bijnor, Kushinagar, Lakhimpur Kheri, Maharajganj, Muzaffarnagar, Pilibhit, Saharanpur, Shahjahanpur, Shrawasti, Siddharthnagar; Indian: all other districts; Indian/Oriental: none at this time)

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Split polytypic Bar-bellied Cuckooshrike Coracina striata into monotypic Mindoro Cuckooshrike Coracina mindorensis, monotypic Visayan Cuckooshrike Coracina panayensis, polytypic Mindanao Cuckooshrike Coracina kochii, monotypic Sulu Cuckooshrike Coracina guillemardi, and polytypic Bar-bellied Cuckooshrike Coracina striata. Note that Bar-bellied Cuckooshrike C. striata is sometimes known as Roving Cuckooshrike, as in the Indonesian field guide by Rheindt and Eaton.

• Bar-bellied Cuckooshrike Coracina striata [map] [media] [my records]
  • Bar-bellied Cuckooshrike (Roving) Coracina striata [striata Group] [map] [media]
    • RANGE: central and southern Thai-Malay Peninsula, Sumatra (and adjacent islands), and Borneo
  • Bar-bellied Cuckooshrike (Philippine) Coracina striata [striata Group] [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Philippines (Luzon, Polillo, and Lubang, Palawan, Busuanga, Balabac, formerly west-central Cebu (now extirpated)
• Mindoro Cuckooshrike Coracina mindorensis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: west-central Philippines (Mindoro, Libagao, and Tablas)
• Visayan Cuckooshrike Coracina panayensis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: central Philippines (Panay and Negros, at least formerly Guimaras, Masbate, and Ticao)
• Mindanao Cuckooshrike Coracina kochii [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: East Visayas and Mindanao group of east-central and southern Philippines
• Sulu Cuckooshrike Coracina guillemardi [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: southern Philippines (Sulu Archipelago)

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Small islands in Cenderawasih Bay off northern New Guinea have high rates of endemism. An additional endemic is recognized here, as we split monotypic Biak Triller Lalage leucoptera from widespread Black-browed Triller Lalage atrovirens.

• Black-browed Triller Lalage atrovirens [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: northern New Guinea, including Waigeo, Salawati, and Misool (Raja Ampat Islands, off western New Guinea)
• Biak Triller Lalage leucoptera [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Biak (Cenderawasih Bay, off northwestern New Guinea)

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Malaita Island scores a new endemic bird, as we split monotypic Malaita Cicadabird Edolisoma tricolor from Solomons Cicadabird Edolisoma holopolium. Hold on to your hats; this is just one of 17 species of Edolisoma cicadabirds with revised species limits in this update!

• Solomons Cicadabird Edolisoma holopolium [map] [media] [my records]
  • Solomons Cicadabird (Solomons) Edolisoma holopolium holopolium [map] [media]
    • RANGE: Buka and Bougainville, Choiseul, Santa Isabel, and Guadalcanal
  • Solomons Cicadabird (New Georgia) Edolisoma holopolium pygmaeum [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Kolombangara and Vangunu (west-central Solomon Islands)
• Malaita Cicadabird Edolisoma tricolor [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Malaita (central Solomon Islands)

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Sangihe Island (and its neighbor, Talaud) off northern Sulawesi hold some unique species and endemics, including one new one as we split Sangihe Cicadabird Edolisoma salvadorii from Sulawesi Cicadabird Edolisoma morio.

• Sangihe Cicadabird Edolisoma salvadorii [map] [media] [my records]
  • Sangihe Cicadabird (Sangihe) Edolisoma salvadorii salvadorii [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Sangihe Islands (off northern Sulawesi)
  • Sangihe Cicadabird (Talaud) Edolisoma salvadorii talautense [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Talaud Islands (Salebabu, Karakelong, and Kaburuang)
• Sulawesi Cicadabird Edolisoma morio [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Sulawesi region, including Lembeh (off northeast) and Muna, Tomea, Kabaena, and Buton (off southeast)

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Common Cicadabird Edolisoma tenuirostre was formerly one of the more widespread species in the Australasian region, with no fewer than 29 subspecies. Most taxonomists were confident that this complex involved multiple species, but lacked the information to make an informed assessment as to the true species limits. With archives like Macaulay Library and others, the AviList committee was able to take known information, some partial genetic sampling, and combine it with imagery showing male and female plumage and audio recordings of the calls to propose a new arrangement. There may be further splits in this complex, but it was felt that this was a far more reasonable way to subdivide the complex. If it weren’t for the Island-Thrushes below, this would be the biggest split of this update, yielding 13 species out of one. Edolisoma tenuirostre is renamed to Sahul Cicadabird and its range restricted to Australia and New Guinea, remaining the most widespread member of the complex. The subspecies groups below signal additional diversity that would be worth paying attention to, in case there are further splits down the road.

• Timor Cicadabird Edolisoma timoriense [map] [media] [my records]
  • Timor Cicadabird (Flores Sea) Edolisoma timoriense emancipatum/kalaotuae [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Tanahjampea and Kalaotoa (Flores Sea)
  • Timor Cicadabird (Timor) Edolisoma timoriense timoriense [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: eastern Lesser Sundas (Lomblen and Timor)
• Pohnpei Cicadabird Edolisoma insperatum [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Pohnpei (Caroline Islands)
• Palau Cicadabird Edolisoma monacha [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Palau (western Caroline Islands)
• Yap Cicadabird Edolisoma nesiotis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Yap (western Caroline Islands)
• Central Melanesian Cicadabird Edolisoma erythropygium [map] [media] [my records]
  • Central Melanesian Cicadabird (Lihir) Edolisoma erythropygium ultimum [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Tabar, Lihir, and Tanga (northeastern Bismarck Archipelago)
  • Central Melanesian Cicadabird (Central Melanesian) Edolisoma erythropygium erythropygium/saturatius [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Buka to Bougainville and New Georgia group (northern to central Solomon Islands) and Guadalcanal, Malaita, Florida, and Savo (east-central Solomon Islands)
  • Central Melanesian Cicadabird (Pavuvu) Edolisoma erythropygium nisorium [map] [media] [my records]
    • RANGE: Russell Islands (west-central Solomon Islands)
• Geelvink Cicadabird Edolisoma meyerii [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Numfor and Biak (Cenderawasih Bay, off northwestern New Guinea)
• Banggai Cicadabird Edolisoma pelingi [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Peleng and Banggai, in Banggai Islands (off eastern Sulawesi)
• Obi Cicadabird Edolisoma obiense [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: central Moluccas (Obi and Bisa)
• North Moluccan Cicadabird Edolisoma grayi [map] [media] [my records]
  • North Moluccan Cicadabird (Tukangbesi) Edolisoma grayi pererratum [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Tukangbesi Islands (Kaledupa and Tomea)
  • North Moluccan Cicadabird (North Moluccan) Edolisoma grayi grayi [map] [media]
    • RANGE: northern Moluccas (Morotai, Halmahera, Ternate, Tidore, and Bacan)
• Bismarck Cicadabird Edolisoma remotum [map] [media] [my records]
  • Bismarck Cicadabird (Mussau) Edolisoma remotum matthiae [map] [media]
    • RANGE: Mussau and Emirau (west-central Bismarck Archipelago)
  • Bismarck Cicadabird (New Ireland) Edolisoma remotum remotum [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: New Hanover, Dyaul, New Ireland, and Feni islands (northeastern Bismarck Archipelago)
  • Bismarck Cicadabird (Umboi) Edolisoma remotum rooki [map] [media]
    • RANGE: Umboi (south-central Bismarck Archipelago)
  • Bismarck Cicadabird (New Britain) Edolisoma remotum heinrothi [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: New Britain and Duke of York Island (southeastern Bismarck Archipelago)
• Rossel Cicadabird Edolisoma rostratum [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Rossel (Louisiade Archipelago, off southeastern New Guinea)
• South Moluccan Cicadabird Edolisoma amboinense [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: southern Moluccas (Ambon and Seram)
• Sahul Cicadabird Edolisoma tenuirostre [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: n. and e. Australia, Aru Islands, New Guinea (Kofiau, Misool, and Waigeo in Raja Ampat Islands, D’Entrecasteaux Archipelago, Trans-Fly lowlands of s. New Guinea, Misima and Tagula in Louisiade Archipelago)

The below map gives a sense for how the range of all these new species breaks down:

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Fiji Whistler Pachycephala vitiensis is split into White-throated Fiji Whistler Pachycephala vitiensis and Yellow-throated Fiji Whistler Pachycephala graeffii. Plumage and vocal differences align well with these splits; while Yellow-throated is the main species to expect on a visit to the larger islands in Fiji, a trip to the smaller islands east and south of the main islands could net you this second species.

• White-throated Fiji Whistler Pachycephala vitiensis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: outlying islands of southern Fiji
• Yellow-throated Fiji Whistler Pachycephala graeffii [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: main and satellite islands of northern Fiji

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Split Temotu Whistler Pachycephala vanikorensis into three monotypic species, each endemic to a different island (or set of islands) in the southeastern Solomon Islands: Nendo Whistler Pachycephala ornata, Utupua Whistler Pachycephala utupuae, and Vanikoro Whistler Pachycephala vanikorensis. Before there were Common Cicadabirds and Island Thrushes needing to be split many many ways, there was the Golden Whistler Pachycephala pectoralis, which occurred across Australia and nearby Oceania. That complex got split many ways, with Temotu Whistler emerging from those splits in 2014 (for eBird, at least). But now, that species is getting split further, being subdivided by the three main islands (or island complexes) in the Temotu archipelago.

• Nendo Whistler Pachycephala ornata [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Duff, Reef, and Nendö (northern Temotu, southeastern Solomon Islands)
• Utupua Whistler Pachycephala utupuae [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Utupua (central Temotu, southeastern Solomon Islands)
• Vanikoro Whistler Pachycephala vanikorensis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Vanikoro (southeastern Temotu, southeastern Solomon Islands)

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A suite of Indonesian Pachycephala whistlers have undergone some complicated splits and shuffles across several species:

• first, monotypic Babar Whistler Pachycephala sharpei is split from Yellow-throated Whistler Pachycephala macrorhyncha
• second, monotypic Selayar Whistler Pachycephala teysmanni is split from Rusty-breasted Whistler Pachycephala fulvotincta
• third, subspecies dammeriana is moved from Yellow-throated Whistler Pachycephala macrorhyncha to Black-tailed Whistler Pachycephala melanura; it is retained as a subspecies group: Black-tailed Whistler (Damar)
• after that, move subspecies compar and par from Yellow-throated Whistler Pachycephala macrorhyncha to Fawn-breasted Whistler Pachycephala orpheus.
• Yellow-throated Whistler Pachycephala macrorhyncha (formerly Yellow-throated Whistler, which becomes Moluccan Whistler after these changes),
• then, subspecies calliope is moved from Yellow-throated Whistler Pachycephala macrorhyncha to Rusty-breasted Whistler Pachycephala fulvotincta
• and after all those changes, the English name Yellow-throated Whistler doesn’t serve the new species well at all, so a new name for the newly constituted set of subspecies coined: Moluccan Whistler Pachycephala macrorhyncha, which now includes only the five subspecies shown below: 
• and finally, even more complex changes occur with Rusty-breasted Whistler Pachycephala fulvotincta, since subspecies calliope has nomenclatural priority (a wonderful aspect of scientific nomenclature that ensures that English names average more stable than scientific names, despite what many people say!). This means that Pachycephala fulvotincta changes to Pachycephala calliope , and because of all these changes, we follow Rheindt and Eaton in using the name Tenggara Whistler Pachycephala calliopefor this new combination of subspecies, which is shown below.
• Black-tailed Whistler Pachycephala melanura, and Rusty-breasted Whistler Pachycephala fulvotincta , which becomes 

For those keeping track, that’s two splits, new species associations for four subspecies, two English name changes, and a scientific name change at the species level. Whew, you got all that now?

Either way, there are more lifers in play for anyone on a years-long cruise to all 17,508 islands in Indonesia. Here are all the taxa we just mentioned:

• Fawn-breasted Whistler Pachycephala orpheus [map] [media] [my records]
  • Fawn-breasted Whistler (Timor) Pachycephala orpheus orpheus [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: eastern Lesser Sundas (Semau, Timor, Jaco, and Wetar)
  • Fawn-breasted Whistler (Banda Sea) Pachycephala orpheus par/compar [map] [media] 
    • • Pachycephala orpheus compar eastern Lesser Sundas (Leti and Moa)
      • Pachycephala orpheus par Romang (eastern Lesser Sundas)
• Tenggara Whistler Pachycephala calliope [map] [media] [my records]
  • Tenggara Whistler (Rusty-breasted) Pachycephala calliope [fulvotincta Group] [map] [media]
    • RANGE: eastern Java and Bali, Lesser Sundas, including Sumba and Timor
      • Pachycephala calliope javana eastern Java and Bali
      • Pachycephala calliope everetti  Tanahjampea, Kalaotoa, and Madu islands (Flores Sea)
      • Pachycephala calliope fulvotincta western Lesser Sundas (Sumbawa to Alor)
      • Pachycephala calliope fulviventris Sumba (Lesser Sundas)
  • Tenggara Whistler (Timor) Pachycephala calliope calliope [map] [media]
    • RANGE: eastern Lesser Sundas (Rote, Timor, Semau, and Wetar)
• Selayar Whistler Pachycephala teysmanni [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Selayar (Flores Sea)
• Moluccan Whistler Pachycephala macrorhyncha [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Banggai and Sula islands (off eastern Sulawesi), central and southern Moluccas, Tanimbar Islands, and eastern Lesser Sundas (except Babar)
      • Pachycephala macrorhyncha pelengensis Peleng and Banggai, in Banggai Islands (off eastern Sulawesi)
      • Pachycephala macrorhyncha clio Sula Islands (Taliabu, Seho, Mangole, and Sanana)
      • Pachycephala macrorhyncha buruensis Buru (southern Moluccas)
      • Pachycephala macrorhyncha macrorhyncha southern Moluccas (Ambon and Seram)
      • Pachycephala macrorhyncha fuscoflava Tanimbar Islands (Larat and Yamdena)
• Babar Whistler Pachycephala sharpei [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Babar (eastern Lesser Sundas)
• Black-tailed Whistler Pachycephala melanura [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: widespread Australia through Bismarck Archipelago and far northern Solomon Islands
  • Black-tailed Whistler (Damar) Pachycephala melanura dammeriana [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Damar (eastern Lesser Sundas)
  • Black-tailed Whistler (Black-tailed) Pachycephala melanura [melanura Group] [map] [media]
    • RANGE: islands off se. New Guinea, nw. Western Australia, northern Australia (Arnhem Land to central Queensland), and Torres Strait islands
      • Pachycephala melanura dahli islands off southeastern New Guinea and Bismarck Archipelago
      • Pachycephala melanura melanura mangroves of northwestern Western Australia (Pilbara and western Kimberley)
      • Pachycephala melanura robusta mangroves of northern Australia (Arnhem Land to central Queensland)
      • Pachycephala melanura spinicaudus northern Torres Strait Islands

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Split Tenggara Paradise-Flycatcher Terpsiphone floris from widespread Blyth’s Paradise-Flycatcher Terpsiphone affinis. These two species are well-separated by range: if you saw one in the western Lesser Sundas, it was Tenggara Paradise-Fly, congrats!

• Blyth’s Paradise-Flycatcher Terpsiphone affinis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: e. Bangladesh, e. India, and e. Bhutan through Southeast Asia, including Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Java
• Tenggara Paradise-Flycatcher Terpsiphone floris [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: western Lesser Sundas including Sumba

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Spectacled Monarch Symposiachrus trivirgatus is split three ways: Moluccan Spectacled Monarch Symposiachrus bimaculatus, of various Moluccan islands (Morotai, Halmahera, Bacan, Obi, Bisa, Seram, and Ambon), Louisiade Monarch Symposiachrus melanopterus of the isolated Louisiade archipelago off se. New Guinea, and Australian Spectacled Monarch Symposiachrus trivirgatus which is widespread and familiar in eastern Australia. Note that one subspecies of Australian Spectacled Monarch (Eastern) is migratory and may be found in the trans-Fly of New Guinea, while the others are resident in their range, as detailed below.

• Moluccan Spectacled Monarch Symposiachrus bimaculatus [map] [media] [my records]
  • Moluccan Spectacled Monarch (Halmahera) Symposiachrus bimaculatus bimaculatus [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: northern Moluccas (Morotai, Halmahera, and Bacan)
  • Moluccan Spectacled Monarch (Obi) Symposiachrus bimaculatus diadematus [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: northern Moluccas (Obi and Bisa)
  • Moluccan Spectacled Monarch (Seram) Symposiachrus bimaculatus nigrimentum [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: southern Moluccas (Seram and Ambon)
• Australian Spectacled Monarch Symposiachrus trivirgatus [map] [media] [my records]
  • Australian Spectacled Monarch (Western) Symposiachrus trivirgatus [trivirgatus Group] [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Seram Laut Islands (Gorong and Manawoka) and Watubela Islands (Kasiui); Lesser Sundas (Flores and Sumba east to Wetar, Timor, and Rote); and northeastern Australia: Torres Strait Islands, and coastal northeastern Queensland (Cape York southward to McIlwraith Range)
  • Australian Spectacled Monarch (Eastern) Symposiachrus trivirgatus gouldii/melanorrhous [map] [media]
    • RANGE: eastern Queensland (Cooktown to Burdekin River); breeds eastern Australia (Clarke Range, Queensland, southward to near Sydney, New South Wales); at least partially migratory, wintering to southern New Guinea (Trans-Fly) and Torres Strait Islands
• Louisiade Spectacled Monarch Symposiachrus melanopterus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Louisiade Archipelago and satellite islands (off southeastern New Guinea)

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Split Black-and-white Monarch Symposiachrus barbatus into two species: Malaita Monarch Symposiachrus malaitae from Solomons Monarch Symposiachrus barbatus.

• Solomons Monarch Symposiachrus barbatus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Bougainville, Guadalcanal, Choiseul, and Santa Isabel (northern Solomon Islands)
• Malaita Monarch Symposiachrus malaitae [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Malaita (central Solomon Islands)

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Split Vella Lavella Monarch Symposiachrus nigrotectus from Kolombangara Monarch Symposiachrus browni. These striking black-and-white pied birds differ in details of their face pattern, but all are non-migratory so correct identification just involves looking at a map.

• Kolombangara Monarch Symposiachrus browni [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Kolombangara, Vonavona, Kohinggo, New Georgia, Vangunu, Rendova, and Tetepare (west-central Solomon Islands)
• Vella Lavella Monarch Symposiachrus nigrotectus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Ranongga and Vella Lavella (New Georgia Group, west-central Solomon Islands)

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The uninspiringly-named Dull Flycatcher Myiagra hebetior goes away as it is split into the somewhat more inspiringly-named Velvet Flycatcher Myiagra eichhorni and Mussau Flycatcher Myiagra hebetior. There should be a law against naming birds in that way, so this is a welcome split. Note that the Dyaul (or Djaul) island bird is another potential future split.

• Mussau Flycatcher Myiagra hebetior [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: St. Matthias Group (north-central Bismarck Archipelago)
• Velvet Flycatcher Myiagra eichhorni [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: New Hanover, New Ireland, Dyaul, and New Britain (eastern Bismarck Archipelago)
  • Velvet Flycatcher (Velvet) Myiagra eichhorni eichhorni [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: New Hanover, New Ireland, and New Britain (eastern Bismarck Archipelago)
  • Velvet Flycatcher (Djaul) Myiagra eichhorni cervinicolor [map] [media]
    • RANGE: Dyaul (northeastern Bismarck Archipelago)

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Following an ongoing trend to grant species status for Borneo endemics and Malay Peninsula endemics, the Black Magpie Platysmurus leucopterus is split into Bornean Black Magpie Platysmurus aterrimus and monotypic Malayan Black Magpie Platysmurus leucopterus. The birds have differentiated enough to show significant plumage differences: the Borneo birds are truly an entirely black magpie, while peninsular birds show a broad white slash in the wing. They also differ vocally, and del Hoyo and Collar (2016) described these differences for the Handbook of the Birds of the World (precursor to Birds of the World) as follows: Bornean vocalizations differed by « including much longer bell-like call, chattering call with different pace and frequency, and rising pitch to harsh nasal call ».

• Malayan Black Magpie Platysmurus leucopterus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: southern Myanmar, peninsular Thailand, Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra
• Bornean Black Magpie Platysmurus aterrimus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Borneo

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The widespread Eurasian Nutcracker Nucifraga caryocatactes is split into Northern Nutcracker Nucifraga hemispila and Southern Nutcracker Nucifraga caryocatactes (sometimes known as Spotted Nutcracker). Southern is substantially browner on the back and belly and much less spotted overall, so the two look distinctive. Their ranges don’t overlap, but the western edge of Southern Nutcracker range approaches that of Kashmir Nutcracker Nucifraga multipunctata, which has *huge* white spotting.

• Northern Nutcracker Nucifraga caryocatactes [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: widespread in Europe and northern Asia, including Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, North Korea, locally in South Korea, and across Russia to the Pacific coast
• Southern Nutcracker Nucifraga hemispila [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Himalayas from w. Himachal Pradesh to s. Tibet, w. Nepal, n. Myanmar, and sw. China (Yunnan); mountains of China from Sichuan and Yunnan northeast to Beijing, Hebei, and Liaoning; also Taiwan

This slash may not be needed IRL, but it is available just in case a poorly seen vagrant is seen in the middle of the Yellow Sea somewhere or well out on the Tibetan plateau (both places renowned for their lack of nutcrackers).

• Northern/Southern Nutcracker Nucifraga caryocatactes/hemispila [map] [media] [my records]

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Crows are sort of specialists for cryptic species diversity, since their unimpressive plumage variation (ranging from black to black) means taxonomists must listen carefully to their often variable calls or resort to genetics to sort them out. Either way, the big crow split in this cycle involves the formerly widespread Slender-billed Crow Corvus enca, an English name that is now officially retired. The four new species increase the Indonesian and Philippine endemic stats by one and two each, respectively: Samar Crow Corvus samarensis, on Samar and Mindanao in the Philippines, Sierra Madre Crow Corvus sierramadrensis, from the Sierra Madre mountains of Luzon, Philippines; Sulawesi Crow Corvus celebensis, endemic to Sulawesi and adjacent islands and islets; and Sunda Crow Corvus enca, for the remainder which is comparatively widespread occurring on Thai-Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java and Bali, and Borneo.

• Sunda Crow Corvus enca [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: southern Thai-Malay Peninsula, Riau Archipelago, Sumatra and associated islands, Borneo, Java, Bali, and Mentawai Archipelago
• Sierra Madre Crow Corvus sierramadrensis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: northern Philippines (Sierra Madre mountains of Luzon)
• Samar Crow Corvus samarensis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: southern Philippines (Samar and Mindanao)
• Sulawesi Crow Corvus celebensis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Sulawesi region, including Talaud, Togian, and Tukangbesi islands; population in the Banggai Islands probably this subspecies (but possibly is Corvus enca mangoli; audio recordings would help answer this!)

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Another crow split for this cycle involves the extremely complicated Large-billed Crow complex, which other taxonomies have split in different ways and for which there are surely still some mysteries to unravel (upload those Large-billed Crow recordings to your eBird checklists, which will help!). For this cycle, the most obvious split is adopted: Philippine Jungle Crow Corvus philippinus (yes, another Philippines endemic) is split from the widespread Large-billed Crow Corvus macrorhynchos.

• Large-billed Crow Corvus macrorhynchos [map] [media] [my records]
  • Large-billed Crow (Large-billed) Corvus macrorhynchos [macrorhynchos Group] [map] [media]
    • RANGE: widespread in East and Southeast Asia
  • Large-billed Crow (Indian Jungle) Corvus macrorhynchos culminatus [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: peninsular India and Sri Lanka
  • Large-billed Crow (Eastern) Corvus macrorhynchos levaillantii [map] [media]
    • RANGE: northeastern India (west to West Bengal) and eastern Nepal eastward to western Thailand, and Andaman Islands
• Philippine Jungle Crow Corvus philippinus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Philippines

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Solomons Robin Petroica polymorpha is split from Pacific Robin Petroica pusilla. The English moniker « robin » is hopelessly useless taxonomically speaking, as it is spread across no fewer than 17 (!) genera. All of them are cute little plump-bodied cherubs, but it would be hard to argue that the colorful Petroica robins aren’t among the cutest of all. Team eBird supports any split that gives us more colorful little Petroica robins.

• Solomons Robin Petroica polymorpha [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Solomons Islands (Bougainville, Kolombangara, Guadalcanal, and Makira)
• Pacific Robin Petroica pusilla [map] [media] [my records]
  • Pacific Robin (Vanuatu) Petroica pusilla [similis Group] [map] [media]
    • RANGE: islands of the Banks Group, Vanuatu, and Fiji
  • Pacific Robin (Samoan) Petroica pusilla pusilla [map] [media]
    • RANGE: Samoa (Upolu and Savai’i)

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Beesley’s Lark Chersomanes beesleyi is recognized as distinct from Spike-heeled Lark Chersomanes albofasciata, which makes sense given its highly isolated range far from the range of Spike-heeled. Beesley’s is highly endangered and hopefully increased tourism from keen birders looking to see and learn about this special population will help local communities in their efforts to protect the bird and its habitat.

• Spike-heeled Lark Chersomanes albofasciata [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Angola and e. Botswana to South Africa
• Beesley’s Lark Chersomanes beesleyi [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: northern Tanzania (area just north of Mount Meru)

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Formerly placed in the genus Mirafra, Rufous-naped Lark was a large and common grassland lark of sub-Saharan Africa, but as it turns out it was not one of Africa’s most-familiar grassland species but a complex of sister species that were not previously recognized. Per Alström and colleagues unraveled this taxonomic complexity in a recent paper, splitting Rufous-naped Lark into five species: Sentinel Lark Corypha athi of central Kenya and n. Tanzania; Plains Lark Corypha kabalii of central Democratic Republic of Congo to se. Gabon and se. Angola to w. Zambia, Plateau Lark Corypha nigrescens, of the Nyika Plateau of e. Zambia, Malawi, and s. Tanzania; Highland Lark Corypha kurrae, of west Africa and Sudan; and still-widespread (but a bit less so) Rufous-naped Lark Corypha africana.

• Highland Lark Corypha kurrae [map] [media] [my records]
  • Highland Lark (Sudan) Corypha kurrae kurrae [map] [media]
    • RANGE: Sudan (Kurra and Darfur provinces)
  • Highland Lark (Bamenda) Corypha kurrae stresemanni/bamendae [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: w. and n. Cameroon
  • Highland Lark (Western) Corypha kurrae henrici/batesi [map] [media]
    • RANGE: Guinea to Liberia and Niger to Nigeria
• Plains Lark Corypha kabalii [map] [media] [my records]
  • Plains Lark (Kabali’s) Corypha kabalii kabalii [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: northeastern Angola (Luiacana) and western Zambia (Balovale)
  • Plains Lark (Malbrant’s) Corypha kabalii malbranti [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: central and southern Democratic Republic of the Congo (Djambala, Petianga, and Kasai) to southeastern Gabon
• Plateau Lark Corypha nigrescens [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Nyika Plateau (e. Zambia and Malawi), ne. Zambia (Lundazi) and s. Tanzania (Ukinga and Njombe)
• Rufous-naped Lark Corypha africana [map] [media] [my records]
  • Rufous-naped Lark (Rufous-naped) Corypha africana [africana Group] [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: all of the species’ former range not detailed above, thus: e. Democratic Republic of the Congo and sw. Uganda to the South Africa
  • Rufous-naped Lark (Serengeti) Corypha africana tropicalis [map] [media]
    • RANGE: southern Uganda to western Kenya and northern Tanzania
• Sentinel Lark Corypha athi [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: central (Nairobi and Nakuru) and e. Kenya (Ukamba) to ne. Tanzania

While we are on the topic of Corypha splits, the Rufous-naped Lark’s similar relative, Red-winged Lark Corypha hypermetra, is split as well, with the recognition of  Kidepo Lark Corypha kidepoensis. 

• Red-winged Lark Corypha hypermetra [map] [media] [my records]
  • Red-winged Lark (Red-winged) Corypha hypermetra hypermetra [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Somalia to Kenya and n. Tanzania
  • Red-winged Lark (Rift Valley) Corypha hypermetra gallarum [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: e. and s. Ethiopia
• Kidepo Lark Corypha kidepoensis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: sw. Ethiopia, se. South Sudan and ne. Uganda

and with all the confusing splitting, some ranges remain to be well-defined. Make liberal use of the slash options as needed!

• Rufous-naped/Sentinel Lark Corypha africana/athi [map] [media] [my records]
• Plains/Rufous-naped Lark Corypha kabalii/africana [map] [media] [my records]
• Plateau/Rufous-naped Lark Corypha nigrescens/africana [map] [media] [my records]
• Corypha sp. Corypha sp. [map] [media] [my records]

Regional Record Change Logic: These larks were among some of the toughest to assign records for this year, and some uncertainty remains where ranges of the newly split species meet. While records from the core ranges of each are easily assigned, we are still parsing observations from western Zambia where Plains and Rufous-naped Larks occur closely together, and from Kenya and Tanzania where Sentinel and Rufous-naped Larks are both found. We also move records formerly assigned to Rufous-naped Lark in northeastern Uganda to Kidepo Lark, as that is the only Corypha species known from that area

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Split monotypic Maasai Apalis Apalis stronachi from monotypic Karamoja Apalis Apalis karamojae. Although quite similar in appearance, these two are well-separated by range and have strikingly different songs and do not respond to playback of the other species. Both favor unique Whistling-thorn Acacia forest, which seems to be expanding as grazing patterns change in this part of Africa.

• Karamoja Apalis Apalis karamojae [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: mountains of northern Uganda
• Maasai Apalis Apalis stronachi [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Maasai Mara, southwestern Kenya, and Serengeti, northern Tanzania

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Split Huambo Cisticola Cisticola bailundensis, known from a small area in central Angola, from the more widespread Rock-loving Cisticola Cisticola aberrans. 

• Rock-loving Cisticola Cisticola aberrans [map] [media] [my records]
  • Rock-loving Cisticola (Rock-loving) Cisticola aberrans [emini Group] [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Guinea to ne Democratic Republic of the Congo, s. South Sudan, and n. Uganda; s. Kenya to n. Tanzania
  • Rock-loving Cisticola (Lazy) Cisticola aberrans [aberrans Group] [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: se. Tanzania to e. South Africa and e. Eswatini
• Huambo Cisticola Cisticola bailunduensis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: central Angola

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Split Lynes’s Cisticola Cisticola distinctus from Wailing Cisticola Cisticola lais.

• Lynes’s Cisticola Cisticola distinctus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: highlands of e. Uganda and central Kenya
• Wailing Cisticola Cisticola lais [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: RANGE: highlands of w. Angola, s. Tanzania (Iringa Plateau) to Malawi, Zambia, ,Mozambique, South Africa, Eswatini, and Lesotho

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Split polytypic Rock Martin Ptyonoprogne fuligula into Pale Crag-Martin Ptyonoprogne obsoleta, polytypic Red-throated Crag-Martin Ptyonoprogne rufigula, and polytypic Southern Crag-Martin Ptyonoprogne fuligula. Southern Crag-Martin has also been called Large Crag Martin or Large Rock Martin. Note that the placement of subspecies pusilla  with range « southern Mali to Eritrea and Ethiopia » has been confused in the past, with IOC placing it in Pale Crag-Martin and that treatment followed in eBird’s subspecies group up through 2023. Here we move it to Red-throated Crag-Martin, which it resembles in pattern and with which it is better aligned biogeographically.

• Pale Crag-Martin Ptyonoprogne obsoleta [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Middle East and northern Africa, south to n. Mauritania, s. Algeria, n. Niger, n. Chad, n. Sudan, Eritrea, and n. Somalia
• Red-throated Crag-Martin Ptyonoprogne rufigula [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: s. Mali to Sierra Leone east to central Chad, Central African Republic, w. Sudan, South Sudan, and sw. Ethiopia southward through East Africa to n. Mozambique
• Southern Crag-Martin Ptyonoprogne fuligula [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: n. and sw. Angola and n. and central Namibia, Botswana, sw. Zimbabwe, s. Mozambique, and South Africa

These are all pretty similar, although general field marks hold (pale gray in Pale, reddish throat in Red-throated, and dark and dusky overall in Southern). Pale and Red-throated may overlap in Ethiopia and nearby areas in the northern winter, and the range boundaries of Southern and Red-throated in the south remain a bit uncertain. Hence, the slashes should be used liberally when uncertain.

• Pale/Red-throated Crag-Martin Ptyonoprogne obsoleta/rufigula [map] [media] [my records]
• Red-throated/Southern Crag-Martin Ptyonoprogne rufigula/fuligula [map] [media] [my records]

Wintering Eurasian Crag-Martins can also cause confusion in the north, so there’s a slash for that too.

• Eurasian/Pale Crag-Martin Ptyonoprogne rupestris/obsoleta [map] [media] [my records]

Regional Record Change Logic: Most records break out fairly easily, but for winter records in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, and South Sudan, we use the Pale/Red-throated slash. Similarly, the Red-throated/Southern slash is used for areas of Zimbabwe and Botswana that are not clearly part of one of the other species.

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Split Pacific Swallow Hirundo tahitica into Tahiti Swallow Hirundo tahitica and Pacific Swallow Hirundo javanica. Pacific Swallow is very widespread in Southeast Asia and Australasia so the main relevant change is to its scientific name. Tahiti Swallow is distinctive, being smaller, overall darker, and blackish instead of grayish) on the belly and underparts.

• Pacific Swallow Hirundo javanica [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: southeastern Asia from Andamans to Ryukyu Islands southward through the Philippines and Indonesia to New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, and Tonga (western Polynesia)
• Tahiti Swallow Hirundo tahitica [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Moorea and Tahiti (Society Islands, east-central Polynesia)

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Split polytypic Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis daurica into European Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis rufula, African Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis melanocrissus, and Eastern Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis daurica, and lump Striated Swallow Cecropis striolata with the new Eastern Red-rumped. The result for Eastern Red-rumped Swallow is a species that includes subspecies nipalensis, erythropygia, daurica, japonica as well as the former subspecies of Striated Swallow (Cecropis striolata) including mayri, stanfordi, vernayi, and striolata.

• European Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis rufula [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Iberian Peninsula to northern Africa, Iran, Afghanistan, and northwestern India
• African Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis melanocrissus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: sub-Saharan Africa
  • African Red-rumped Swallow (domicella) Cecropis melanocrissus domicella [map] [media]
    • RANGE: resident n Senegambia and Guinea eastward to southwestern Sudan, South Sudan, and western Ethiopia
  • African Red-rumped Swallow (melanocrissus Group) Cecropis melanocrissus [melanocrissus Group] [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: resident in Sierra Leone (Birwa Plateau), Cameroon (Bamenda highlands), highlands of Ethiopia, southeastern South Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo southward through Uganda and Kenya to Malawi and northern Zambia
• Eastern Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis daurica [map] [media] [my records]
  • Eastern Red-rumped Swallow (Daurian) Cecropis daurica [daurica Group] [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: largely migratory: breeds from ne. Kazakhstan, Xinjiang, China, and Ladakh, India east along the base of the Himalaya to China, Korea, Japan, and s. Siberia; winters in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and northern Australia
  • Eastern Red-rumped Swallow (Striated) Cecropis daurica [striolata Group] [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: largely resident: occurs in peninsular India and Sri Lanka east to Myanmar, nw. and w. Thailand, n. Laos, and sw. China (Yunnan); also Greater and Lesser Sundas to Philippines and Taiwan

In most parts of the world, it will be obvious which species occurs: in Europe, all birds are European (although there are ~6 records of Eastern, mostly in late spring [late May and June]); Eastern Red-rumped occurs from India, ne. Kazakhstan, and central China east and south into Indonesia (including both the largely migratory daurica Group and the largely resident Striated group) and neither of the other species has ever been recorded in that region. In Israel and the Arabian Peninsula, European Red-rumped is the default species, but increasing attention to winter swallows has revealed very rare vagrant appearance of Eastern Red-rumped (presumably subspecies daurica).

In sub-Saharan Africa, however, it is tricky. African is resident in some regions, but since European is a widespread wintering bird, it is not necessarily safe to assume the identification as African Red-rumped outside of the boreal summer (conservatively, mid-May to late July). Behavior and association with breeding sites will help assign some records, but we encourage very careful observation and identification of Red-rumped Swallows in sub-Saharan Africa going forward. note that molt schedules are understandably different, with most photos of molting African Red-rumped showing primary molt in the boreal summer (e.g., June-July) and all images of molting European Red-rumped coming from the boreal winter (Dec-Mar); note that Eastern Red-rumped is on a similar molt schedule. We have initially treated all sub-Saharan records as European/African Red-rumped Swallow and we are slowly and carefully trying to identify certain (or very likely) African Red-rumped records that can be changed over (see « Record Change Logic » below). We encourage eBirders to do the same and to add documentation especially for European Red-rumpeds you have recorded there.

Some of the vagrant records that have been found are particularly fun, such as European Red-rumped Swallows all the way in South Africa and Eastern Red-rumped Swallows in Israel, Egypt, Kuwait, and the UAE. Western Europe has several records of Eastern Red-rumped (including two from the United Kingdom) so we need some lucky twitchers (or managers of Historical Data accounts) to enter those records!

Below is a quick primer on the identification of these new species, which is not well-covered in most field guides. The below field marks apply for adults; identification of juveniles requires some additional research, although in many cases the distinctive young plumage will occur primarily close to the breeding areas.

Given the identification difficulties, a range of slash options is needed.

• European/African Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis rufula/melanocrissus [map] [media] [my records]
• European/Eastern Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis rufula/daurica [map] [media] [my records]
• European/African/Eastern Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis rufula/melanocrissus/daurica [map] [media] [my records]

One hybrid in the complex is known (so far); congrats if you have seen it. Barn x Eastern Red-rumped seems like an obvious and fun new hybrid to watch for.

• Barn x European Red-rumped Swallow (hybrid) Hirundo rustica x Cecropis rufula [map] [media] [my records]

Regional Record Change Logic: This has been among the most complicated splits for this cycle, especially since the status is poorly known and the new species do not align well with eBird groups. Records entered as « Red-rumped Swallow » before the split will appear as European/African/Eastern  until eBird staff are able to convert them to a more specific option; this option may be needed for certain vagrants or birds with intermediate traits. Most records globally can be safely assumed by range, but note that winter (Aug-Apr) records from sub-Saharan Africa will be largely treated as European/African Red-rumped, although observers may be able to refine this.

Please check your records carefully, especially if you have seen one of the Red-rumped Swallow taxa out-of-place! Here’s the more detailed outline of the division:

European Red-rumped Swallow:

• Records from Europe and the Middle East, including records east to Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan (away from Shyghys Qazaqstan oblysy, where Eastern Red-rumped is known to breed) have been moved to European Red-rumped Swallow.
• Records from North Africa (Cape Verde, Mauritania, Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Djibouti, Somalia) have been moved to European Red-rumped Swallow; the two records from South Africa (the country) pertain to European Red-rumped Swallow too!
• Any identifiable vouchered records (those with photos) from sub-Saharan Africa have been moved to European Red-rumped Swallow

African Red-rumped Swallow:

• In sub-Saharan Africa, at this point all photo records have been reviewed and moved to the finest-scale taxon available (i.e., subspecies, when it could be identified with certainty). In addition, records that clearly indicated that the observer identified it to subspecies in species comments have been moved to the appropriate fine-scale taxon. Finally, records that mentioned nesting or gathering mud were moved to African Red-rumped Swallow.
• Many near-certain records of African Red-rumped Swallow exist, especially since this species often nests at safari lodges and other human structures and so is quite conspicuous. We encourage you to add photos and to move your records if you are certain that the birds were behaving like local breeders (flying under bridges, into eaves, cavorting as a pair, calling a lot, etc.)
• However, for the majority of records within the breeding range of African Red-rumped Swallow, which also hosts wintering European Red-rumped occasionally in winter or on passage, we are conservatively leaving them as European/African for now

Eastern Red-rumped Swallow:

• Within India, overlap is known only in Ladakh: here we use the European/Eastern slash; we will refine based on media in the coming days
• Within Pakistan, we have also converted to the European/Eastern slash; we will refine based on media in the coming days
• Although Eastern Red-rumped is known to breed in far eastern Kazakhstan (Shyghys Qazaqstan oblysy) we have not found any eBird records from there, so all Kazakh records at the moment are showing as European
• Known vagrant records from the Middle East (e.g., UAE, Israel, Kuwait, Egypt) and Europe have been moved to Eastern Red-rumped Swallow (daurica Group); please submit others, if you have them!

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Lesser Bristlebill Bleda notatus is split into Yellow-eyed Bristlebill Bleda ugandae and Yellow-lored Bristlebill Bleda notatus. Althogh these species are not known to overlap in range, it is worth being careful about your identifications as we try to work out the fine scale details of occurrence after this split. Eye color is a helpful field mark, with Yellow-eyed having yellow irides and Yellow-lored having brown ones; the birds also differ in vocalizations. However, Shaun Peters (pers. comm. to AviList team) has recently raised some questions about which taxon occurs at Dzanga-Sangha NP, Central African Republic. Birds there appear to be within the presumed range of Yellow-lored Bristlebill (B. notatus) and have a genetic signature matching notatus, but have yellow irides. He has also found evidence of birds with yellow irides from SE Cameroon and Congo, which are also from within the presumed range of B. notatus. We encourage more photos, audio recordings (with careful notes of appearance of the birds being recorded), and genetic sampling of birds in that region, since it is unknown whether the two species come in contact and potentially hybridize here or whether some Yellow-lored Bristlebill have yellow eyes. All this has important implications for whether this split stands the test of time!

• Yellow-lored Bristlebill Bleda notatus [map] [media]
  • • RANGE: southeastern Nigeria to Central African Republic; Bioko
• Yellow-eyed Bristlebill Bleda ugandae [map] [media]
  • • RANGE: Democratic Republic of the Congo (except along lower Congo River) to southern Central African Republic, southwestern South Sudan, and Uganda

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Yellow-throated Greenbul Atimastillas flavicollis is split into Pale-throated Greenbul Atimastillas flavigula and Yellow-gorgeted Greenbul Atimastillas flavicollis. These two species are very similar, but don’t appear to interbreed despite being almost in contact (almost parapatric) and have supportive genetic differences. They do differ in throat color, with a brighter yellow throat in Yellow-gorgeted and a rather dull whitish one, with a yellowish cast, in Pale-throated.

• Yellow-gorgeted Greenbul Atimastillas flavicollis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Senegal to eastern Nigeria and northern Cameroon
• Pale-throated Greenbul Atimastillas flavigula [map] [media] [my records]
  • Pale-throated Greenbul (soror) Atimastillas flavigula soror [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: north-central Cameroon eastward to southwestern South Sudan, southward to Congo and central Democratic Republic of the Congo; eastern South Sudan and western Ethiopia
  • Pale-throated Greenbul (flavigula) Atimastillas flavigula flavigula [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Angola to Democratic Republic of the Congo, western Uganda, western Kenya, Zambia, and northwestern Tanzania

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Split Eastern Mountain Greenbul Arizelocichla nigriceps into Olive-breasted Mountain Greenbul Arizelocichla kikuyuensis and Black-headed Mountain Greenbul Arizelocichla nigriceps. There are three disjunct range segments in this species, with the two northern ones pertaining to Eastern Mountain Greenbul, which has extensively yellow underparts and a gray head, and the Tanzanian portion of the range (sneaking barely into southernmost Kenya) pertaining to the gray-breasted Black-headed Mountain Greenbul, which also has a dusky cast to the head.

• Kikuyu Mountain Greenbul Arizelocichla kikuyuensis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: mountains of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to western Uganda and central Kenya
• Black-headed Mountain Greenbul Arizelocichla nigriceps [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: s. Kenya (Nguruman Hills), se. Kenya (Taita Hills) to n. and ne. Tanzania, including the s. Pare and w. Usambara mountains

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Split Stripe-faced Greenbul Arizelocichla striifacies into Stripe-cheeked Greenbul Arizelocichla milanjensis and Olive-headed Greenbul Arizelocichla striifacies. The two species look rather different, given the very gray head and white eyebrow of Stripe-faced. They come almost in contact (are almost parapatric) in s. Malawi, but don’t appear to intergrade at all, which is part of the reason their status as full species is being acknowledged now. 

• Olive-headed Greenbul Arizelocichla striifacies [map] [media] [my records]
  • Olive-headed Greenbul (Stripe-faced) Arizelocichla striifacies striifacies [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: highlands of southeastern Kenya to northern Tanzania (Kilimanjaro to Iringa)
  • Olive-headed Greenbul (Olive-headed) Arizelocichla striifacies olivaceiceps [map] [media]
    • RANGE: highlands of southwestern Tanzania to northern Malawi and northern Mozambique
• Stripe-cheeked Greenbul Arizelocichla milanjensis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Malawi (Mount Milanje) to western Mozambique and Zimbabwe

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Split monotypic Angola Greenbul Phyllastrephus viridiceps from White-throated Greenbul Phyllastrephus albigularis, which adds an Angola endemic 

• White-throated Greenbul Phyllastrephus albigularis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: southwestern Senegal eastward to far southern South Sudan and Uganda, southward to southern Congo and western, northern, and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Angola Greenbul Phyllastrephus viridiceps [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: northwestern Angola

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Heuglin’s White-eye Zosterops poliogastrus is split into Kafa White-eye Zosterops kaffensis and Ethiopian White-eye Zosterops poliogastrus. Kafa White-eye includes both the Mount Kulal, Kenya, birds and those from highlands of western and southern Ethiopia (kaffensis); these are each sometimes split as separate species. 

• Ethiopian White-eye Zosterops poliogastrus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: mountains of Eritrea and Ethiopia
• Kafa White-eye Zosterops kaffensis [map] [media] [my records]
  • Kafa White-eye (Kafa) Zosterops kaffensis kaffensis [map] [media]
    • RANGE: highlands of western and southern Ethiopia (south of Lake Tana, west of Omo River)
  • Kafa White-eye (Kulal) Zosterops kaffensis kulalensis [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: northern Kenya (Mount Kulal)

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Angola White-eye Zosterops kasaicus, of Angola and the sw. Democratic Republic of the Congo, is split from the widespread species Northern Yellow White-eye Zosterops senegalensis.

• Northern Yellow White-eye Zosterops senegalensis [map] [media] [my records]
  • Northern Yellow White-eye (senegalensis/demeryi) Zosterops senegalensis senegalensis/demeryi [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: Senegal to Sierra Leone and east to Uganda, n. Congo, n. Eritrea, and nw. Ethiopia
  • Northern Yellow White-eye (jacksoni/gerhardi) Zosterops senegalensis jacksoni/gerhardi [map] [media]
    • RANGE: s. South Sudan, ne. Uganda, and highlands of Kenya and northern Tanzania (Loliondo)
• Angola White-eye Zosterops kasaicus [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: central Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kasai) to central Angola (Malanje to central highlands)

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Split Red-eyed Scimitar-Babbler Erythrogenys imberbis from Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler Erythrogenys erythrogenys, which was made clear by a review of the two disjunct populations (Indian Peninsula and Myanmar to Thailand) by Berryman et al. (2023). Their work drew heavily on « citizen science databases » to support the split and their paper highlights exactly why your photos are so valuable. When taxonomists work with museum specimens they don’t have easy access to information about colors of soft parts (eyes, bills, legs, orbital rings, etc.) which tend to fade in collected specimens (or get replaced with wads of cotton!). Sedulous collectors describe the soft parts colors on the tags of the specimens, but these are easy to overlook. And so it goes that a striking difference in eye color of these scimitar-babblers had been overlooked for a very long time. Putting new information on vocalizations, modern imagery of birds in life, and a review of specimens, the conclusion was clear: these were not one species, but two!

To understand how your contributions are being used, take note of these quotes from their paper which describes how they used the online repositories of photos and sounds:

An original sample of 1,345 photographs was downloaded from the Macaulay Library (= all photographs of E. erythrogenys uploaded by April 2023). One photograph was analysed from each labelled locality (selected as the first on the list acquired), thus eliminating the risk of duplication while maximising the geographic spread of birds included. This yielded a final sample of 343 images.

and

To evaluate these vocalisations, we accessed the sound-recordings available in the Macaulay Library ( https://www.macaulaylibrary.org/) and Xeno-canto databases ( https://www.xeno-canto.org). We selected all relevant recordings from Nepal (n = 12), Bhutan (n = 10), Myanmar (n = 3) and Thailand (n = 36), and a subset (n = 42) of the best-quality recordings from India

and

We commend…the many photographers and recordists who deposited their material in these databases. 

As do we, at eBird Central. Increasingly, your images and recordings are playing substantive roles in advancing science, including the science of avian taxonomy. Thank you for you images and recordings and please enjoy another scimitar-babbler species to enjoy in the world as a thank you from all of science for your contributions!

• Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler Erythrogenys erythrogenys [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: Himalayas of northeastern Pakistan and northern India to central Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim, India
• Red-eyed Scimitar-Babbler Erythrogenys imberbis [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: central and e. Myanmar to nw. Thailand

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Split Marañon Gnatcatcher Polioptila maior from Tropical Gnatcatcher Polioptila plumbea. After the split of White-browed Gnatcatcher Polioptila bilineata from Tropical Gnatcatcher a couple years ago, we have another species to carve out of that widespread and highly polymorphic species. We expect further splits in the future. A new Peru endemic, Marañon Gnatcatcher ranges a bit further from the Marañon Valley than most species that carry that name, and has recently been confirmed from the west slope of the Andes from La Libertad south to Lima. Pay attention to your gnatcatchers!

• Tropical Gnatcatcher Polioptila plumbea [map] [media] [my records]
  • Tropical Gnatcatcher (plumbiceps/anteocularis) Polioptila plumbea plumbiceps/anteocularis [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: n. Colombia (upper Magdalena Valley) and east slope of Andes of n. Colombia to northern Venezuela (including Isla Margarita)
  • Tropical Gnatcatcher (innotata) Polioptila plumbea innotata [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: far eastern Colombia to southern Venezuela and far northern Brazil (southward to northeastern Roraima, western Pará, northern Tocantins, and north-central Goiás)
  • Tropical Gnatcatcher (plumbea) Polioptila plumbea plumbea [map] [media]
    • RANGE: the Guianas and northeastern Brazil (Río Tapajós to eastern and northwestern Maranhão)
  • Tropical Gnatcatcher (parvirostris) Polioptila plumbea parvirostris [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: western Amazonia, from southern Colombia southward to southeastern Peru (Madre de Dios) and eastward to adjacent Brazil (Acre and western Amazonas)
  • Tropical Gnatcatcher (atricapilla) Polioptila plumbea atricapilla [map] [media] 
    • RANGE: northeastern Brazil (Maranhão to Piauí, Ceará, Pernambuco, and Bahia)
• Marañon Gnatcatcher Polioptila maior [map] [media] [my records]
  • • RANGE: north-central Peru (upper Marañón Valley, from Piura to northwestern Huánuco)

Regional Record Change Logic: Marañon Gnatcatcher is well-differentiated from Tropical Gnatcatchers by range, since the former prefers dry scrub and the latter generally prefers wetter and taller forest. But White-browed Gnatcatcher was recently split (in 2021) and some eBird records in w. and nw. Peru pertain to that species, which approaches the range of Marañon much more closely. So we are attempting to re-assign records of both taxa with this update.

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Perhaps the most exciting split in the Americas this year pertains to the quintessential LBJ (Little Brown Job): the House Wren Troglodytes aedon. Although the distinctive plumage, structure, and voice of the Caribbean populations has been increasingly obvious to taxonomists, it was new genetic work that helped clarify the full continent-wide patterns of gene flow (or lack thereof) and solidified a new treatment that splits House Wren into seven species. The new species include five islands endemics: monotypic Cozumel Wren Troglodytes beani, endemic to Cozumel; the polytypic Kalinago Wren Troglodytes martinicensis, which is extant only on Dominica and has extinct populations on Guadeloupe and Martinique; monotypic St. Lucia Wren Troglodytes mesoleucus; monotypic St. Vincent Wren Troglodytes musicus; monotypic Grenada Wren Troglodytes grenadensis. The widespread House Wrens that remain are further subdivided into  Northern House Wren Troglodytes aedon