Just perused the 58th Supplement to the AO*S* (yes, no longer AOU) checklist
... several families have been shuffled again ... maybe I'm just getting old
and cranky, but it just seems like someone should be able to get this stuff
settled, but maybe new research just continues to contradict (apparently
correcting) older [but not *that* old] DNA research) ... will they ever get it
perfect; I doubt in my lifetime????
We've finally "lost" Yellow-breasted Chat as a warbler ... now assigned to it's
own *FAMILY*, the Icteriidae, one "i" off from the blackbirds and now separated
from the warblers by that group.
No one will ever be able to convince me that Willet correctly lies genetically
*in between* the two yellowlegs (this has been the case for the past couple of
iterations of the checklist, actually) ... one has to wonder if when they split
out the Eastern Willet, whether or not it will be next to the Western ....
When I began birding in the 1970s, the checklist went from Common Loon to Snow
Bunting ... now loons fall right in the middle of the checklist sequence and
the lucky caboose is Dickcissel (at least for our regional checklists without
Grassquits, Seedeaters, and Saltators), at least for now.
And someone finally decided to slice and dice the genus Anas ... splitting the
dabbling ducks into four genera.
Oh ... and the "Marsh Hawk" now finally has its own Latin name ... Circus
hudsonius.
There's more, including the sinking (finally) of Thayer's Gull for all to enjoy.
Who's ready to print new checklists? ... oh, that's right, nobody fills out
hard copy checklists anymore ... well then it's learn the new eBird checklist
sequence ... which *OF COURSE* follows Clements order, not the AOS so maybe it
won't change for awhile ... *#>@&$^&<?!
BPB, Louisville
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