records committee

10May/120

White-faced Ibis – Second State Record for PA

On May 3, Greg Grove reported that the Kyler's had found a White-faced Ibis at Old Crow Wetlands in Huntingdon Cointy. This is just the second documented record of White-faced Ibis in Pennsylvania, and like the first record from Cumberland County, did not stick around very long. By the time that Greg was able to get out and look for it, the bird was gone.

The Kyler's were fortunate enough to get some diagnostic photos that they are submitting to the Pennsylvania Ornithological Records Committee and were generous enough to share them with Nemesis Bird so everyone else could see the photos.

Old Crow Wetlands has been very productive for interesting birds in the past. Two years ago, the first record of an ibis at the wetlands was found in August when a Glossy Ibis spent several days there. Last spring, a Least Bittern was present for several days, as well as an Orange-crowned Warbler. In addition to the White-faced Ibis this year, Old Crow had also hosted interesting birds such as Clay-colored Sparrow and Marsh Wren. This is definitely a great place for local birders and should be a frequent stop for county listers in the area.

Filed under: rarities, records committee No Comments

18Sep/112

The British are coming!!! and trying to change our bird names…

written by Drew Weber

The British Ornithological Union (BOU) Records Committee has just released the seventh report of the Taxonomic Sub-committee. There are several changes suggested that are of interest to North American birders as sometimes these changes made by the BOU end up influencing similar committees in the American Ornithological Union (AOU).

The first change is the split of the Whimbrel into the Hudsonian Whimbrel Numenius hudsonicus and the Eurasian Whimbrel N. phaeopus. This split was based on differences in plumage as well as morphological differences. Below are range maps showing locations where people recorded these two new split species of Whimbrel.

: Hudsonian Whimbrel (eBird.org)

: Eurasian Whimbrel (eBird.org)

The BOU report also split the Sandwich Tern, elevating the New World subspecies to full species status and renaming it to Cabot's Tern Sterna acuflavida while the Old World species remains Sandwich Tern S. sandvicensis. It will be interesting to see if the AOU makes a name change for the Sandwich Tern as well, or if we will simply refer to it as American Sandwich Tern. Below are range maps from eBird showing the distribution of all species formerly called Sandwich Tern (left) and where people have reported Cabot's Tern (right). If this split becomes oficial in North America as well, expect the distribution of Cabot's Tern to look more complete when eBird converts New World records to Cabot's.

: Sandwich Tern- all subspecies (eBird.org)

: Range of Cabot's Tern (eBird.org)

This report also mentioned several splits that the AOU has already recommended or discussed including the Old World/New World split of Snowy Plovers into Kentish Charadrius alexandrinus and Snowy Plover Charadrius nivosus. They also realigned the New World warblers to match the changes that were recently adopted by the AOU.