Checklist Redux 2024 – American Birding Association

The splitting of small black-and-white shearwaters continues. Of these, only Sargasso Shearwater is known to occur in North American waters. The species spends much time in the Sargasso Sea, which is named after and home to Sargassum, a brown macroalga that provides habitat for hundreds if not thousands of species of marine life.

Split of Intermediate Egret (Ardea intermedia)

Medium Egret (Ardea intermedia)
Plumed Egret (Ardea plumifera)**
Yellow-billed Egret (Ardea brachyryncha)**

Of these three species, only Medium Egret, which is a mostly Asian species, has records in the ABA Area. Plumed is found in Australia, Yellow-billed in Africa.

Split of and New Genus for Cattle Egret

Western Cattle-Egret (Ardea ibis)
Eastern Cattle-Egret (Ardea coromanda)

Besides being split into two species, the genus Bulbulcus has been absorbed into Ardea. Birds in the Americas are Western Cattle-Egrets. Eastern Cattle-Egret is an Asian/Australsian species with a single record each from Agattu I. in Alaska and Midway Atoll in the Hawaiian Islands. The cattle-egrets also move within the checklist sequence and now follow Medium Egret. The two cattle-egret species are most different in breeding plumage, when Easterns show extensive rufous. They also differ more subtly in structure.

Split of Black-capped Petrel

Jamaican Petrel (Pterodroma caribbaea)*

Black-capped Petrel (Pterodroma hasitata)

Jamaican Petrel, known only from the island of the same name, is smaller and darker than Black-capped Petrel. There have been no confirmed detections of live Jamaican Petrels since the late 19th century; it is almost certainly extinct. For more on Jamaican Petrels, click here. 

Split of Lesser Sand-Plover

Siberian Sand-Plover (Anarhynchus mongolus)

Tibetan Sand-Plover (Anarhynchus atrifrons)**

From Mongolian Plover to Lesser Sand-Plover to Siberian Sand-Plover—what a whirlwind! As it turns out, one of the two populations of Lesser Sand-Plover (mongolus) is more closely related to Greater Sand-Plover than it is to the other population of Lesser Sand-Plover (atrifrons). So either they all needed to be lumped, or they needed to be treated as three species. Siberian and Tibetan sand-plovers are quite similar visually, but there are subtle differences in plumage and structure. In general, Siberian averages darker and less delicate-looking. They are easiest to differentiate in breeding plumage, when Siberian has an obvious white forehead patch (vs. dark or very reduced in Tibetan) and a thin black collar (vs. none in Tibetan) below the white throat. There are also said to be vocal differences.

Split of Gull-billed Tern

Gull-billed Tern (Gelochelidon nilotica)

Australian Tern (Gelochelidon macrotarsa)**

The two are very similar in appearance, and Gull-billed Tern winters in Australasia, making identification there outside boreal summertime fraught. But there are some differences: Australian Tern averages paler, larger, thicker-billed, and longer-billed, with a slightly decurved look to the bill. It also tends to have some black spotting on the crown in basic plumage and a large black face patch in juvenile plumage. There also seem to be some vocal differences.

Split of Barn Owl

American Barn Owl (Tyto furcata)
Western Barn Owl (Tyto alba)**
Eastern Barn Owl (Tyto javanica)**

So, is our species a barn owl from America or an owl that lives in American barns? The lack of hyphen could leave you guessing! Plumage variation in barn owls is complex, but recent genetic and vocal analyses help to paint a clearer picture. In particular, only American Barn Owl gives the cleak-cleak flight call. The other two species don’t occur in the Americas.

Split of Northern Flicker

Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus)
Guatemalan Flicker (Colaptes mexicanoides)*

This may not be the split you were expecting. It doesn’t have anything to do with red- vs. yellow-shafted birds, but rather, rusty- vs. gray-naped birds. Compared to “Red-shafted” Flickers, birds south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (Guatemalan Flickers) have rusty crowns and napes. Females differ further by always having bold rusty “moustaches”; note that some female “Red-shafteds” have a comparatively subtle buffy moustache. And there are vocal differences; for instance, Guatemalan Flicker lacks the strident, downslurred KLEER! call so familiar to many of us from the ABA Area.

Split of House Wren

Northern House Wren (Troglodytes aedon)*

Southern House Wren (Troglodytes musculus)*

Cozumel Wren (Troglodytes beani)*

Kalinago Wren (Troglodytes martinicensis)*

St. Lucia Wren (Troglodytes mesoleucus)*

St. Vincent Wren (Troglodytes musicus)*

Grenada Wren (Troglodytes grenadensis)*

This split was a long time coming. Some of the island species, in particular, look and sound very different. Some sound so different that people who are intimately familiar with House Wrens from the mainland don’t even recognize their songs as being from a wren! Indeed, that was my experience on my first visit to Cozumel. Speaking of the island species, it was very nice to see this sentence in the acknowledgements of the supplement: “We thank Kalinago Chief Lorenzo Sanford and the Kalinago Council for permission to use ‘Kalinago’ in the English name for the newly recognized species Troglodytes martinicensis.”

Note that “Brown-throated” Wren of Mexico and the far sw. United States is included in Northern House Wren, so there is no additional species for the ABA Area. Northern and Southern house wrens switch over in Veracruz and Oaxaca, where they look different (warm “Brown-thoated” Northerns vs. grayish Southerns) and use different habitats (highland vs. lowland). Kalinago Wren was originally found on Dominica, Martinique, and Guadeloupe but persists on only the first island. The other species are found on their namesake islands.

Split of Northern Wheatear

Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe)
Atlas Wheatear (Oenanthe seebohmi)**

Atlas Wheatear only occurs in northwestern Africa, so there is effectively no change here for the ABA Area.

Split of American Pipit

Siberian Pipit (Anthus japonicus)
American Pipit (Anthus rubescens)

This split, however, will keep West Coast birders on their toes! American Pipit is found all over North America. As for Siberian Pipit, there are many records from where you might expect: Alaska, Hawaii, and the Pacific Northwest, but there also records from much further afield in the Americas: California, the Baja California Peninsula, Colima, and even Bermuda and El Salvador. Due to ID issues, it may be more regular in North America than it seems. The two are quite similar in alternate plumage, but Siberian seems to still show the bolder dark flared malar patch and streaking below that are hallmarks of basic-plumaged birds. Also note American’s darker legs. The finer ID points are covered well in the Sibley Guide, which calls them “Asian”.

New Genus for Gray Francolin

Francolinus pondicerianus ➛ Ortygornis pondicerianus

It appears that members of the newly created Ortygornis genus are not closely related to the “true” francolins of the genus Francolinus.

New Genus for American Thick-knees

Double-striped Thick-knee (Burhinus bistriatus ➛ Hesperoburhinus bistriatus)

New Genus for Eurasian Dotterel

(Charadrius morinellus ➛ Eudromias morinellus) 

New Genus for Some Small Ringed Plovers

Siberian Sand-Plover (Charadrius mongolus ➛ Anarhynchus mongolus)

Greater Sand-Plover (Charadrius leschenaultii ➛ Anarhynchus leschenaultii)

Oriental Plover (Charadrius veredus ➛ Anarhynchus veredus)*

Wilson’s Plover (Charadrius wilsonia ➛ Anarhynchus wilsonia)

Collared Plover (Charadrius collaris ➛ Anarhynchus collaris)

Mountain Plover (Charadrius montanus ➛ Anarhynchus montanus)

Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus ➛ Anarhynchus nivosus)

Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus ➛ Anarhynchus alexandrinus)

Note that Oriental Plover appears on the NACC Check-list but not the ABA Checklist due to a record from Greenland.

Change of Genus for Small Bitterns

Least Bittern (Ixobrychus exilis ➛ Botaurus exilis)
Little Bittern (Ixobrychus minutus ➛ Botaurus minutus)*
Yellow Bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) ➛ Botaurus sinensis)