The 2023 Clements/eBird taxonomy update has just been announced, and the biggest surprise is that Cattle Egret will now be considered two species! Few people are familiar with variation in Cattle Egret, and while the split won’t have much impact on North American birders I thought it would be helpful to describe the differences. At […]
Two species of Cattle Egrets? Read More »
In their 2022 checklist supplement the AOS voted to elevate the southwestern populations of Eastern Meadowlark to a full species, with the name Chihuahuan Meadowlark. it’s been recognized as a distinctive population for decades, usually under the name Lilian’s Meadowlark, but making it a full species raises the stakes and adds new emphasis to a
Identification of the newest meadowlark – Chihuahuan Read More »
Common Grackle is a familiar backyard bird almost everywhere east of the Rocky Mountains, and shows some fairly striking regional variation in color. This variation involves mainly the colors of iridescence, and is most obvious in males. Females of the two extremes are readily identified, but the full range of intermediates is only apparent in
Subspecies of Common Grackle: Bronzed, Florida, and “Purple” Read More »
For North American birders the most consequential change in the 2021 AOS Checklist supplement is the split of Mew Gull into two species – Short-billed Gull and Common Gull. For most birders this simply means changing the name of the species on your list from Mew Gull to Short-billed Gull. The North American population, common
Mew Gull is now two species! How to identify Common Gull and Short-billed Gull Read More »
Prompted by a couple of recent records of Cave Swallows in the northeastern US, I’ve taken a fresh look at subspecies and done some new illustrations. In April 2021 Cave Swallows have been found in New Jersey and Massachusetts. Both have been identified as the Caribbean subspecies group. Since the 1990s Cave Swallow has been
New illustrations of Cave Swallow subspecies Read More »
Mid-March is when the first northbound Fox Sparrows show up in Massachusetts, and it’s always a pleasure to see this burly, richly-colored sparrow. I’ve been working on some new illustrations showing the variation among the birds in my yard this week. Regional variation in Fox Sparrow is extensive, and gets a lot of attention, with
Variation in eastern Fox Sparrows Read More »
Here is another recent project: I’ve been working on new and improved illustrations of Redwing for the bird guide and app, showing the differences between the two subspecies. The Redwing (Turdus iliacus) is a thrush common across Eurasia, from Iceland to Siberia. It is a very rare visitor to North America, mostly in Atlantic Canada
Distinguishing the subspecies of Redwing Read More »
Here’s a new illustration I’ve done as part of some work on distinguishing the two subspecies groups of Sandhill Crane. Six subspecies of Sandhill Crane are generally recognized, but for field observers it’s more practical to assign birds to two subspecies groups: Lesser and Greater. The Greater subspecies group includes five of the named subspecies,
Distinguishing subspecies of Sandhill Crane Read More »
I wrote about white Great Blue Herons in 2007, and thanks to a recent comment there by David Ammerman alerting me to a whitish Great Blue Heron chick in a nest, I made the short trip to Bolton, MA yesterday (July 7, 2016). It was not hard to find the nest, and I was able
A white Great Blue Heron in Massachusetts Read More »
If you keep up on the news of subspecies, you will have heard of Scopoli’s Shearwater. It’s the Mediterranean breeding population of Cory’s Shearwater, overlapping very little with populations nesting on Atlantic Islands, and many authorities have split the two into separate species recently. Both populations occur off the Atlantic coast of North America, although Cory’s in
Underwing pattern in Cory’s Shearwater Read More »