Hey tweets, Jamie Acker writes that the AOS has designated the Gunnison
sage grouse a new species. The announcement was made in the New York Times.
I read that article, and there's something about it that I don't
understand. Perhaps all you tweetsters out there can help me. The article
quoted an ornithologist as saying that he couldn't remember another time in
30 years when a new species had been discovered in North America.

At first, I thought he or the reporter had not heard about all the
splitting the AOS does. I mean, was it only two years ago that we got the
Cassin's, blue-headed and plumbeous vireo out of the solitary? The
Bullock's and Baltimore orioles out of the northern? And so on.

But the article did talk about splitting. It just didn't make it clear (to
me at least) why the Gunnison sage grouse is not just splitting. Any ideas?
- Connie Sidles, Seattle
csidles at mail.isomedia.com