Mark,
I just happened to notice your post in regards to the Tufted
Titmouse and was working on a North American bird database so I checked the
AOU supplements that I had in front of me. Here is the REAL DEAL on the
species split. Sibley's book dated 2000 was correct at the time. In the
AOU 43rd supplement change dated September 2002 the split the Black-crested
Titmouse from the Tufted. It is mentioned on page 898 and elsewhere.
Therefore it is once again an additional species. If you have seen it in
Texas you likely have one more bird for your life list. Hence this is there
reason that the bird is on the AOU checklist.
Rumor is that the AOU's next checklist will probably be released in
2007, and will be the 8th edition. Similar to the 5th edition in the 50's
it will once again list subspecies in detail within the text. This will be
an exhaustive job as it has not really been maintained in that fashion for
quite some time, and is probably the reason for the rather long time until
the next release.

Patrick

Patrick Toomey
602 Balsam Root Lane
Victor, MT 59875
(406) 961-5646
PToomey at bigfoot.com


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