Subject: [Tweeters] two Mountain Chickadee species?
Date: Dec 19 11:43:31 2010
From: Ian Paulsen - birdbooker at zipcon.net


HI ALL:
I found this blog story:

http://smbasblog.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/snowy-plover-likely-to-be-split-from-kentish-plover-other-hot-news-flashes/

About proposed bird splits and one that would affect WA would be splitting
the Mountain Chickadee into two speices:

1). Gambel's Chickadee P. gambeli including subspecies P.g. gambeli, P.g.
grinnelli, P.g. inyoensis, P.g. wasatchensis.

2). Bailey's Chickadee Poecile baileyae the coastal California, Sierra
Nevada, and Cascade populations, including subspecies: P.b. baileyae, P.b.
abbreviatus, P.b. atratus.

P.g.grinnelli occurs in the NE and SE mountains and P.b. abbreviatus in
the Cascades and western Okanogan highlands.

SO I wonder if there's any overlap in the Okanogan highlands of the two
(sub)species?

sincerely
--

Ian Paulsen
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
" Which just goes to show that a
passion for books is extremely unhealthy."
from Cornelia Funke's "Inkheart".