So Bell's Sparrows are non-migratory in costal California and Baja. Can any of the many Tweeters sparrow specialists give us any tips on how to ID the winter ones in Arizona?

But I guess thats not Washington State.

Larry Schwitters
Issaquah
On Aug 4, 2013, at 11:03 AM, Matt Bartels wrote:

> Hi all -
> Passing along a couple links with info on the latest AOU check-list committee decisions, released yesterday. The 54th supplement is out in print, though not on the website yet:
>
> These two blogs talk at length about the decisions:
> http://blog.aba.org/2013/08/2013-aou-check-list-changes.html
> http://birdaz.com/blog/2013/08/02/the-fifty-fourth-supplement-to-the-aou-check-list/
>
> I haven't yet seen the supplement itself, but from those blogposts, here's what I could glean:
>
> For Washington, the changes and non-changes of note look to be:
>
> 1. Say hello to our newest name for the WA list: Sagebrush Sparrow --- Sage Sparrow was split into Bell's and Sagebrush -- 'our' Sage Sparrows are now "Sagebrush Sparrow"
>
> 2. Lots of re-re-organization and re-categorization of the shorebirds -- no lumps, no new common names, but a lot of new genus assignments and shuffling for the shorebirds.
>
> 3. Jaegers & Skua , along with Alcids are now listed ahead of gulls & terns
>
> 4. Flammulated Owl gets its own genus [no more a screech-owl]
>
> 5. Mimids reorganized [for us , the Gray Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Sage Thrasher & Northern Mockingbird, in that order].
>
> 6. Re-organized order for : House, Purple & Cassin's Finch [of the genus Haemorhous, recently pulled out of Carpodacus].
>
>
> Non-changes mentioned but not adopted:
>
> a. No lumping of the Rosy-Finch
>
> b. No splitting of White-breasted Nuthatch
>
> c. No splitting into smaller groups of the Canada/Cackling Geese.
>
> I think that about covers it -- gonna take some work to update the checklists for the next round!
>
> Matt Bartels
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