Matt,

That is interesting about the names used in the ABA blog you link to. I have
not seen the official supplement yet either but I do have a copy of the
proposal the committee considered. I have pasted from it below. Makes you
wondering if there is a mistake in the blog or if the taxonomic committee
voted for the split then changed the names. I look forward to seeing the
supplement when it gets on line. In my experience that seems to take a week
or two. Of course the big question is are the birds I saw in the San Joaquin
Valley of Southern California in February: were they wintering Great
Basin/Sagebrush or were they resident California/Bell's?

Mike Munts
Colville



Great Basin Sage Sparrow (Amphispiza nevadensis) - monotypic
California Sage Sparrow (A. belli) - subspecies: A. b. belli, A. b.
canescens, A. b. cinerea, A. b. clementae.

Distribution.- A. nevadensis

Breeds primarily in Great Basin from central interior Washington eastern
Oregon, southern Idaho, southwestern Wyoming, and northwestern Colorado
south to eastern California (south to the Owens Valley), southern Nevada,
southwestern Utah, northeastern Arizona, and northwestern New Mexico. One
breeding record for eastern Montana.

Winters from southern California, central Nevada, southwestern Utah,
northern Arizona, and central New Mexico south to central Baja California,
northern Sonora, northern Chihuahua, and western Texas.

Distribution.- A. belli

Resident in western California (from Trinity County south, including San
Clemente Island) to central Baja California; and also in San Joaquin Valley
and Mojave Desert areas of east-central California. The latter populations(
A. b. canescens) undergo post-breeding, up-slope migrations into coastal and
Sierran foothills (Johnson and Marten





-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Larry
Schwitters
Sent: Sunday, August 04, 2013 12:48 PM
To: Matt Bartels; tweeters message
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] New AOU check-list changes and Washington birds

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-che
ck-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
> Seattle, WA_______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters

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