The American Ornithological Society (AOS) has released the new proposals
for splitting and lumping that it is considering. They are here:
https://americanornithology.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2022-A.pdf

Most concern splits of extralimital subspecies in the tropics (the AOS
covers all of North America thru Panama).

However, the first proposal on the list is to re-merge Northwestern Crow
with American Crow.

They were split last year based on research presented in Slager et al
(2020). The proposal to re-merge is based on Butler (2021), a re-analysis
of Slager's data. And there is a rebuttal from Slager in the pdf as well.
It's a bit mind-numbing reading, but that's the scientific process at work.
Regardless, both sides seem to agree that Washington is in the
hybrid/intergrade zone.

happy crowing,

--
Steve Hampton
Port Townsend (Qatay), WA
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20211113/a0094489/attachment.html>