[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

The annual August American Ornithological Society (AOS) list of checklist changes is out. If you bird in North America (which still includes both California and Los Angeles) and keep a bird list of any sort, you should check out the checklist. Here’s a few of the pertinent-to-us changes, thanks to Greg Schechter:

• Brown Booby split into Cocos Booby and Brown Booby
• Cattle Egret split New World and Old World
• Audubon’s Shearwater split into 4 species
• Night-Herons lose the hyphen
• Barn Owl Split New World and Old World
• House Wren split into 7 species, but USA has only one of them
• Three Redpolls are now one species
• Scientific name changes in genus
  • Wilson’s, Mountain and Snowy Plovers
  • Least Bittern
  • Cattle Egret
  • Brown Jay

Bird guide Greg Schechter (his natural history channel) does a great 4-minute YouTube video, complete with pictures and range maps, on the USA changes.
Link to the entire 65th supplement journal article.