[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

Well, it’s that time of year when all good things come to an end and a new beginning…..begins. I’m talking about the annual bird checklist updates of August, of course. [What else could I have possibly meant?]

Not everyone does this at the same time, needless to say. Some people and websites lag by years, if not decades. I pity whomever it is that keeps Wikipedia up-to-date. But, this year at least, the American Birding Association (ABA, not that other ABA that purports to deal with legal matters) has done their work, and you, even non-members of either ABA, can read all about it in their Checklist Redux 2025, by Michael L.P. Retter and published today.

Changes include:

Splits

• Warbling Vireo, Vireo gilvus – now two species
• White Tern, Gygis alba – now three species
• Nutting’s Flycatcher, Myiarchus nuttingi – now two species
• Willow Ptarmigan, Lagopus lagopus – now two species
• Eurasian Collared-Dove, Streptopelia decaocto – now two species
• Bank Swallow, Riparia riparia – now two species

The rest of the changes are either higher level splits or lumps in genera or families, or affect only non-ABA area birds. But here’s a few examples for those of you who may have birded elsewhere in the world:

Streptopelia doves genus split
Basileuterus warblers genus split
Apus swifts genus split
Eurasian Hoopoe split off the Madagascar Hoopoe (finally!!)
Garrulax Laughingthrush genus split
Cyanecula (Bluethroats, et.al.) genus disappeared
Four crane-like families in Gruiformes have been reordered, same thing for gull subfamilies in Laridae, families in Pelicaniformes, many species of doves in Columbidae, and Jacamars and Puffbirds swapped places within Piciformes.

Plus: more splits in Squirrel-Cuckoos, Trogons, Xenops, tropical Flycatchers, a Catbird switch, and, and…
“Among the West Indian endemic “tanagers”, Nesospingidae (Puerto Rican Tanager) and Spindalidae (spindalises) are subsumed into Phaenicophilidae (Hispaniolan Tanagers).”
Bummer. I think I lost a family or two on this last one.