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BoW Taxonomy Seminar: Followup
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
I recommended yesterday that birders should watch this. I watched it myself today, and I second that recommendation. You’ll learn a lot. There are a couple of pointers under the YouTube link below.
- Watch it on TV: If you can access YouTube through your TV set, it’ll be bigger and better. We finally found it by typing “Avian Taxonomy” into the type-in area, then picking from choices offered. If it’s of any help (it probably won’t be) here’s a link to the webinar page:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5tku8RXYHA&t=6s - The Q&A runs from 1:05-1:30 and is both interesting and useful, especially for those dealing with eBird and Merlin. They have a lot of suggestions pertaining to recording birdsong and submitting it to them.
- If I understand them correctly, eBird won’t be doing the final adjustment to AviList until October, 2026.
- But…some changes have already been done. Among them are the Warbling Vireo split I mentioned a few days ago. All your eBird Warbling Vireo sightings will have to be corrected as to which Vireo you saw.
- They’ve made this easy for you with a list of all sightings affected by splits, which they discuss starting around time 1:03. Each sighting in the report is linked to which trip(s) list you reported it in. Click the link, correct the name, and you’re done for that sighting. You have to do that for each sighting, but you won’t have to comb through 2,357 trip lists to find them.
- How to get there: 1. Sign into eBird > Click “My eBird” in lower left > Under “Manage My” on left, click “Download my Data > Click “Request personalized Taxonomy Report” > You’ll get a little pop-up message saying “Success. Your request has been submitted.” > Check your email, open your “Your Personalized Taxonomy Report is Here!” > click the big link > read the report and fix your split birds.
- I’m not entirely sure all the splits are in there yet. The only bird on my fix-it-list was a Hairy Woodpecker with 2 sightings. But then again, I don’t keep my life list on eBird, but on Scythebill.
Birds of the World Taxonomy Seminar now on line
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
As many birders know, the checklists of the world’s birds are merging and the overall master list (One List To Rule Them All!) is called Avilist. This officially happened this month, November 2025, ta da! Birds of the World (BOW) had a 90-minute seminar about it on 13 November, 2025, and it’s now on line. You might as well grab a beer (herbal tea) and bowl of popcorn (infused kale & sprouts sandwich) and watch it. Otherwise you won’t know what happened to your checklist on eBird or anywhere else.
According to the BOW announcement page:
Description: Every year, the world’s taxonomic authorities propose a newly restructured avian taxonomy. Soon after the taxonomic changes are settled, our taxonomy team and editors get busy revising accounts so that the Birds of the World website reflects the new taxonomy. Concepts are intermediate to advanced. The 2025 taxonomy updates were available in Birds of the World, eBird, Merlin, and Macaulay Library in November, 2025.
Concepts are intermediate to advanced.
1. Intro: AviList vs. Clements–Marshall Iliff
2. Summary of 2025 updates–Pam Rasmussen
3. Higher order taxonomic changes–Shawn Billerman
4. Other names, other taxa, and hybrids–Marshall Iliff
5. eBird, taxonomy, and you!–Marshall Iliff
6. Audience Q&A
Featuring:
Dr. Shawn Billerman, Science editor, Birds of the World
Dr. Pamela Rasmussen, Senior research associate – avian systematist, Birds of the World
Marshall Iliff, eBird project leader, taxonomy specialist, common names database manager
Host: Laura Kammermeier
Fun time for all!
Identification of Eastern & Western Warbling Vireos | David Sibley
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
David Sibley has written a long, detailed article about distinguishing this recently split species pair in the field. Read the article, complete with illustrations, sonograms and range maps, to find out all about it.
His lead paragraph:
The Warbling Vireos were considered a single continent-wide species until 2025, when two species – Eastern [Vireo gilvus] and Western [Vireo swainsoni] – were officially recognized by AOS and eBird (Cicero 2025). The differences between these populations have been the subject of intensive research for decades, mainly in Alberta where they meet. I have spent a lot of time studying their identification over many years, with new focus in the months after the split.
His Quick Summary:
In practice virtually all will be identified presumptively by range. Positive identification depends on careful analysis of details of song (but questions remain about variation in song). Positive identification of silent birds is not possible on current knowledge.
According to the article’s range maps, their breeding ranges overlaps in Alberta. South of there they are divided by the crest of the Rocky Mountains. According to Sibley’s list of vagrants, the “only fully convincing record of an Eastern Warbling Vireo west of the Rocky Mountains (the only one supported by recordings of song)” was in Pima County, AZ on 30 June 2014. And…after listening to the sonograms, my decrepit ears hear the eastern song as having clearer, more musical and less buzzy tones than the western song. Songs can be the same 3 1/2-second length.
From the Article
So…no more reporting of ‘Warbling Vireo sp.’ as these two are so easily differentiated, as anyone can see from the above illustration. Right, birders? Right. And stay out of Alberta during breeding season lest you be driven mad.
Malibu Lagoon bird walks: 8:30 & 10am Sunday, 23 November, 2025
and the photographer barely escapes with his nose intact
(Chris Tosdevin 11/25/24)
[Chuck Almdale]
Pacific Coast Highway: It’s much harder to confirm a road is open than closed. As far as I can tell, all lanes on all routes into Malibu are open, but speed limits between Santa Monica and Malibu are 25 MPH in certain places and the police ARE issuing speeding tickets in an attention-getting manner.
If you learn differently about closures, let me know.
So… SMBAS lagoon trips (8:30am general and 10am parents & kids) are happening.
Lots of migrants and wintering birds and dwindling crowds of humans make it a great day for the lagoon. Usually sunny, sometimes cool, with dolphins dancing upon the waves. Forget those Thanksgiving table birds: see your birds here with us. A possible Vega Gull and a large flock of White Pelicans have recently been seen.
Some of the great birds we’ve had in November are:
Green-winged Teal, Lesser Scaup, Surf Scoter, Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser, Pacific & Common Loons, Horned & Western Grebes, Osprey, American Kestrel, Merlin, Snowy Plover, American Avocet, Spotted Sandpiper, Marbled Godwit, Boneparte’s & Glaucous-winged Gulls, Belted Kingfisher, Common Raven, Bushtit, Bewick’s, House & Marsh Wrens, California Towhee, Great-tailed Grackle, Lesser Goldfinch.
Weather prediction as of 19 November:
Sunny, cool. Temp: 55-65°, Wind: NE 6 mph, Clouds: 25%>15%, rain: 0%
Tide: near-high, then falling: Low: 2.79 ft. @ 3:13am; Low: +5.46 ft. @ 9:39am.
Oct 26 trip report link
Adult Walk 8:30 a.m., 4th Sunday of every month. Adults, teens and children you deem mature enough to be with adults. Beginners and experienced, 2-3 hours, meeting at the metal-shaded viewing area between parking lot and channel. Species range from 35 in June to 60-75 during migrations and winter. We move slowly and check everything as we move along. When lagoon outlet is closed we may continue east around the lagoon to Adamson House. We put out special effort to make our monthly Malibu Lagoon walks attractive to first-time and beginning birdwatchers. So please, if you are at all worried about coming on a trip and embarrassing yourself because of all the experts, we remember our first trips too. Someone showed us the birds; now it’s our turn. Bring your birding questions.
Children and Parents Walk, 10:00 a.m., 4th Sunday of every month: One hour session, meeting at the metal-shaded viewing area between parking lot and channel. We start at 10:00 for a shorter walk and to allow time for families to get it together on a sleepy Sunday morning. Our leaders are experienced with kids so please bring them to the beach! We have an ample supply of binoculars that children can use without striking terror into their parents. We want to see families enjoying nature. (If you have a Scout Troop or other group of more than seven people, you must call Jean (213-522-0062) to make sure we have enough binoculars, docents and sand.)
Directions: Malibu Lagoon is at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) and Cross Creek Road, west of Malibu Pier and the bridge, 15 miles west of Santa Monica via PCH. We gather in the metal-shaded area near the parking lot. Look around for people wearing binoculars. Neither Google Maps nor the State Park website supply a street address for the parking lot. The address they DO supply is for Adamson House which is just east of the Malibu Creek bridge.
Parking: Parking machine recently installed in the lagoon lot: 1 hr $3; 2 hrs $6; 3 hrs $9, all day $12 ($11 seniors); credit cards accepted. Annual passes accepted. You may also park (read the signs carefully) either along PCH west of Cross Creek Road, on Cross Creek Road, or on Civic Center Way north (inland) of the shopping center. Lagoon parking in shopping center lots is not permitted.
[Written & posted by Chuck Almdale]
Birds & Butterflies: Malibu Creek State Park, 8 Nov 2025
[Written by Jean Garrett; Photos by Marie Barnidge-McIntyre, Ray Juncosa & Chris Tosdevin, edited by Chuck Almdale]
(Chris Tosdevin 11-8-25)
The American Snout Butterfly is far less common in the west than in the east (see below). Butterflies and Moths has a nice write-up this medium-small butterfly (1 3/8 – 2″) wingspan, with much the same information on Wikipedia. Most of us have never seen this butterfly before.
(link to interactive map at ButterfliesandMoths.org)
It was a cool day that eventually warmed up for our group of nine people. We were first greeted by several Juncos with one having pink flanks but there were no blackish lores so all hope of a “Pink-sided” Junco was dashed. The sounds of Acorn Woodpeckers serenaded us throughout the day as they always do at Malibu Creek.
Looking over to the west of the meadow gave us 3 Western Bluebirds. Then looking back to the Juncos we saw that some House Finches and one Purple Finch had joined them along with a White-throated Sparrow with a strongly outlined throat (it has been seen previously this fall at Malibu Creek).
(Marie Barnidge-McIntyre 11-8-25)
As you can see from the map below, White-throated Sparrows have a wide breeding range across Canada and New England. As with many other North American passerines, their southward migration is typically east of the Rocky Mountains. Occasionally, especially in southwestern Canada, they fly over the ridges to the west side of the mountains and wind up spending the winter along the American west coast from southern Washington to the Mexican boarder.
For some reason, they seem reluctant to spend the winter south of the border and west of Big Bend, Texas, which may be an artifact of the lack of people noticing their presence; they are easily confused with the far more common White-crowned Sparrows.
(Ray Juncosa 11-8-25)
Walking along the meadow into the forest gave us a leucistic Red-tail Hawk that was somewhat expected since it has been seen previously on several occasions by some in our group. The White-crowned Sparrows with their distinctive mournful song accompanied us as we saw a Great Blue Heron busy hunting near the river.
An opening in the forest gave us some Lesser Goldfinches, Mourning Dove, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. The Hermit Thrush was on the floor of the forest and 2 American Kestrels were overhead in the trees.
Walking back towards the meadow, the Downy Woodpecker was seen crawling up trunk of a tree and then 6 Nanday Parakeets flew overhead. Heading into the forest north of the meadow, the Wrentit trilled while we carefully looked at some Kingbirds and determined they were Cassin’s. As we looked behind us, there was the lovely site of a flock of about 60 Rock Pigeons. Spotted Towhees were in the bushes with a White-breasted Nuthatch working a tree and at last a Red-breasted Sapsucker was found.
In the grass we found a Golden-crowned Sparrow, which we see far less often than the abundant White-crowned Sparrows. This made it a three-Zonotrichia day, an uncommon event.
(Chris Tosdevin 11-8-25)
All in all we did not do badly for a quiet day. We got 50 species and it was a pleasant sunny day in the fall.
| Malibu Creek State Park | |||||
| Field Trips | 11/8/25 | 6/14/25 | 5/11/24 | 11/12/11 | 11/13/10 |
| American Wigeon | 2 | ||||
| Mallard | 14 | 10 | 5 | 20 | 15 |
| Ring-necked Duck | 1 | ||||
| Bufflehead | 2 | ||||
| California Quail | 20 | ||||
| Pied-billed Grebe | 1 | ||||
| Band-tailed Pigeon | 6 | 4 | 6 | 80 | 12 |
| Mourning Dove | 10 | 19 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| Feral Pigeon | 60 | ||||
| White-throated Swift | 5 | 20 | |||
| Black-chinned Hummer | 2 | ||||
| Anna’s Hummingbird | 1 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Allen’s Hummingbird | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Hummingbird sp. | 1 | ||||
| American Coot | 1 | 20 | 15 | ||
| Killdeer | 1 | ||||
| Double-crested Cormorant | 1 | 1 | |||
| Snowy Egret | 6 | ||||
| Green Heron | 2 | ||||
| Great Egret | 1 | ||||
| Great Blue Heron | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Turkey Vulture | 3 | 10 | 10 | ||
| White-tailed Kite | 2 | 2 | |||
| Cooper’s Hawk | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Northern Harrier | 1 | ||||
| Red-shouldered Hawk | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 3 |
| Belted Kingfisher | 1 | 1 | |||
| Red-naped Sapsucker | 1 | ||||
| Red-breasted Sapsucker | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Acorn Woodpecker | 16 | 20 | 15 | 8 | 15 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Nuttall’s Woodpecker | 5 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| Northern Flicker | 3 | 1 | 5 | 2 | |
| American Kestrel | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| Nanday Parakeet | 4 | 11 | 8 | H | |
| Cassin’s Kingbird | 5 | 2 | |||
| Western Wood-Pewee | X | ||||
| Western Flycatcher | 3 | 4 | |||
| Black Phoebe | 2 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 6 |
| Say’s Phoebe | 1 | 3 | 2 | ||
| Ash-throated Flycatcher | 9 | 5 | |||
| Cassin’s Kingbird | 4 | 2 | |||
| Hutton’s Vireo | 2 | 1 | |||
| Loggerhead Shrike | 2 | 1 | |||
| California Scrub-Jay | 10 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 6 |
| American Crow | 30 | 6 | 10 | 30 | 30 |
| Common Raven | 6 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 10 |
| Oak Titmouse | 10 | 22 | 10 | 20 | 12 |
| Tree Swallow | X | ||||
| Violet-green Swallow | 6 | 1 | |||
| Northern Rough-winged Swallow | 20 | 5 | |||
| Barn Swallow | 3 | ||||
| Cliff Swallow | 10 | 20 | |||
| Bushtit | 8 | 50 | 10 | 15 | 15 |
| Wrentit | 4 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 8 | 4 | 3 | ||
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 1 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 7 | 3 | |||
| Canyon Wren | 3 | 1 | |||
| No. House Wren | 3 | 11 | 12 | 1 | 3 |
| Bewick’s Wren | 1 | 2 | 2 | ||
| California Thrasher | 2 | ||||
| Western Bluebird | 5 | 8 | 2 | 20 | 1 |
| Hermit Thrush | 4 | ||||
| American Robin | 1 | ||||
| Phainopepla | 4 | 1 | 2 | ||
| House Finch | 8 | 10 | 10 | 30 | 4 |
| Purple Finch | 2 | 6 | 2 | ||
| Pine Siskin | 5 | ||||
| Lesser Goldfinch | 6 | 10 | 10 | 1 | |
| Lark Sparrow | 20 | ||||
| Dark-eyed Junco | 8 | 4 | 8 | 30 | 12 |
| White-crowned Sparrow | 24 | 40 | 20 | ||
| Golden-crowned Sparrow | 2 | ||||
| White-throated Sparrow | 1 | ||||
| Song Sparrow | 1 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 1 |
| California Towhee | 8 | 8 | 9 | 12 | 4 |
| Spotted Towhee | 2 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 4 |
| Yellow-breasted Chat | 2 | 1 | |||
| Hooded Oriole | 2 | ||||
| Bullock’s Oriole | 4 | ||||
| Red-winged Blackbird | 10 | 1 | |||
| Brown-headed Cowbird | 4 | 3 | |||
| Orange-crowned Warbler | 1 | 8 | 5 | ||
| Common Yellowthroat | 2 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 1 |
| Yellow Warbler | 8 | 12 | |||
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 8 | X | 40 | 40 | |
| Townsend’s Warbler | 1 | X | |||
| Wilson’s Warbler | X | ||||
| Western Tanager | 2 | ||||
| Black-headed Grosbeak | 2 | ||||
| Blue Grosbeak | 2 | ||||
| Lazuli Bunting | 6 | 1 | |||
| Total Species: 94 | 50 | 65 | 47 | 47 | 48 |
SANTA MONICA BAY AUDUBON SOCIETY BLOG 