Changes are formally proposed yearly to the official list of North
American bird species, and the most recent may be found at
http://www.gizard.org/nacc/proposals/PDF/2016-A.pdf  . At least two of
these proposals may influence Ohio birders if accepted: lumping of our
two local crossbills, and new species status among four Ohio
woodpeckers, which would be kind of the opposite, though no splits are
involved.
        There is also an argument for lumping the American and Caribbean coots!
I can remember hours spent staring at coots in Florida hoping to find
"Caribbeans" years ago, without any conclusive result, and--just as for
the crossbills--I am relieved to see a proposal to lump them...just too
much ambiguity. I'm glad to see rigorous scientific work that confirms
impressions of field observations. Listers may rankle at these
proposals, but it's the birds that really 'count"!
Bill Whan
Columbus

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.


You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]