BUBO Listing News
 Azure-winged Magpie in Portugal? Oh no it isn't! |
One feature that makes BUBO easy to use for listing is that we track splits and lumps, changes of name, etc., and apply these centrally to our master lists, so that you don't have to do this yourself on your personal lists. However, when a species is split, we aren't usually able to work out who's seen which of the new species, so this is something that's left to you to update. This usually works well, but sometimes it doesn't–for example, if there has been some confusion over English names in the past, it might not be obvious which of the new species you should add (although we give a clue by including the new geographical range).
A case in point is Azure-winged Magpie. On the IOC list (our most popular world list) the former Azure-winged Magpie was split into two species a few years ago, and it's the one in eastern Asia that's kept the old name, whereas the species found in Spain and Portugal is now known as Iberian Magpie. Many birders have correctly updated their lists, but some have chosen the wrong one–BUBO currently has roughly similar numbers of world lists containing Azure-winged and Iberian Magpies, but many of the former give locations in Iberia–no doubt due to familiarity with the old name.
Why does this matter? Well, we're not in the business of policing people's individual lists. However, BUBO contains useful tools for listers–e.g. the top targets and top blockers–and these use aggregated lists from everyone's personal lists. If there are many listers with Azure-winged incorrectly on their lists in place of Iberian, this skews the results that other listers get when they use these tools.
So... are you listing the correct magpie? Check where you've seen Azure-winged Magpie on your IOC World list, and if it's in Spain or Portugal please change it to Iberian! Make sure you are logged in, and you may also want to check lists other than your IOC world list from My Lists.
Two years since its previous update, the eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World has just published the August 2021 update, and is now available in BUBO Listing.
This major update has 17 newly-described species, 94 new splits, and 8 lumps. Most of these have already been implemented by IOC if you follow that for your world list. A good summary of the changes is provided by eBird, and a discussion of them in our forum.
We automatically apply updates where we can, and in other cases you will be prompted for any taxonomic changes to address yourself.
If you have any queries about distributions or identification of individuals so that you know what you can count, do post in the forums so that other BUBO Listers can help out.
The IOC World List has now been updated to the latest published version 11.2, from July 2021.
This is a large update, with about 110 new species available, through splits or new discoveries. Lots to add for Indonesian birders, but several of Western Palearctic interest as well, e.g. the splits of Atlas Wheatear ("Seebohm's) Oenanthe seebohmi (which has been recorded wild in Belgium!), Maghreb Wheatear O. halophila, and Basalt Wheatear O. warriae.
Also Green Bee-eater is split into its separate forms African, Arabian, and Asian, and the eastern form of Graceful Prinia is now Delicate Prinia.
| Common (or Mew) Gull has had the North American and Eurasian populations split, so birders on both sides of the Atlantic will be paying close attention for any vagrant Common or Short-billed Gulls! | |
 Short-billed Gull Larus brachyrhynchus |
 Common Gull Larus canus |
The IOC World List has now been updated to the latest published version 11.1.
Many BUBO listers will be affected by the split of Lesser Short-toed Lark Alaudala rufescens into Mediterranean A. rufescens and Turkestan Short-toed Lark A. heinei—if you've seen it in Turkey or further east to Central Asia, as well as in Southern Europe, North Africa or the Middle East, then you'll gain an armchair tick. For those few fortunate enough to have seen the bird at Portland Bill, Dorset, England, in May 1992, we have assumed this to be Mediterranean, pending an official assessment.
Regional or country lists based on IOC, such as the IOC Western Palearctic list, have also been updated.
We automatically apply updates where we can, and in other cases you will be prompted for any taxonomic changes to address yourself.
If you have any queries about distributions or identification of individuals so that you know what you can count, do post in the forums so that other BUBO Listers can help out.
For many birders, seeing as many of the bird families in the world as possible is an interesting quest. For those willing and able to travel, seeing all of the currently 250 families on the IOC world list is a feasible target. We have now made it easy to see which families you have, and haven't, seen on any of your lists. To do so, just click on the two crows icon. Families where you have seen at least one species are shown in bold, and those that you haven't seen in grey. You can also see how many of the species within the family you have seen, and all these columns are sortable.
Target Families
You can also see your "target" families, i.e. those families you still need, ranked by "easiness". This is determined in a similar way to target species, i.e. the easiest target family is the one that has been seen by most other listers, for the same location, time period, taxonomic authority and list type. Sort the family table by either of the last two columns ("Seen by Others" and "Others %") to order by the number of other listers who have seen at least one species from the family. (NB: For simplicity, these columns are not shown in the example above.)
Because target families can be quite slow for popular and large lists, e.g. World lists, they are not shown by default. When viewing your families as above, click the two crows again (there will now be a target symbol superimposed on them) to add the targets columns to the end of table.
For those keen on building a big world family list, you can follow BirdQuest's strategy for seeing all the world's bird families!