Re:Eurasian Teal on Clements List?

I've noticed that Eurasian Teal isn't on my World List, and I've tried to add it and can't find it. Is this a glitch, or am I just being dumb?

Hi Pete

Clements don't currently split crecca and carolinensis, so there's only one species (Green-winged Teal) currently available to you.

Cheers

Andy

Cheers Andy - I was wondering that, but was presuming if that was the case it'd have crecca listed over carolinensis.

I'm confused, I think. As far as I can see, it does only have crecca, both on the base-list, and when looking at your list. Admittedly, the English name used by Clements is "Green-winged Teal", but it is given the name Anas crecca. Are you seeing carolinensis somehow? If so, something is going wrong somehow - send me details!

Cheers

Andy

It does say crecca. Ignore me, I was obviously going temporarily mad!

No problem Pete - these lists/authorities can be a tad confusing, I understand perfectly. Am currently working through updating the AOU/ABA lists and it's a bit of a nightmare...

Cheers

Andy

I've just tried adding green-winged teal to my clements world list; that isn't there either!

That's cos you've already got it on your list.

Cheers

Andy

This is by far the most common support query we receive (although not always with Teal of course!):

Hi everybody this is my first post on this forum. Taxonomy is one of my chief interests in birding, along with migration.

The debate over which taxonomic list to use is one of the reasons I signed up to Bubo, and this is a classic reason I do not use Clements for my world list, it seems too far behind the times. Personally I have had Eurasian Teal (being from the UK) and Green-winged on my list for eons. I don't know any-one on the other side of the pond who lumps these. It really is about time these issues were sorted out and surely in this case pretty easy to do via DNA.

Steve Gent
Rockford IL

Thanks Steve - good to hear from you and good to see you busy adding list entries to your IOC world list. Don't forget to spread the word out there in the USA!

Cheers

Andy

What is the status of the recent Norfolk Green-winged Teal? As with a lot of Waterfowl is it a grey area where it might have been an escape? Ross's Goose was also seen in January, yet that is not on the British list. All the snow geese I have seen have so far been escapes including a pair seen at Cley a few years ago.

Hi Anthony - although I suppose it could possibly be an escape, Green-winged Teals at large in Britain and Ireland are generally assumed to be wild birds. They're not all that common in captivity (unlike Snow and Ross's Geese). I don't think most birders have any concerns adding GW Teal to their lists in Britain and Ireland.

Cheers

Andy

It seems that on both sides of the pond there is a reluctance to deal with water fowl ie ducks and geese out of range. Sure there is a potential problem with escapes, but the baby always seems to get chucked out with the bath water. It took years to get Hooded Merganser put back on the UK list, only then to have many of the Bufflehead records thrown off. Similarly nothing was done withe records of Ross's Goose 1w, Baikal Teal 1w or any Falcated Duck records. We are poorly served by the rarities committees in this respect. It is high time these records were addressed. In the same ring one could also put Caspian Gull, took years to split, when the listers had already split it.

Of course this problem persists in the US as well, and if anything is worse than over there, America seems to be a long way behind the rest of the world.

In the same vein what is happening with the "study" of feral species in the UK? Seems to be all quiet after years of saying they were under "consideration".