 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.