August 2017

Overview

Go directly to 2017 Updates & Corrections

This is the 12th installment of Updates and Corrections following the publication (2007) of the 6th edition of The Clements Checklist of birds of the world; because the Clements Checklist is tightly interwoven with the taxonomy for eBird, the checklist now is referred to as the eBird/Clements Checklist. The entire checklist (including the 2017 Updates and Corrections) is available as a downloadable spreadsheet (in Excel and .csv formats). This year’s spreadsheet version is eBird/Clements Checklist v2017, and was released on 15 August 2017.

The spreadsheet contains 14 fields (data columns):

sort v2017 – reflects the sequence of species, groups, and subspecies in eBird/Clements v2017

Clements v2017 change – a brief note to signal that a change from eBird/Clements Checklist v2017 occurred for that entry. Sometimes only a single change is made per entry; sometimes several changes are made, although only one or two may be noted in the spreadsheet. In all cases, please consult the Updates and Corrections – August 2017 page for a full explanation of these changes. 

text for website v2017 – a brief explanation of the change from Clements Checklist v2017 that occurred for that entry. Please consult the Updates and Corrections page for a more complete explanation of these changes.

category – reflecting whether the entry on that line is a species; a subspecies; a monotypic group (i.e., a group that is equivalent to a single subspecies); or a polytypic group (a group composed of two or more subspecies). Thus, the total number of subspecies recognized in the eBird/Clements Checklist is the sum of all entries listed as “subspecies” and as “group (monotypic).”

English name 

scientific name

range 

order

family

extinct – an entry (1) in this column means that the species or subspecies is extinct 

extinct year – reflects the year the species or subspecies went extinct (or, since the extinction date rarely is known with certainty, the last year in which it was reported); “xxxx” is used when the date of extinction

is not readily accessible.

sort v2016 – reflecting the sequence of species in eBird/Clements Checklist v2016

page 6.0 – reflecting the page number of the species in the last (sixth) print edition (2007)

Here is a brief review of the changes that are introduced in the eBird/Clements Checklist v2017:

Summary Statistics

Species             10,550

Subspecies       20,589

Groups               3,660

Families              248 (with 1 additional, extinct, family)

Species

In this year’s updates, we have a net gain from three new species, that is, species for which there was no entry at all in the previous edition of the eBird/Clements Checklist. One of these is the inevitable new species of tapaculo, this year’s entry being Tatama Tapaculo (Scytalopus alvarezlopezi) from South America; this is the bird that long was known to globe trotting birders as “Alto Pisones Tapaculo.” We also add two extinct species of columbids, Tanna Ground-Dove (Alopecoenas ferrugineus) and Norfolk Ground-Dove (Alopecoenas norfolkensis); both of them are very poorly known and their validity had been questioned, but now are widely accepted as valid, if long vanished, species. Another 35 species are newly recognized in the eBird/Clements Checklist due to “splits.” There is a loss of only 2 species due to “lumps.”

As before, we update the taxonomy and nomenclature of species for North America, based on decisions of the North American Checklist Committee (NACC), through the Fifty-eighth supplement to the American Ornithologists’ Union Check-list of North American Birds (July 2017).  We also are current with decisions of the South American Classification Committee (SACC) through 9 July 2017.

Groups

eBird/Clements Checklist has adopted the concept of the group, which initially was developed by for eBird, a free, global online system to manage your bird records and bird lists. A “group” is a distinctive (field identifiable) subspecies or group of subspecies. The group is not a formal taxonomic unit, but often represents a potential future split (and so groups are a valuable taxonomic tool for the savvy birder).

Groups first were added to Clements Checklist in December 2009 (Clements Checklist 6.5). In the eBird/Clements Checklist v2017, we add 572 new groups. This large number of new additions is due in part to a complete review of the HBW and BirdLife International checklists, which helped identify a number of distinctive taxa that match our definition for a group. Note however that most of these are taxa are considered by HBW and BirdLife International to represent species, although currently we recognize only as groups, pending more information.

Some of our attempts at arranging subspecies into groups are incomplete: one or more distinctive subspecies have been identified as groups, but the remaining subspecies have been left “hanging” – they do not belong to any of the groups we have created in that species, but we have yet to form one or more new groups to accommodate them. These “hanging” subspecies now are highlighted in two ways: 1) the sequence of subspecies and naming of the groups within the species always make it clear that these are not included in a group (i.e., they follow a monotypic group or the species as a whole, so are clearly not a component of any groups listed above; and 2) in the spreadsheet we have color coded these “hanging” subspecies in gray to further clarify that their status with respect to groups remains unresolved.

Species with partially formulated (“hanging”) groups are the following:

Common Tern Sterna hirundo

Burrowing Owl Athene cunicularia

Streak-chested Antpitta Hylopezus perspicillatus

Dusky-capped Flycatcher Myiarchus tuberculifer

Goldcrest Regulus regulus

Tropical Parula Setophaga pitiayumi

Golden Tanager Tangara arthus

Bananaquit Coereba flaveola

Red Crossbill Loxia curvirostra

We welcome any help in assigning these “hanging subspecies” to groups, especially if it can be supported by published references.

Higher-Level Taxonomy

One new order is added, Cathartiformes, for the New World Vultures. Thus we now recognize 40 extant orders. No fewer than 11 new families are added this year: Modulatricidae (Dapple-throat and Allies); Rhodinocichlidae (Thrush-Tanager); Passerellidae (New World Buntings and Sparrows); Calyptophilidae (Chat-Tanagers); Phaenicophilidae (Hispaniolan Tanagers); Nesospingidae (Puerto Rican Tanager); Spindalidae (Spindalises); Zeledoniidae (Wrenthrush); Teretistridae (Cuban Warblers); Icteriidae (Yellow-breasted Chat); and Mitrospingidae (Mitrospingid Tanagers). Consequently the total number of extant families in the eBird/Clements Checklist increases to 248, with an additional extinct family (Mohoidae Hawaiian Honeyeaters), for a total of 249 families.

The 248 extant families accepted by Clements Checklist are listed below, with the names of orders in bold CAPITAL lettering, and with an additional extinct family listed in brackets. We also provide the number of families in each order (in parentheses, after the name of each order), and the number of species in each family (in parentheses, after the name of each family).

Future Updates

The next annual revision that incorporates revisions to the taxonomy and nomenclature of the eBird/Clements Checklist will be released in August 2018.

Acknowledgments

Please continue to report potential errors, corrections and suggestions for improvement to eBird/Clements Checklist (please send taxonomic changes, suggestions, or questions to cornellbirds@cornell.edu). Many of the errors that you find are ones that would have taken a long time to notice, so we appreciate your help, and we do want to hear from you. Please keep in mind, of course, that the easiest corrections or proposed revisions are the ones that are accompanied by a supporting reference or citation.

Denis Lepage, who runs Avibase, carefully reviewed our files, made useful comparisons with other taxonomies, pointed out errors, and helped with many taxonomic issues through this process; we are extremely grateful for his generous assistance. Peter Kovalik, Frank Gill, and David Donsker also have gone out of their way to provide helpful suggestions. We take full responsibility, of course, for any remaining errors. We also are grateful to Terry Chesser for providing advance copies of works in progress.

We also thank the following for their help in providing helpful comments on the eBird/Clements Checklist or for directing us to important literature for our consideration:

Nicholas H. Acheson, Nick Anich, Matt Brady, Ken Burton, Mehdi Chetibi, Paul Clapham, Theo de Kok, Chris Duncan, Adrian Fisher, Brian Gibbons, Mat and Cathy Gilfedder, Gustav Asplund, Julie Hart, Praveen J, Rajah Jayapal, Peter Kaestner, Alan Knue, Helge Kvam, Dan Lane, Niels Larsen, David Levasheff, Jack Levene, Glenn Mertz, Scott Olmstead, Yoav Perlman, Suhel Quader, Martin Reid, Colin Richardson, Peter Roberts, Craig Robson, Holger Schritt, Glenn Seeholzer, David Seibel, Andrew Spencer, Simon Tonge, Eric Tull,  Wich’yanan Limparungpatthanakij, and James Yurchenco.Sjölinder, as well as the wider community of eBird users, the always astute members of the Taxonomy and Nomenclature group on BirdForum, and no doubt others who we may have inadvertently overlooked.

Thanks to all for your support, and we look forward to your feedback.

Thomas S. Schulenberg (Avian Taxonomist); Marshall J. Iliff, Brian L. Sullivan, and Christopher L. Wood (eBird Project Leaders); Thomas A. Fredericks (eBird Database Administrator); and Don Roberson.