An easy ID for many birders…a Western Scrub-Jay! WRONG! There is no longer a species called a Western Scrub-Jay. Instead, there are 2 individual species called “California Scrub-Jay” and “Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay”. This is a California Scrub-Jay, taken at Point Reyes National Seashore in California.
Remember 2 or 3 days ago how I said I couldn’t keep up with all the changes to the “official” American Ornithological Union (AOU) and American Birding Association (ABA) changes on their North American checklists? That my North American Birds – Information and Photos page had nearly all the recognized species, but there were many changes in scientific names, species names, and taxonomic order that hadn’t been updated for a while? I spent the last two evenings taking care of it all, and am glad to say that my that my main species page is now completely up-to-date. The taxonomic order now matches the AOU, all species and scientific names are correct, and I necessarily added a few pages for “new” species.
In terms of “new” species since I last updated the page, the newest was a AOU split of what was formerly the Western Scrub-Jay into two distinct species. I now have a California Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica) species page and a corresponding species range map page, as well as a new Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma woodhouseii) species page and a corresponding species range map page. I was fortunate enough to have my own personal photos of both species, with several photos of California Scrub-Jay from around the San Francisco area, and a few photos of Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay from around Tucson, Arizona. One other “new” species split that I was behind on was the split of what was formerly the Sage Sparrow. I now have a new Sagebrush Sparrow (Artemisiospiza nevadensis) species page and range map page, as well as a new Bell’s Sparrow (Artemisiospiza belli) species page and range map page. Unfortunately I don’t have my own photos of either, although I at least have seen the Sagebrush Sparrow side of the split.
Taxonomic order changed quite a bit from my old version, which took a while to fix. I went through all ~980 species to check scientific names, and was surprised how many had changed since I last updated my species pages. The Warblers in particular had many, many changes in scientific names (no more Dendroica! Many more Setophaga!).
All up-to-date now though! Come next July, when the AOU releases their 2017 updates, I’ll try to keep up on my web pages!