Panama birdlist update, by George Angehr
The new AOU supplement has recently come out. As usual there have been a few changes that affect the Panama list. The most significant change in the AOU list is lumping of Mangrove Black-Hawk with Common Black-Hawk, thanks to an article published by our friend Bill Clark. The combined species retains the common and scientific names of Common Black-Hawk.
Peruvian Pelican has been split from Brown Pelican. This affects threshold levels for IBA designation, but BirdLife has already accepted this change.
The common name of Rufous-cheeked Hummingbird has been changed to Pirre Hummingbird.
The common name of the two Violet-ears has been changed to Violetear (without the hyphen).
Gray-cheeked Nunlet and White-ringed Flycatcher have been split from South American forms. The scientific names have been changed, but the common names stay the same.
The common name of Brownish Flycatcher has (finally) been officially changed to Brownish Twistwing, a change already made in the PAS list.
The common name of Olive Tanager has been changed to Carmiol's Tanager (as it used to be) to avoid confusion with a South American species.
They have also officially changed many of the "Robins" to "Thrushes," as in Ridgely. The PAS list already includes this change.
There have been several changes to family taxonony:
The Sapayoa (formerly Broad-billed Manakin) has been determined to belong to the Broadbill Family (Eurylaimidae), and Old World group found in Asia and Africa, and have nothing to do with the true manakins.
The Antthrushes and Antpittas, formerly included in one family, have been divided among three. The Antthrushes remain in the original family, Formicaridae. Most of the Antpittas are put in their own family, Grallariidae. The Black-crowned Antpitta has been determined to be a member of the Gnateater Family (Conopophagidae) of South America.
There have been a bunch of changes to scientific names and changes in species order, but these don't affect the composition of the list.
I have added Crowned Slaty-Flycatcher, Yellow-hooded Blackbird, and Large-billed Seed-Finch to the PAS list. With the deletion of Mangrove Black-Hawk, this brings the species total for Panama to 976. The other new ones since 2006, added last year, were Great Tit and a split of Galapagos Shearwater from Audubon's Shearwater.
(According to Andy Kratter, that Bocas Skua could turn out to be Great Skua rather than South Polar, which would add another. I'll keep you posted.)
Peruvian Pelican has been split from Brown Pelican. This affects threshold levels for IBA designation, but BirdLife has already accepted this change.
The common name of Rufous-cheeked Hummingbird has been changed to Pirre Hummingbird.
The common name of the two Violet-ears has been changed to Violetear (without the hyphen).
Gray-cheeked Nunlet and White-ringed Flycatcher have been split from South American forms. The scientific names have been changed, but the common names stay the same.
The common name of Brownish Flycatcher has (finally) been officially changed to Brownish Twistwing, a change already made in the PAS list.
The common name of Olive Tanager has been changed to Carmiol's Tanager (as it used to be) to avoid confusion with a South American species.
They have also officially changed many of the "Robins" to "Thrushes," as in Ridgely. The PAS list already includes this change.
There have been several changes to family taxonony:
The Sapayoa (formerly Broad-billed Manakin) has been determined to belong to the Broadbill Family (Eurylaimidae), and Old World group found in Asia and Africa, and have nothing to do with the true manakins.
The Antthrushes and Antpittas, formerly included in one family, have been divided among three. The Antthrushes remain in the original family, Formicaridae. Most of the Antpittas are put in their own family, Grallariidae. The Black-crowned Antpitta has been determined to be a member of the Gnateater Family (Conopophagidae) of South America.
There have been a bunch of changes to scientific names and changes in species order, but these don't affect the composition of the list.
I have added Crowned Slaty-Flycatcher, Yellow-hooded Blackbird, and Large-billed Seed-Finch to the PAS list. With the deletion of Mangrove Black-Hawk, this brings the species total for Panama to 976. The other new ones since 2006, added last year, were Great Tit and a split of Galapagos Shearwater from Audubon's Shearwater.
(According to Andy Kratter, that Bocas Skua could turn out to be Great Skua rather than South Polar, which would add another. I'll keep you posted.)