If any of this ever gets accepted by a checklist committee I am going to quit. Seriously.
Hat-tip to Rick Wright.
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
As my wife said when I gave her the summary of that page: “Oh my GOD!”
It’s crazy. Might as well give each individual bird a name.
Yeah, finally. And just wait what will be done to your gulls. You think Thayer’s is difficult. Har har har, just you wait…
It took me long enough to stop calling them “Canadian” goose. (Occasionally still have to bite my tongue) And now this. Can’t we just ship them all back to Ontario and be done with it?
I really hope future splits of white-cheeked geese don’t go that far. I could handle an additional taxon or two, but 11-15 will be too much.
Last year, I was so proud that I could pick out Cackling geese from “normal” Canada geese… *sigh* I guess I have more work to do…
My goodness! I am kind of relieved that none occur in Costa Rica.
I wonder which kind we have in New Zealand. Possibly some hybrid.
Wow. Recognizing 15 species is one thing, but 181 subspecies?? I’d be curious to know how he shows that these 15 species are reproductively isolated.
Well, I’ll have to agree with one thing though: the current situation, with Canada and Cackling, appears to make no sense whatsoever.