In the July, 1997 issue of the AOU journal Auk, significant splits and name changes were announced, accompanied by massive sequence changes.
The splits and name changes for the ABA Area birds are very straightforward and are immediately accepted by the ABA. Those are easy to perform in AviSys, and users should follow the instructions in the following sections.
The changes were formally published in a new edition of the AOU Checklist in the last half of 1998. The AOU sequence changes are published for only species in North and Central America, yet they impact hundreds, if not thousands, of species world-wide. Therefore, before those changes can be applied to a world software master list, they must be integrated with the world list. Jim Clements will integrate the AOU sequence changes as appropriate and is planning to publish the revised world checklist in 1999.
After the new Clements list is published, we will release on this web site a downloadable update for the AviSys Version 4 Master Checklist which will automatically update you to the new checklist, including name changes, splits, etc., for non-ABA Area species. That process should take just a few minutes. The utility to do this is already built into AviSys Version 4.5 and later. For users who do not have web access, an update diskette will be available by mail for a modest handling fee.
No birding software on the market provides a way for the user to manually update the master list for changes as massive as the typical AOU sequence changes - at least not without superhuman effort, an insane expenditure of time, and significant (virtually certain) risk of error.
The Solitary Vireo has been split into:
The Plain Titmouse has been split into:
The Marbled Murrelet is split into:
The Mexican Crow has had an English name change to:
The Falcated Teal has had an English name change to:
The Siberian Tit has had an English name change to:
The American Golden-Plover has had a scientific name change to:
The Olive-sided Flycatcher has had a scientific name change to:
Add Newfoundland to the Common Redshank, Tringa totanus, checklist status -- which places it in the North America Mode (ABA) checklist. See the instructions below. (This is a recent ABA action)
The Yellow-chevroned Parakeet, Brotogeris chiriri, is split from the Canary-winged Parakeet, B. versicolurus and the English name of the Canary-winged Parakeet is changed to White-winged Parakeet.
Both species are currently under study by the ABA. Since B. versicolurus is considered to be the Florida population that originally justified placing the Canary-winged on the ABA list, we are retaining the White-winged Parakeet. But the self-sustaining status of these populations is really in question. Watch ABA communications carefully to determine if you can list this bird in ABA sanctioned lists. The most recent pronouncement from the ABA Checklist committee, in Birding, June 1998, states "...the Committee will investigate whether one or both species warrant placement on the ABA Checklist." The Yellow-chevroned Parakeet is already in the AviSys world checklist, and is not placed in the ABA checklist.
Band-tailed (Belcher's) Gull is still under study by the ABA and remains off the ABA list. The Red-crowned Parrot (Texas) remains on the list, and the Green Parakeet is under study and remains off the list.
Consult your field guides, especially the National Geographic, for the normal ranges of these new species. The state checklist data, below, includes vagrants and may not be helpful in determining the species of your old sightings.
(This is a ten minute job, at most)
Switch to World mode.
In AviSys, a new species is added below the currently highlighted species, using the Edit menu.
The strategy for the AOU changes should be like this example:
Repeat the process for the Titmice and the Murrelets, and add the Redshank.
The other names are simply edited.
Note!!! For the newly added birds to appear in the AviSys Master Checklist in North America (ABA) mode, each bird must be added to at least one state or province checklist (other than Hawaii).
In World mode, highlight the species, and click the StateCL (or Range) button. (If a Nation Checklist dialog pops up, close it.) In the State Checklist dialog, add/delete states to the bird, as follows:
Marbled Murrelet: AK CA OR WA BC
Long-billed Murrelet: AK AR CA CO FL IN IA KS MA MT NY
NC OH OR SC WY AB NF ON PQ
Oak Titmouse: CA OR
Juniper Titmouse: AZ CA CO ID NV NM OK OR TX UT WY
Blue-headed Vireo: All states, provinces
and territories except AK AZ HI ID MT NV UT WA (use
ShowAll)
Cassin's Vireo: AK AZ CA CO ID KS LA MA MT NV NM OR TX
UT WA AB BC PQ
Plumbeous Vireo: AZ CA CO FL ID KS LA MA MT NE NV NM OR
SD TX UT WY NS
Common Redshank: NF
Note: Be sure you have backups for your custom checklists. (See the manual or update documentation.) After performing these changes, restart AviSys to have the changes take effect. If you have state checklists, or ABA, US, or Canada checklists in your Checklist menu, delete them and re-add them. Examine your custom checklists for accuracy.
For each of the affected groups perform the following:
In the example we use, all the sighting records that were previously assigned to the Solitary Vireo are now assigned to the Blue-headed Vireo (simply because only the name was changed). The example below assumes you have sightings of all three Vireos. While the description looks a little dense, it's really very intuitive when you do it -- you'll just end up clicking on records to correct them.
Loading the Species Edit List
Listing the Affected Records
Correcting (Mass Editing) the Affected Records
Repeat the above two steps for the other species, Cassin's Vireo.
Repeat this entire process, as needed, for the Titmice and Murrelets.
(* Actually, using the Cursor-Down key and the Enter key, with two hands, you can rapidly edit hundreds of records.)