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A Guide to Some Possible Bird Species Splits in Costa Rica

10,000 Birds

These and several other species might end up being armchair ticks if and when we take a closer look at their evolutionary history. Taxa that could end up being split into one species occurring north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and one south of the isthmus. (2). Two subspecies of the same species that differ within Costa Rica. (4).

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Rancho Naturalista Lodge, Costa Rica, or in the Land of Coffee and Chocolate

10,000 Birds

campus gardens – the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Centre, located 3 km east of the town of Turrialba. This species qualifies as Critically Endangered because extensive habitat destruction and capture for the cagebird trade are causing extremely rapid and continuing population declines.

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American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of Ontario: A Field Guide Review

10,000 Birds

The official Ontario bird checklist, produced by Ontario Field Ornithologists , June 2022 listed 506 bird species**, putting it in the top tier of U.S. Small Species Accounts: Each species is allotted one page (with certain exceptions) offering basics–bird names and size, one or two photographs, and a one-paragraph description.

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Birds of Belize & Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide Review Doubleheader

10,000 Birds

An associated issue is that the Belize and Costa Rica guides share many of the same descriptions of species, written by Howell. Similarly, descriptions of species repeated across volumes do not lose their accuracy with each publication. Other species are splits and lumped and have had their names changed. Why are these issues?

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“Keep your taxonomy out of my field guide” – revisited

10,000 Birds

Way back in the days when blog posts still got a lot of comments, I wrote a piece on why field guides that arrange species in a more or less strict taxonomic order regularly frustrate me. Taxonomy is constantly changing and so does the order of species in field guides. van Balen, N. Brickle & F. It was a nightmarish thing to do.

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Raptors of Mexico and Central America: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

The guide presents 69 species and 1 subspecies, from “NEW WORLD VULTURES: Cathartiformes” to “OSPREY: Pandioninae” to “FAMILY: Accipitridae” (Kites, Hawks, Eagles, Hawk-Eagles), to “FALONIDS: Falconidae” (Falcons, Forest-Falcons, Caracaras, Kestrels, Merlin). The order is roughly taxonomic, with the priority showing similar species together.

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2013 AOU North American checklist proposals

10,000 Birds

New World populations of the widely distributed Sandwich Tern ( Thalasseus sandvicensis ) are treated by some authorities (including the British Ornithologists’ Union) as a distinct species: Cabot’s Tern ( T. Proposal 2013-A-3 recommends adopting that split on the basis of a 2009 study (I wrote about it back in the day here ).

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