Birders,

The 49th Supplement to the AOU Check-list of North American birds is now
available to AOU members on the AOU web site, and will soon be
distributed in the July 2008 Auk. Here is a summary of changes that
impact the California bird list:

1. Flamingos (order Phoenicopteriformes, occurring only as escapees in
CA) are now placed immediately after the grebes (Podicipediformes) in
the check-list sequence. Old World Phoenicopterus roseus is split from
New World Ph. ruber; the latter species is now called American Flamingo.

2. With new sequence changes and generic splits in the gulls, CA species
are now in this sequence (for which I provide the binomial only if it
has changed):

Swallow-tailed Gull

Black-legged Kittiwake

Red-legged Kittiwake

Ivory Gull

Sabine's Gull

Bonaparte's Gull, Chroicocephalus Philadelphia

Black-headed Gull, C. ridibundus

Little Gull, Hydrocoloeus minutus

Ross's Gull

Laughing Gull, Leucophaeus atricilla

Franklin's Gull, Leucophaeus pipixcan

and the Larus gulls as follows:

Belcher's

Black-tailed Gull

Heermann's Gull

Mew

Ring-billed

Western

Yellow-footed

California Gull

Herring (proposal to split smithsonianus and vegae from
argentatus failed)

Thayer's

Iceland

Lesser Black-backed

Slaty-backed

Glaucous-winged

Glaucous

Great Black-backed (not accepted to CA list)

3. Green Violet-ear becomes Green Violetear

There are several other changes (mainly distributional) that impact the
ABA area, and numerous others that affect taxa occurring only south of
the ABA area. Interestingly, many New World thrushes in the genus Turdus
that were formerly called "robin" (including Clay-colored) are now
called "thrush," but the Rufous-backed Robin (along with American Robin,
of course) appears to be an exception.

Please do not direct complaints or PDF requests to me...

KLG

Kimball L. Garrett

Ornithology Collections Manager

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

900 Exposition Blvd.

Los Angeles CA 90007

(213) 763-3368

(213) 746-2999 FAX

kgarrett@...