SARBN: Southern African bird checklist (version 9)

[Trevor Hardaker]

Hello everyone,

 

It’s finally time to release the updated version of the Southern African bird checklist (version 9) for you all to begin using as the most current checklist for the subregion – it has been brought in line with the recently released IOC world list (version 9.2) that came out just over a week ago. I hope that I haven’t missed anything but, if you do pick up any errors in this checklist, please drop me a message to let me know. Sometimes, I can’t see the wood for the trees when preparing these things…;)

 

All the changes since the last update are listed on the second tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet, but here is a quick synopsis of the changes you might be interested in:

 

·         Two new species have been added as countable to the checklist, namely Tahiti Petrel and White Tern, bringing the total number of countable species in Southern Africa up to 978 species now.

·         There have also been a few changes to common names, mostly because of certain species being split in Africa.

-          Square-tailed Drongo is now called Common Square-tailed Drongo to deal with the split of this species complex across Africa.

-          African Yellow White-eye is now called Southern Yellow White-eye to deal with the split of this species complex across Africa.

-          Yellow-throated Petronia is now called Yellow-throated Bush Sparrow because it is now placed in the genus Gymnoris and not Petronia, so this is done to avoid confusion between common and scientific names.

-          Long-billed Pipit is now called Nicholson’s Pipit to deal with the split of this species complex across Africa. (For those of you that have been birding for long enough, this used to be the old name for this bird, so it has now reverted back to that.)

·         Please also note that, due to some of the splits mentioned above, the scientific names of those species may also have now changed (the latest scientific names are shown on this list).

·         Of the taxonomical changes, perhaps the most interesting is that the Helmetshrike family (Prionopidae) has been omitted as a family and Helmetshrikes have now been moved into the Vangidae family which also means that Madagascar has lost an endemic bird family because of that.

·         The other interesting taxonomical change is that Black-and-white Flycatcher is no longer included with the Batises and Wattle-eyes, but is now included in Vangidae along with the Helmetshrikes.

 

Anyway, that’s about it for now – please feel free to work through the new checklist and let me know if you pick up any errors.

 

I hope you find this of some value. I can’t believe that this is Version 9 already which means I’ve been updating this checklist for 9 years now…!

 

In due course, I will start calling for updates to all the listing clubs hosted at www.zestforbirds.co.za based on this revised checklist and will try and set aside some time, hopefully in the not too distant future, to get all those listing club totals updated on the website, so that you can see where all your fellow listers currently are.

 

Yours in listing,

Trevor