Taxonomy Gone Mad

Every now and then the birding professionals at the BOU declare that the way we order our lists is all wrong and needs to be sorted. So they have lengthy and heated meetings where lots of Latin gets banded about, and then produce their new taxonomy. Well, here in Ayrshire, we like to keep up-to-date with this and so the Ayrshire Species List has had its decadal refresh. I won’t spoil the ending, but here are some highlights:

  • Lots of species now have a geographic prefix, e.g. Western Jackdaw and Atlantic Puffin.
  • Other species get a title bump, e.g. Great Cormorant (that’s going to annoy the anglers!)
  • Some sub-species have been added for the anoraks specialist birders, e.g. Greenland Wheatear.
  • Some things pop up in unexpected places, e.g. why aren’t Spotted and Pied Flycatcher together?

I’d like to thank Angus Hogg for doing the tedious list updates and for sending in some historical photos to use in the list for stuff no longer with us, e.g. Reeve’s Pheasant, Yellow Wagtail and Corn Buntings.