I believe each state picks up two new species, with splits: one Willet and
one Whimbrel, if SC has any records for the European taxon.
I know NC has a few reports/records for the *Eurasian Whimbrel.* I think
the NC Bird Records Committee will be voting on at least one record this
fall, which contains photos. There are older records in print that might
not have photos but do have descriptions. However, it seems imperative to
me that, for either state to add Eurasian Whimbrel (it has a white rump and
lower back like dowitchers do) to their Official lists, a committee vote
should be held.
On the other hand, I'm not sure how each state's records committees will
deal with the Willet split. The inland breeding "Western Willet" --
now the *Prairie
Willet*, is a common winter resident along the coast and a rare migrant
inland; the common coastal breeding "Eastern Willet" -- now the *Saltmarsh
Willet,* apparently clears out completely along our coasts by about October
and winters in the Caribbean region. Each committee could, by a simple
"proclamation", just add both the Willets to their list without a vote; or
Chairs could round up photo records of both to vote on, just to make a
formal vote to accept one or both. One mess for each committee, or at least
record-keepers like me -- how to determine to which new species all of
those inland reports belong to! So, folks inland, when we see a Willet on
a lake shoreline, we will have to do our best to ID it, but I'm sure eBird
will have "Willet sp." as a fallback choice. Yes, they are separable, but
we all need to "bone up" on the field marks of them, especially now!
The only other split of interest in the Carolinas might be the Marsh Wren.
We clearly have the *Eastern Marsh-Wren*, but there is now the *Western
Marsh-Wren*, and it might be possible for members of this latter species to
show up in the Carolinas on rare occasions. Wayne Hoffman just commented on
this possibility, so folks will need to "bone up" on how to separate these
two species!
I will work with Tom Howard and Jeff Wallace to have the new names/splits
included on the Birds of North Carolina website fairly soon. Now that Kent
has turned over the Carolina Bird Club website webmaster duties to Jeff
Wallace, *will we see a listing of changes -- 67th AOS Supplement) on the
Bird Records link?* Tom and I usually wait for that, but I won't count on
that, and so over the next few days I will make a list of needed edits to
the NC bird list, for Tom or Jeff to update the Birds of NC website.
Harry LeGrand
lead author/editor, BNC website
On Thu, Oct 22, 2026 at 11:14 AM Kent Fiala <carolinabirds...> wrote:
> The American Ornithological Society's "Sixty-seventh Supplement to the
> American Ornithological Society's Check-list of North American Birds" was
> published Tuesday. As I posted a few weeks ago, since 1886, the AOS has
> been the authority for the taxonomy of North American birds. More recently
> the upstart Clements taxonomy has been making inroads on this authority,
> because it is worldwide, not just North American, and especially because it
> is used in eBird. But as always, the Carolina Bird Club follows AOS
> taxonomy.
>
> A couple things interesting about this year's update. The AOS has a
> reputation for being generally more conservative about making changes, and
> only this year they have accepted some changes that were in Clements last
> year: splits of Whimbrel, Fea's Petrel, and Yellow Warbler. They have also
> adopted some changes that will be in the Clements update scheduled for next
> week: splits of Willet and Marsh Wren. One departure from Clements is that,
> although they split the Yellow Warbler, they retain the name Yellow Warbler
> for what Clements calls Northern Yellow Warbler. The most surprising (to
> me) departure from Clements is that they are making one not-conservative
> change that Clements is not making (unless there's a late-breaking update
> that I haven't heard about yet)--they are splitting the old world and new
> world forms of Great Egret into two species. What we've been calling Great
> Egret will now be American Egret with new scientific name *Ardea egretta*.
> The old world species will retain the scientific name *Ardea alba *with
> common name Great White Egret.
>
> North Carolina already has Eurasian Whimbrel on its official list as a
> subspecies, so the split adds a species to the NC list.
>
> I've told the story that when I started birding in 1961, I had bird guides
> that were already outdated, so I thought that this egret was called
> American Egret back then. Eventually I learned that the AOU had renamed it
> Common Egret, and still later it was renamed Great Egret. From this I
> concluded that AOU was the first to make American Great. And now here we
> are circled back around to where I started 65 years ago.
>
> --
> Kent Fiala
>
>
