Date: 10/29/26 12:15 pm From: Jerry Tangren via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] The Two Willets
Good points! We shouldn’t think about the Willet split in the same geographical way as we do the Marsh Wren.
Fortunately, for my list, we had listed Willets during May in the Scarborough Marsh in Maine, and eBird changed them to Saltmarsh Willet.
—Jerry Tangren
East Wenatchee, WA
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From: Tweeters <tweeters-bounces...> on behalf of Carol Riddell via Tweeters <tweeters...>
Sent: Thursday, 29 October 2026 11:09:10
To: tweeters <tweeters...>
Subject: [Tweeters] The Two Willets
Hi Tweeters,
I just noticed this morning that eBird has updated checklists and our species numbers to reflect the split in Willet to Saltmarsh Willet and Prairie Willet. Prairie is the former western subspecies and Saltmarsh is the former eastern subspecies. I noticed many Saltmarsh/Prairie Willet in my checklists so I made a couple of species maps to see what is going on. It is interesting to see extensive documentation of Prairie Willet all along the Gulf Coast and the East Coast, at least up through Virginia. One of my checklists had a Willet photo on the west coast of Florida and it is now in the Prairie Willet category. The range for Saltmarsh Willet is much more restrictive than that for Prairie Willet.
The Marsh Wren split to Eastern Marsh Wren and Western Marsh Wren is also seen in eBird checklists now but I have not made species maps to see where they might overlap.
Good birding,
Carol Riddell
Edmonds, WA
cariddellwa at gmail dot com
