Date: 11/6/26 9:26 am From: Patrick and Christine Tamborra via CTBirds <ctbirds...> Subject: [CT Birds] Re: Taxonomy update
I noticed several weeks ago that my ebird species count went up one. Upon checking, after reading Chucks post, a Willet I posted years ago with photos is a Prairie Willet, others identified as Saltmarsh. I have not done anything to change things. Is ebird correcting itself, or maybe only if photos are part of the list.
Pat Tamborra
P.S. It has been a tough year for me, getting a new lifer without any effort makes me real happy.
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From: Chuck Imbergamo via CTBirds <ctbirds...>
Sent: Friday, 06 November 2026 11:26:21
To: Chuck Imbergamo <imbercj...>; <ctbirds...> <ctbirds...>
Subject: [CT Birds] Re: Taxonomy update
I just learned that the taxonomy update is complete - however, it didn't go the way I was expecting and this impacts many birders' lists.
My understanding was that the typical Willets we see in our area would be migrated to Saltmarsh Willet, but I was wrong. Out of an abundance of caution, eBird changed all of those sightings to Saltmarsh/Prairie Willet, which of course is not a species.
If you want the Willets on your lists to count, you will have to go into every checklist and update it to Saltmarsh Willet (unless it was the Western subspecies).
For some of us, this is a big deal; personally, I have around 200 eBird observations of Willet. I never used the subspecies, but I'm sure there's a Western there somewhere in my notes. I will need to download my eBird data to try and find that sighting to record it as a Prairie Willet.
Listers who care about their year numbers or the species they have seen in one particular area will need to address this one bird at a time, unfortunately!
Chuck Imbergamo
CT Birds Moderator
Madison
PS - If you had identified any of the Willets you saw to the subspecies of Western or Eastern, those should have been migrated to Prairie or Saltmarsh Willet as appropriate. I guess this is a vote for using the subspecies if you know them going forward!
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