Date: 11/6/26 11:10 am From: Chuck Imbergamo via CTBirds <ctbirds...> Subject: [CT Birds] Re: Taxonomy update
Hi Pat – There are two scenarios that could lead to what happened to you: The first is that you may have identified one of the Willets as a Western in your report. Those birds were automatically converted to Prairie. The second thing possible is that you saw a Willet in a place where Western Willets are predominant or the only birds in the area. Those were automatically updated to Prairie Willet. Curiously, they didn't feel safe converting our northeastern Willets to Prairie Willets, probably due to known vagrancy of the Western (now Prairie) species here in New England. There may be a third scenario: It is possibly related to the photos that were included in your checklist...Artificial Intelligence may have identified the bird in the photo as a Prairie Willet. I am uncertain about this third option but it is definitely a possibility. I have noticed something when I upload photos to my eBird reports: If I accidentally attach a photo of one species to the wrong species, the AI realizes it and tries to stop me from attaching it. This saves a lot of grief for eBird reviewers who would have to correct my error otherwise. I hope this helps! Chuck Imbergamo CT Birds Moderator Madison
On Nov 6, 2026, at 12:31 PM, Patrick and Christine Tamborra <petcmt54...> wrote:
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.
Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone Get [1]Outlook for Android _______________________________________________________________
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! > On Nov 1, 2026, at 7:40 PM, Chuck Imbergamo <imbercj...> wrote: > > CT Birders - > > The often dreaded taxonomy update is in progress! > > From time to time, the American Ornithological Society updates bird taxonomy, splitting some species and lumping other species together. > > Listers here in CT may have noticed that their species count is currently down by one – I followed up on this and found out that it was due to the Willet species. The birds we typically see in Connecticut will be called 'Saltmarsh Willet' going forward. For now, Cornell has put them into a 'Sp.' Called 'Saltmarsh/Prairie Willet', making this bird 'not count' on your list. The Willet records are being migrated to the appropriate species, but it is taking some time. The latest update I found is below: > > UPDATE 30 Oct: At this time, most conversions are done. However, Willets, Spotted Flycatchers, Marsh Wrens, and Whistling-Thrush splits are particularly complicated and we expect small batches of regional updates for these species to continue for several weeks. Personalized Taxonomy Reports will be available starting 4 November. > > Hopefully this helps some of you who noticed that your list count doesn't look right! > > Chuck Imbergamo > CT Birds Moderator > Madison > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via email, send an email with just "join" or "leave" in the subject or body to: <ctbirds-request...> > > CTBirds, a service of Connecticut Ornithological Association - Bringing birders together statewide. 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