BA follows HBW/BLI which accepts the very obvious split. They should never have been lumped. IOC has recently made shriketits a monotypic family, but I guess it is waiting for someone to publish a paper before they make the split into three species. _________________________________________________________________ Frank O’Connor Birding WA birdingwa.iinet.net.au Phone : (08) 9386 5694 Email … Read more

Mike and Birding Aus'ers, An incidental observation of an estimated 6 Pacific Swifts made by Andrew Ley and myself on 9th December at 6.30am along the Barcoo River at Welford NP (143º 11 and 25º 11) – they were 'sallying' up and down the river for some several minutes There's some confusion around 'incidental ebird … Read more

Around 30 White-throated Needletail at the Cape Byron Lighthouse this am after a thunderstorm last night. Cheers Steve Potter — Steve Potter0407397234

Re Shrike-tit split. Hi Dave, The split into Eastern, Western and Northern Shrike-tits has been mooted for decades based on distribution and colour differences, the latter are minor but definite. Why Birdlife has split them is questionable. The split makes it harder for twitchers, the Northern form has eluded us on many visits but is … Read more

I discovered a few days ago that BirdLife Australia have split the Shrike-tit in their latest list (http://www.birdlife.org.au/conservation/science/taxonomy) and this happened back in August, I have seen no reference to this on Birding-Aus so can I assume that most people do not use that taxonomy – the only reason I noticed is that I maintain birdlifephotography.org.au … Read more