Today on Mt Franklin Road (Brindabella Ranges, ACT), about 2.5 km beyond the final locked gate I heard two male Olive Whistlers calling at each other using the call the various field guides describes as 'tu WIT tu', but prefacing it with three even notes: 'tu tu tu, tu WIT tu'. One male was calling … Read more

If Birdlife Australia makes no independent taxonomic judgments and BLI does no deal with subspecies how come BLA lists them? On Tue, 10 Nov 2020 at 12:21, Geoffrey Dabb <gdabb@iinet.net.au> wrote: Yes.  We are talking about the strange and shifting world of global lists.  Noel mentioned different global lists, and Phil commented on different taxonomic … Read more

I was indeed referring to BirdLife International (BLI), and their is used by various legal and conservation bodies so it is still quite significant, though now somewhat in need of an update. Unfortunately their taxonomy will be shoe-horned into the Clements version by Cornell / E-bird, a great pity but there we are, presumably HBWAlive … Read more

Yes.  We are talking about the strange and shifting world of global lists.  Noel mentioned different global lists, and Phil commented on different taxonomic approaches, including ‘Birdlife’.  This must mean Birdlife International (BLI), as Birdlife Australia makes no independent taxonomic judgments. Until version 9.1 in 2017 BLI offered a checklist (no subspecies), stating on its … Read more

But BirdLife Australia does do subspecies! On Tue, 10 Nov 2020 at 08:41, Geoffrey Dabb <gdabb@iinet.net.au> wrote: Birdlife by itself did not do subspecies.  Cornell Lab has now swallowed HBW but the digestion process has its difficulties. Look at the jumbled entry for ‘Grey Whistler P. simplex’.  Has it been counted as an Australian endemic … Read more