The primary role of the ABA Checklist Committee (CLC) is to vote on the addition of new species to the ABA Checklist. Secondary roles include reviewing and revising ABA Codes covering ease of observation in the ABA Area and updating and maintaining the ABA Checklist regarding taxonomic sequence, common and scientific names, and four-letter alpha codes. Currently, the eight voting members of the ABA-CLC are Luke DeCicco (Kansas), Doug Gochfeld (New York), Lauren Harter (Louisiana), Matt Heindel (Texas), Alvaro Jaramillo (California), Andy Kratter (Florida), Marky Mutchler (Illinois), and David Sibley (Massachusetts). At the end of 2024 Andy and David will rotate off the committee, and we welcome Melissa Hafting (British Columbia) and Mark Lockwood (Texas) as new members beginning in 2025. Each member votes to accept or not accept a species’ addition to the ABA Checklist based on evidence from one or more records in the ABA Area. An 8–0 or 7–1 tally is needed for acceptance to the Checklist following up to three rounds of voting.

Since our update in September 2024, the CLC has accepted two species to the ABA Checklist:

Eastern Cattle-Egret (Ardea coromanda), EACE, by a vote of 8–0, based on a specimen record from Agattu Island, Alaska, on 16 June 1988. Another record is from Midway Atoll in June–July 1997. The addition of this species was considered by the CLC after the split of Eastern and Western (A. ibis) cattle-egrets by the American Ornithological Society (AOS) and Clements/eBird in 2024. Eastern Cattle-Egret follows Western Cattle-Egret in the ABA Checklist, and it is assigned Code 5.

Vega Gull (Larus vegae), VEGU. This species is added based on the split of the “herring gull” complex into four species by Clements/eBird in October 2024. The CLC has assigned ABA Code 3 to this species based on rare but regular occurrence in the ABA Area, in particular in Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands, resulting in no CLC circulation needed to add this species to the Checklist. As part of this taxonomic revision, American Herring Gull (L. smithsonianus, AHGU) also replaces Herring Gull (L. argentatus) on the Checklist and precedes Vega Gull in sequence. We will now be listing species recognized by Clements/eBird but not (yet) by the AOS, so these will be listed as American Herring Gull (Herring Gull), Larus smithsonianus (argentatus), and Vega (Herring) Gull, Larus vegae (argentatus), reflecting our protocol of listing the Clements/eBird nomenclature followed by that of the AOS in parentheses. See below regarding European Herring Gull.

These additions result in a total of 1,154 species on the ABA Checklist.

Further updates to the ABA Checklist result from other taxonomic revisions by Clements/eBird in October 2024. Three species are removed from the genus Accipter: Chinese Sparrowhawk is now listed as Tachyspiza (Accipiter) soloensis, Cooper’s Hawk is now Astur (Accipiter) cooperii, and American Goshawk is now Astur (Accipiter) atricapillus. Other changes of genus include that of Brown Jay to Cyanocorax morio (from Psilorhinus), removing a discrepancy with AOS nomenclature, and Eurasian Jackdaw, which will now be listed as Coloeus (Corvus) monedula. Additional splits and changes by Clements/eBird in October 2024 (e. g., splits or lumps among boobies, barn owls pipits, and redpolls) were already affected by AOS actions as listed in the last version of the ABA Checklist, while other changes in nomenclature (e. g., some parrots renamed as amazons by Clements) are now incorporated.

In other decisions, the CLC chose in a straw vote to accept Medium Egret (Ardea intermedia) to the Checklist, without circulation, following the split by AOS and Clements/eBird of the “intermediate egret” complex into this and two other species. There are fewer than five records of this species, from Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands. Separation of Medium from the split Plumed Egret (A. plumifera) away from breeding grounds is not possible at this time (because these were not considered valid subspecies by many before the split), so the acceptance of Medium Egret is based solely on range and likelihood. <h

The CLC also opted not to add Great White Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) to the ABA Checklist, on a split vote (3–5), based on a record of a returning bird in Florida over the six-year period 2016–2021. The identification was not at issue, but a majority of members would prefer to see a better pattern of vagrancy before accepting this bird as a vagrant; such a bird could have traveled naturally via a trans-Siberian route, a scenario entertained by those who accepted the record. The Great White Pelican was already placed on eBird’s and ABA’s Provisional List of species plausibly being of natural occurrence (or confirmed ship assistance), and it will remain on this list and be countable by ABA members (see Pyle 2024 for details).

The CLC also voted to remove two species from the Provisional List of exotic species that could potentially become established in the ABA Area, White (Cacatua alba) and Salmon-crested (C. moluccensis) cockatoos. Their inclusion in eBird’s Provisional List was based on a small population (< 20) of these birds on O‘ahu, Hawaii, which hybridize freely and are essentially unidentifiable. The Hawaii eBird reviewers and Hawaii Bird Records Committee now agree that these species don’t fit the intent of the Provisional List of exotic species and will be requesting their removal from eBird’s Provisional List as well.

There are currently five species in circulation for addition to the Checklist, all as based on records from Alaska: Baillon’s Crake (Zapornia pusilla), Eurasian Bittern (Botaurus stellaris), Oriental Honey-Buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus), Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus), and Great Tit (Parus major). The CLC is also accumulating information on the occurrence of European Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) in the ABA Area, following its split from American Herring and Vega gulls (see above). Given variation among all species of this complex and the conservatism of the ABA-CLC regarding identifications, an acceptable record of European Herring Gull may be difficult to come by. There are no records of the fourth species involved in this split, Mongolian Gull (Larus mongolicus), to our knowledge. Results of these circulations will be announced in future updates, while decisions reached on 16 other species in late 2023 and 2024 will be summarized in our annual CLC report, to be published in the next issue of North American Birds.

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