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Posted by Andy Kratter on 16:40:38 02/10/09
Florida birders
The Florida Ornithological Society Records Committee (FOSRC) met Saturday, 7 February 2009, at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
The highlight of the meeting was accepting a new taxon to the Official State List, that being the Elaenia in Pensacola in 1984. This record was originally submitted to the FOSRC as a Caribbean Elaenia (Elaenia martinica) in 1984 and was accepted by the FOSRC and the ABA-CLC. There were photos and a description of the call. Elaenias are notoriously difficult to ID by sight, but vocalizations help immensely. However, without a tape recording the AOU-CLC did not accept the record, and Robertson and Woolfenden followed suit. When the FOSRC adopted R&W as its baseline list, Caribbean Elaenia was not included. So for awhile we had a record that was accepted by the FOSRC but was not on the Official State List.
This year we reappraised the record and concluded that the evidence (photo) gave verifiable evidence that an elaneia from the genus Elaenia has occurred in Florida (there are other birds called elaenias in the genus Myiopagis, but these all have yellow coronal patches). As a result, we have added Elaenia sp. to the Official State List. When an Elaneia that is identifiable to species is found in the State (hopefully soon), it will replace the Elaenia sp. With this addition, the Official State List now stands at 504 species.
Also accepted were the second Florida records of Neotrpic Cormorant and White Wagtail (Interestingly, it is the eastern Russian/Alaska race ocularis, and not the western European alba, unlike the previous White Wagtail for Florida - we now have two records and two subspecies in Florida!), the first breeding record of Least Grebe, and lots of other wonderful records.
I have corresponded with all submitters of records personally. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
I want to thank the community of Florida birders for participating in this process, especially all those that submitted forms, photos, recordings, and any other material to the FOSRC.
Keep up the great birding, and go find an (and record) an Elaenia!
Sincerely,
Andy Kratter
Secretary, FOSRC
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