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All: It was a pleasure see in Hans's fine images from Cow Bay, and the Mahone Bay islands (and relive my recent visit with him and others to those islands). The sparrow at Cow Bay also caught my attention. Its brownish and strongly pale-streaked back and rather buffy flanks are more typical of the James Bay and prairie races of this species, but do occur in our local ones - they are much more variable than depicted in field guides. Further to that species, many birders will happy to know that the Am. Ornithologists' Union (AOU) has just "officially" shortened the clunky names of the two "sharp-tailed sparrows" to Nelson's and Saltmarsh Sparrow rsepectively. Now there will be less connfusion about the names of these two very similar species. Of course, the Saltmarsh Sparrow has only been confirmed here once, with one additional sighting with some details. In addition, although it won't change your lifelists, the AOU has moved our tanagers to the to the beginning of the Cardinalidae (Cardinal, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, etc.). It has been known for some time that genetically and in other ways they don't really belong in the very large family of Neotropical tanagers, so this was overdue. But, bowing to tradition they have retained the common name "tanager." There will probably be much discussion and some dispute of this, but there are lots of precedents - blackbirds, robins, flycatchers, etc. There are also some changes in genus names among finches - redpolls are now Acanthis, and sikins and goldfinches are now Spinus species. Their order and common names are unaffected. Cheers, Ian McLaren Cheers, Ian
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