Among the most relevant changes in avian nomenclature by the AOS, the birds formerly known as “Hoary Redpolls” are now lumped with Common Redpolls as a single species (photo by Paul Konrad).

Changes of few bird names have been announced as the taxonomy of some birds has been changed by the American Ornithological Society (AOS), as published in their 65th Supplement to the Checklist of North American Birds. The publication describes several updates to the classification of a few bird species that range in North America. The primary change includes the lumping of the Common Redpoll with the formerly known Hoary Redpoll, now all known as Common Redpolls. The taxonomists also split the American Barn Owl from Old World species of barn owls, and split some House Wren populations south of the United States into new species – but all House Wrens north of the border are still House Wrens.

As difficult as it may be to understand, or write about, these kinds of changes in the taxonomy of birds, it’s interesting news nonetheless and it offers an insight into how and why specialized ornithologists make changes to birds’ names.

In addition to the species changes, at the higher level of genus, there was a genus merger for some bitterns, and a genus split for some plovers. While we want to bring these changes to your attention, we will refer you to the American Ornithological Society’s recent descriptive and scholarly article for all the relevant information at A “wrenaissance” for House Wrens; species and genus splits for Barn Owls and Plovers; and lumping of Redpolls included in 2024 Check-list changes - American Ornithological Society (americanornithology.org)