Armchair movement

From RBA:

From 1 January 2018 the BOU will adopt the International Ornithological Congress (IOC) World Bird List (www.worldbirdnames.org for all its taxonomic needs, including the British List (www.bou.org.uk/british-list. This follows a detailed review by the BOU’s Records Committee (BOURC).

Following the adoption of the IOC World Bird List on 1st January 2018, species-level changes will be made to the British List include:

Splits:
Tundra Bean Goose from Taiga Bean Goose
Desertas Petrel from Fea's Petrel
Least Tern from Little Tern
Thayer's Gull from Iceland Gull
Red-tailed (Turkestan) Shrike from Isabelline (Daurian) Shrike
Two-barred Greenish Warbler from Greenish Warbler
Stejneger's Stonechat from Siberian Stonechat
Eastern Yellow Wagtail from Yellow Wagtail

Lumps:
Hudsonian Whimbrel with Whimbrel
Lesser Redpoll with Mealy Redpoll

So minus 2, but overall up by 1 (maybe 2). Finally getting to add my 1991 Least tern is a bonus, and I'm relieved to have made the effort for the October 2006 Filey two-barred greenish warbler and April 2012 Lincolnshire Thayer's gull. I've seen an accepted Daurian shrike (Pendeen October 2013) but not a currently accepted red-tailed (the October 2007 Buckton bird was widely thought to be one but not accepted to sub species). Just goes to show that going for sub-species often pays off as science advances apace, but I'll never get used to twitching birds that are only identifiable with a lab sample (Stej chat and Eastern yellow wag 🙄).

Sensible science based decision by the BOU, and overall I'm pretty happy with the listing implications too!

Two-barred greenish warbler, Filey October 2006 by Tom Tams.