The Yorkshire List Increases Again

It's on the list!

As expected (see Yorkshire Birding volume 20 page 74), the British Ornithologists’ Union’s Records Committee has adopted recommendations by the Taxonomic Sub-committee that Eurasian Stonechat Saxicola torquatus should now be treated as three species: European Stonechat S. rubicola (added to Category A), Siberian Stonechat S. maurus (added to Category A) and African Stonechat S. torquatus (removed from Category A; extralimital). This of course means that the Yorkshire list has now increased by one and that many Yorkshire listers will have gained an extra species. European Stonechat is of course a reasonably common in the County whilst nowadays Siberian Stonechat is recorded almost annually. For the purpose of the Yorkshire Listers League Table we need to know if you have seen Siberian Stonechat in Yorkshire so we can add one to your tally, although in the case of the majority of observers we do have this on record and have altered the list accordingly. However, if you are unsure if this has been done for you or not (eg. your total given in the League Table does not tally with your own copy) then please let us know immediately. For those who have a copy of the list which currently does not contain Siberian Stonechat at all, this should be inserted below (Eurasian) Stonechat which should be now named European Stonechat.