What’s new? Recent updates
11th April, 2021 | News & updates
Dear visitor of my website,
it has been quite some time since this website underwent some changes. Some minor, some major. So, let’s check ‘em out.
In January I asked you a question about the age codes I am using on this website in a poll. I let the poll run for more than a month and then analysed the results and changed the age codes accordingly. You probably noticed that. Right now, it is crystal clear, that when talking about an age of a bird, I am referring to calendar years as it is standard practice in northern temperate ringing centrals. I was doing that always but for some people, the lack of clearly specified calendar year might have been a little bit misleading – second year and second calendar year does not need to mean the same to everyone even though for a ringer it usually does. But my website is meant as a resource for everyone. Tehrefore I prepared also an article with explanations of these agecodes so everyone can udnerstand them.
It did not take me long to change the age codes in each species and when I was revising every species uploaded I also decided for another long-planned change – an update in taxonomy. So far, I was using a hybrid taxonomy based mostly on the latest HBW (BirdLife) taxonomy with some changes I found appropriate (such as keeping European and African Stonechats as separate species). As far as I understood, many taxonomists have some issues with this checklist and I did not find it always satisfying either, so I decided to change it. Honestly, I would prefer the most the taxonomy by John H. Boyd (Aves: Taxonomy in flux ) as that is the most up-to-date and modern taxonomy available (and I am a bit of an ornithological taxonomy geek). Which brings the problem of stability. This “checklist” is constantly changing, and it would be very demanding and also confusing to edit the website accordingly (even though I really like Mr. Boyd’s view on e.g. the Emberiza buntings). Therefore, I chose a more conservative approach and decided to switch to a well known and respected authority – the IOC. So since about March 2021, this website now follows the IOC taxonomy (currently v 11.1 ).
The gallery is slowly growing, new species are added more regularly than before, and I am constantly adding new individuals of already uploaded species (see changelog). Since the last “chubby update”, there has been about a hundred new birds uploaded including a “new” species – the European Bee-eater. I was waiting with uploading this species quite long, because I wanted it to be the first species with a full ageing and sexing article available for it. That is another achievement for me as I always wanted this gallery to be not only resource of photos for others but also, possibly, being able to write couple of such ageing and sexing articles. There are couple of websites and books available for this purpose, of course, but I hope I can bring yet even more detailed photos or more detailed information and therefore “justify” somehow existence of my articles. You decide :)
So that’s about it. And what next? Well, there is another ageing and sexing article finished waiting to be published. This time for a species maybe a little bit more commonly trapped, but with brand new information not found anywhere else (or at least as far as I know).
So, stay tuned!