The eBird Australian list is to be distinguished from the Birdlife Australia list (WLAB), which, give or take a bit of delay in the updating, serves as the COG list. WLAB was recently updated to
v.4, mainly by addition of 13 species accepted by the Birdlife Australia Rarities Committee (BARC). Taking the waterfowl as an example of the differences, I see that eBird has 34 species as against the 30 in WLAB. The extra 4 are exotic species that eBird
accepts for the Australian list, evidently on the basis of confirmed observations here: Egyptian Goose, Muscovy Duck, Mandarin Duck, New Zealand Scaup. (The Muscovy Duck is an unusual example of the COG list including a species not in WLAB.) The NZ Scaup
is an interesting addition. The inclusion on the eBird list appears to derive from a single bird recorded at Goulds Lagoon Wildlife Sanctuary, Tasmania, on 9 occasions between 2019 and 2021.
The difference between the eBird process and the BARC process seems to be that the latter excludes records of birds that have not arrived by ‘natural means’ or that ‘are proven or strongly suspected
to have captive origins’. However, the Tufted Duck has recently been accepted for WLAB v.4.
From: Canberrabirds <>
On Behalf Of Philip Veerman
Sent: Thursday, 27 October 2022 10:38 AM
To: 'Canberra birds' <>
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] Your eBird species totals during the annual taxonomy update...
This is clearly a widespread event. I also am in the chat for a Los Angeles site and the same messages are there too. Probably all over.
From: Canberrabirds
On Behalf Of Geoffrey Dabb
Sent: Wednesday, 26 October, 2022 5:06 PM
To: 'Canberra birds'
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] Your eBird species totals during the annual taxonomy update...
From: Canberrabirds <>
On Behalf Of Kim Farley via Canberrabirds
Sent: Wednesday, 26 October 2022 3:07 PM
To: Canberra birds <>
Subject: [Canberrabirds] Your eBird species totals during the annual taxonomy update...
Hi all
A couple of people have contacted me about changes to their species totals in eBird. This is due to the annual eBird taxonomy update and implementation of the new exotic species protocol at the same time. All of our totals may be a bit
wonky while these changes work through the system. Be patient and it will all come good. I sent an email to Canberra Birds about this a few days ago, but if you missed it, you will find info in eBird at the News link on the top navigation bar.
