Diana,
I'm obviously not Jeff, but I might be able to help out.
First, about the subspecies pirrensis. That subspecies is not considered valid by any taxonomy used in Birder's Diary, as Clements considers it part of the subspecies rubrilateralis. This is why the 'thing' Spot-crowned Barbet pirrensis was not already in BD.
I would recommend just entering your sightings under the Clements subspecies rubrilateralis, maybe with a note in the comments about pirrensis. This is because creating a new thing can get confusing easily and cause problems with future taxonomies that might include pirrensis. Your new thing must match the taxonomy programmer's new thing exactly, otherwise your sightings will not show up in a report for that taxonomy. If you're only using your own custom taxonomy, then it should be fine.
If you still want to enter a sighting for pirrensis, you would need to create a new 'thing' for it, which you did. For future reference, the text turns red in the Thing Editor when you're entering a new name that the SmartSearch function does not recognize...so that part was normal. For the automatic capitalization, though, you need to disable it by turning off the SmartSearch function. This is done by hitting CTRL+down. You can now enter a new 'thing' without the automatic capitalization of a new word.
To fix the capitalization of pirrensis in your new thing, go back to the Thing Editor. Bring up Spot-crowned Barbet Pirrensis. Click on the button to the right of the name, which has the pop-up text "Change description for this Thing." You can now chang the name so that pirrensis is not capitalized. Click OK, and then click the Update in the Thing Editor.
It looks like you might have given your new thing the common name Spot-crowned Barbet, without any subspecific epithet. I would highly recommend giving it the common name Spot-crowned Barbet pirrensis. You can change this in the Thing Editor by following very similar instructions to those above, but under the common name section of the editor.
Now, for actually entering sightings for this new thing and putting it in checklists... I'm not sure what steps you took toward this, so I'll just start from the beginning. Once a new thing has been created, you need to add it to a taxonomy to enter sightings. If Clements is your default world taxonomy, I would recommend first creating a duplicate of it. This gives you one copy for your custom use but also insures that you don't lose the "official" version. So, here are the steps:
1) In the Tax Viewer, click on the New button. Name it whatever you like (My Clements, e.g.). Click Add.
2) Now that the new taxonomy is added, find it in the drop-down list in the Tax Viewer. This will bring up your new, completely blank taxonomy.
3) Click on the Copy button, which will bring you to a new window.
4) Find the Clements taxonomy in the left drop-down list. Now you have the Clements taxonomy on the left, and your blank custom taxonomy on the right.
5) Drag and drop the Animalia node from the Clements list over to the blank side. You've now created a copy of the Clements taxonomy that you can mess around with without worrying about losing the official version.
6) Click Close in the copy window, and now you're back to the Tax Viewer with your custom taxonomy ready to go.
7) Click the Add button, which calls up the Tax Editor.
8) Type in Spot-crowned Barbet pirrensis in the Thing field.
9) Choose Spot-crowned Barbet pirrensis as the preferred common name.
10) To more quickly insert this thing in the proper place, type in Spot-crowned Barbet in the Preset field, which calls up all the right fields to the species level.
11) Type pirrensis into the Subspecies field (it might be red text...that's expected).
12) Click Add. If your text was red, it calls up a window that asks you to describe this new scientific name. Just click Cancel, if you want.
13) Click Close in the Tax Editor window, and now you're back to the Tax Viewer with your new subspecies thing added. Close the Tax Viewer.
Now on to adding your thing to checklists, so you can enter sightings if a location filter is in place. These steps will work for adding any new thing to any checklist but are obviously specific to your case.
1) Click on Checklist to bring up the Checklist Editor.
2) Under the Thing Checklist side, type in Spot-crowned Barbet pirrensis in the Thing field (leave the Loc Filter field blank).
3) Click Load, which should appear to do nothing b/c your thing is brand new.
4) In the Location field, type Panama, then click the green plus button.
5) Click Update. Spot-crowned Barbet pirrensis is now on the Panama checklist.
Alternatively, you could follow these steps:
1) Bring up the Checklist editor.
2) Under the Location Checklist side, choose your new custom taxonomy from the drop-down list.
3) Click on the Ssp. box if you want to show the subspecies in your checklist (not necessary if just adding something, even if it's a subspecies).
4) Click Set.
5) Type Panama into the Location field.
6) Leave the All box empty, unless you want to see every single species and subspecies on the Clements taxonomy (very unnecessary in this situation).
7) Click Load.
8) Type Spot-crowned Barbet pirrensis into the Name field, then click the green plus button.
9) Click Update.
Okay, I know this is probably the longest post ever on the forums now!  It looks like you have one more problem, though - that you removed the full species Spot-crowned Barbet from the Panama checklist. I think this is because your common name for the new thing Spot-crowned Barbet pirrensis had the common name Spot-crowned Barbet (instead of Spot-crowned Barbet pirrensis). Two things on a list cannot have the same common name (so the full species Spot-crowned Barbet might have been booted or something...not really sure how that would happen, though). To fix this problem, follow the instructions above on giving your new thing the proper common name. Once it has the right common name, go to the Tax Viewer and find the new thing. Highlight it and click Edit to change its preferred common name. Make sure the full species Spot-crowned Barbet is still in the taxonomy as well and has the proper common name.
Go back to the checklist editor and follow the above instructions to make sure both Spot-crowned Barbet and Spot-crowned Barbet pirrensis are on the Panama checklist. This is easiest to under the Thing Checklist side of the Checklist Editor.
I'm sorry this was so long!! I just figured I'd try to make it as clear as I could since you were having some problems finding a good reference for it. I really hope it helped! I'm sure I missed something obvious in the explanation, so please let me know if something doesn't work correctly for you. Despite my rambling explanation, I do want to reiterate that it might be better/easier to just enter your sightings under the subspecies rubrilateralis so you don't have to deal with this issue at all. Up to you, though! I've had a lot of fun creating new things and taxonomies, so I don't want to discourage you too much. 
-Nick |