Dear all,

Once again I'm unable to come up with a sensible title for this post but I'll try to explain what I mean. When I use the country checklists as a basis for adding sightings I normally do not activate the "include subspecies" option as doing so results in a lengthy checklist containing (generally) all subspecies found anywhere in the world.  And this means that some birds, such as "Stonechat", are not included in the list because the harmless Stonechat is now termed "Stonechat (European) rubicola", which is clearly a subspecies.  The problem seems general for former species groups that have been lumped in the new Clements list.

What is the solution?  For countries I visit regularly I obviously have decent taxonomic lists including subspecies but if I go somewhere for a couple of days this is not the case.  Do I have to enter something as a "place keeper" for subsequent editing (which is what I now do) or is there a more elegant solution?  And does anybody even know what I am talking about?  (If not, try looking at "Add sightings" for Austria wih the subspecies box either checked or not.)

Best wishes,

Graham

Hi Graham,

Love the post!

Getting all the subspecies checklist data correct has been a bear from day-one. So all subspecies share the same location data as all their parent species. That is changing slowly. Our subspecies location/checklist data is improving monthly. And, with the import of new data sources, we hope to be close to perfect worldwide in a few months.

With that said, if I am recording sightings at the subspecfic level, I don't find it a problem to use the Include subspecies checkbox. Even though all subspecies will be shown, it is easy enough to check the one I intend and ignore the others. Do you find this not to be the case?

Alternatives for this might be:

1. Do not use Include subspecies and when you want to mark a sighting for a subspecies in the checklist entry window, use the Add Name button to quickly add that subspecies to the checklist and check it off.
2. In the Sightings Entry Setup window, check both "Include subspecies" and "Show only things sighted at this location". This way you will get all the species and subspecies that you have recorded sightings for at this location; filtering out the subspecies never seen before as well as species. Then, if you have seen a new bird, again use the Add Name button to quickly add it to the checklist window and check it off.

Let me know what you think about this. Good question though and one many users can learn from.

Jeff

Dear Jeff,

First of all, congratulations for understanding what I was gibbering about.  Just out of interest:  how many times did you have to read it through?

I like your two ideas - I confess I hadn't thought of either of them.  The second one will be great for places I visit more often but I imagine I'll be going for the first solution more often.  I'll let you know how I do.

You may have noticed that my question came fairly soon (well, in the same year) as the order of families in the Clements list was substantially revised.  This explains why ticking the "include subspecies" box is so tricky:  if a taxonomic list is about five times as long as it is without subspecies I simply can't find the birds I'm looking for!  This mayimprove when I finally take it on board that the corvids are now above the warblers etc. but at my age this will take a while.

Thanks again for your advice - much appreciated.

Best wishes,

Graham

Hi Graham,

Honestly, got the gist in just the first read through your post.

Now - I have another tip for you. As per your last paragraph, use the Find box on the Checklist Entry screen to get to the bird/group/family you are interested in. This Find box accepts any part of scientific name or common name. Click in the box and press Alt+F1 for help on how to use the SmartSearch fields - such as this Find box.

For example, for Austria, with subspecies - to find the the corvids, simply type "corv" and it will auto-complete with "Corvus corax" and auto-position the list with the corvids visible!

Jeff