{"id":47534,"date":"2017-07-02T06:04:29","date_gmt":"2017-07-02T12:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=47534"},"modified":"2025-10-03T16:02:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T21:02:58","slug":"no-willet-split-plus-other-nerdy-bird-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/07\/02\/no-willet-split-plus-other-nerdy-bird-news\/","title":{"rendered":"No Willet Split Plus Other Nerdy Bird News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WilletEastern Willet on mound of sand – Nikon D200, hand held, f6.3, 1\/640, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The Fifty-Eighth Supplement to the AOU Check-list appeared yesterday and while there had been a proposal to split Willets<\/span><\/a> into two distinct species that proposal was declined. So we still have one Willet species with two subspecies, Eastern And Western. They might not look all that different but they are.<\/p>\n

\"WilletWestern Willet perched on Greasewood – Nikon D810, f14, 1\/320, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

They have differences in their DNA, breeding locations, appearance and calls. I’ll never see the Eastern subspecies here in Utah because they strictly coastal while the Western subspecies winters on the coasts but nests in the grasslands and prairies of inland areas.<\/p>\n

I won’t have to make any changes to my Willet photo galleries today.<\/p>\n

But just because Willets weren’t split this year doesn’t mean they won’t be split in the future, who knows what changes will be made a year from now.<\/p>\n

Here are some other changes…<\/p>\n

\"PerchedPerched male Northern Harrier – Nikon D200, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 320, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Our Northern Harriers in North America have been split from the Hen harriers (Circus cyaneus<\/em>) of Europe and they are now Circus hudsonius. <\/em>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

And…<\/p>\n

\"NorthernNorthern Shrike on a cold Utah day – Nikon D200, f8, 1\/1250, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Our North American Northern Shrikes are now once again Lanius borealis <\/em>instead of Lanius excubitor<\/i>. They had been lumped in with the Great grey shrikes in the Old World and now they aren’t.<\/p>\n

That means I need to make some changes in my Northern Harrier and Northern Shrike photo galleries.<\/p>\n

The proposal to change the common name of Ring-necked Ducks to Ring-billed Ducks<\/span><\/a> was turned down but I wish it hadn’t been, the “ring” on the necks of these ducks is hard to see whereas the ring on the bill isn’t.<\/p>\n

There are more changes but this morning these are about all I can wrap my head around.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good and birdy.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click\u00a0here<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to see more of my Willet photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just because Willets weren’t split this year doesn’t mean they won’t be split in the future, who knows what changes will be made a year from now. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,27,1022,697,25,704,348,403,2000,26,308],"tags":[5616,5620,2663,765,5621,5348,4169,786,1065,4006,2422,153,274,5512,5422,4168,11478,11477,5349,4047,4748],"class_list":["post-47534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-northern-harriers","category-northern-shrike","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-utah","category-willets","tag-american-ornithological-society","tag-aos","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-circus-hudsonius","tag-dna","tag-eastern-willet","tag-hawks","tag-hen-harrier","tag-lanius-borealis","tag-northern-harrier","tag-northern-shrike","tag-raptors","tag-shorebirds-2","tag-splits","tag-subspecies","tag-tringa-semipalmata","tag-tringa-semipalmata-inornata","tag-tringa-semipalmata-semipalmata","tag-western-willet","tag-willet","tag-willets"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-no-split-mia-mcpherson-6077.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-cmG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":44515,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/01\/21\/possible-eastern-and-western-willet-split-in-2017\/","url_meta":{"origin":47534,"position":0},"title":"Possible Eastern and Western Willet Split in 2017","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The question regarding this proposal is... Willet happen?","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Eastern Willet in flight, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6294,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/10\/07\/eastern-and-western-willets-in-breeding-plumage\/","url_meta":{"origin":47534,"position":1},"title":"Eastern And Western Willets In Breeding Plumage","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I've had the good fortune to photograph both the eastern and western Willets in breeding plumage, the eastern in Florida and the western in Utah and Montana.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Eastern Willet in breeding plumage, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-eastern-breeding-mia-mcpherson-7007.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-eastern-breeding-mia-mcpherson-7007.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-eastern-breeding-mia-mcpherson-7007.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-eastern-breeding-mia-mcpherson-7007.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21389,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/04\/06\/listening-for-willets\/","url_meta":{"origin":47534,"position":2},"title":"Listening For Willets","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I have often written how I long to hear the first Long-billed Curlew in the spring but I feel I should mention that I also anxiously await the first calls of migrating Willets too.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Western Willet in morning light, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-western-mia-mcpherson-1931.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-western-mia-mcpherson-1931.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-western-mia-mcpherson-1931.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-western-mia-mcpherson-1931.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8452,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/05\/28\/eastern-willet-in-flight-at-fort-de-soto\/","url_meta":{"origin":47534,"position":3},"title":"Eastern Willet in flight at Fort De Soto","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There are two subspecies of Willets which Western and Eastern, here in Utah I only see the Western subspecies but in Florida I could see both during the course of a year.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Eastern Willet in flight, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":138985,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/01\/27\/willet-and-the-gulf-of-mexico\/","url_meta":{"origin":47534,"position":4},"title":"Willet And The Gulf Of Mexico","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I dug way back into my archives for this photo of a Willet with waves rolling in from the Gulf of Mexico, taken in 2008 at Fort De Soto County Park in Florida.","rel":"","context":"In "Florida"","block_context":{"text":"Florida","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/florida\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Willet with waves coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/willet-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-8966.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/willet-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-8966.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/willet-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-8966.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/willet-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-8966.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25089,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/06\/06\/western-willets-on-antelope-island\/","url_meta":{"origin":47534,"position":5},"title":"Western Willets on Antelope Island","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"There are two subspecies of Willets in North America and during the breeding season in Utah the birds we see are the Western subspecies.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Willet perched high on a Greasewood, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-greasewood-mia-mcpherson-8773.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-greasewood-mia-mcpherson-8773.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-greasewood-mia-mcpherson-8773.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-greasewood-mia-mcpherson-8773.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}