Issues under consideration

[Posted 15 May 2026; last updated 15 May 2026]

This page summarizes Issues under consideration for taxonomic or nomenclatural changes in the upcoming revision of AviList.

Proposals are most often crafted by members of the Regional Advisory Groups (including issues considered by AOS-NACC and SACC), but may also be created by members of TaxCom, the ornithological community, or general public. All proposals are reviewed and edited (as needed) by the most appropriate Regional Advisory Group (RAG) to ensure that they sufficiently summarize available knowledge. The RAG chairs decide if and when a given proposal is ready for review by TaxCom; once those are forwarded to TaxCom they will be shown in the table and will be voted on. Each proposal in the table below has a link in Details column to the actual proposal under review by TaxCom, either as a PDF for proposals developed by the Regional Advisory Groups or as links to proposals (and votes) considered and voted on by AOS-NACC and SACC. Links to key papers are sometimes provided as well.

The below proposals are under consideration by TaxCom for the next version of AviList. The issues are listed chronologically by the date that TaxCom began review of each case; TaxCom generally reviews cases over a two-month period, so most issues that have exceeded the two month deadline will have completed the voting process within TaxCom. Once votes are complete, and regardless of the outcome of the votes, each of the below issues will have a Decision Summary reflected in the next version of AviList (although no decision is final until published).

In addition to the TaxCom issues listed below, there are dozens of additional proposals still in preparation by the Regional Advisory Groups; these will be posted here once they have been finalized, approved by the relevant RAG chair, and sent along to TaxCom.

The next version of AviList will include changes stemming from the Issues under consideration below, as well as changes noted in the errata page, and other corrections and improvements to range statements, sequence, and bibliographic information. All changes from the previous version will be identified clearly in the published list and all major changes will include a Decision Summary.

The next version of AviList (v2026) is planned for publication in September or October of 2026.

AviList invites feedback from the community on any issue published in AviList v2025 that merits revision, whether from an error, oversight, reconsideration, or new published information. The current best course for providing feedback on changes to taxonomy or nomenclature is to contact the chair (or chairs) of the Specialist and Regional Advisory Groups. The Regional Advisory Groups have several dozen proposals in progress and under review at any given time, and many of these will graduate to formal proposals. The Specialist and Regional Advisory Group chairs will be able to advise on whether a given issue is already under development and, if not, will be able to advise on the creation of an initial proposal. Note that some taxa may not fall neatly in to one specific region, so it is okay to contact several chairs at once in such cases.

• North America: Terry Chesser <chessert@si.edu>, Chair of AOS-NACC
• South America: Van Remsen <najames@LSU.EDU>, Chair of SACC
• Palearctic: Manuel Schweizer <manuel.schweizer@nmbe.ch>, Chair of Palearctic RAG
• Tropical Asia: Keren Sadanandan <avilist.tropicalrag@gmail.com>, Chair of Tropical Asian RAG
• Australasia: Anna Kearns <anna.kearns@csiro.au>, Chair of Australasian RAG
• Sub-Saharan Africa: Gabriel Jamie <gabriel.jamie@uct.ac.za>, Chair of Sub-Saharan Africa RAG
• Nomenclature: Frank Rheindt <dbsrfe@nus.edu.sg>, temporary Chair of Nomenclatural Advisory Group
• Bibliography: Denis Lepage <dlepage@bsc-eoc.org>, Chair of Bibliographic Committee

More minor changes (e.g., corrections of errors, improvements of range statements, etc.) can be reviewed and approved quickly. Please send these comments, or questions, to us at avilist7@gmail.com.