| Flagger | Content Author | Content | Reason | Flag Created | Resolved by | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| jlayman | loarie | Northern Yellow-shafted Flicker (Subspecies Colaptes auratus luteus) |
Needs renaming; this ssp represents the northern populations of yellow-shafted flicker. |
Dec. 2, 2017 19:01:47 +0000 | rjq |
Name added. Though it’s going to messy trying to reassign every sighting to the right ssp |
Comments
Unfortunately, iNat doesn't seem to allow lumping of subspecies (ebird handles this much better). So correcting the subspecies will lead to confusion and lots of birds only identifiable to Northern, but seems to be the only option (apart from leaving them all mislabelled as auratus). I've changed a few more to luteus but didn't get very far.
It gets even more of a headache when you consider that auratus' range is flooded with wintering luteus right now.
Starting to think it might have been simpler leaving them as the wrong spp...
Maybe consider a lumping for reporting purposes with ssp auratus? This is what eBird does with a inseparable ssp. Right now, Intauralist forces a geographic ssp assumption if one wants to ID as red-shafted/yellow-shafted form (and, as a quick look at the ssp auratus sightings map shows, a lot of people choose the wrong ssp!).