[Tahiti Petrel, one of the species recently added to the Checklist of the Birds of Panama. Photo courtesy of Tony Morris]

Audubon Panama presents the 2012 edition of its Checklist of the Birds of Panama, which includes the 985 species of birds recorded in the Republic of Panama to date, following the taxonomy of the American Ornithologists’ Union Check-list of North American Birds and its most recent supplements.

The list has increased by three, to 985, due to the addition of Gray-bellied Hawk and Clay-colored Sparrow (Appendix), and the split of Stripe-headed Brush-Finch into the (western) Costa Rican Brush-Finch and (eastern) Black-headed Brush-Finch. The split of Galapagos Shearwater from Audubon’s Shearwater has been accepted, but this was already on our list.

A couple of English names have changed due to taxonomic changes, Gray Hawk to Gray-lined Hawk and Ashy-tailed Swift to Sick’s Swift.

The Sapayoa gets its own family (Sapayoidae) as do the Tityras and Becards (along with the Schiffornis and Speckled Mourner), the Tityridae. The Piprites still remains without a family (Incertae sedis). The Bush-Tanagers have now been moved to the Bunting family (Emberizidae). The Northern Wheatear has been moved from Thrushes to Old World Flycatchers (Muscicapidae). It’s been decided that the falcons are actually more closely related to parrots than to the hawks and eagles, and both are closely related to the perching birds, so their positions in the list has been moved.

There are a ton of scientific name changes, especially in the Wrens and Wood-Warblers.

Download your copy in pdf here.