Record Committee Decision 2022
Record Committee did not organise a physical meeting in January 2022 due to no urgent matter to resolve for the time being and escalating covid situation. Discussion and assessment were conducted via emails and online platform.
At a meeting on 26 April 2022, the Record Committee made the following decisions.
Removal in Cat I
• Cinereous Tit Parus cinereus commixtus, the common taxon recorded in Hong Kong, was moved to place under Japanese Tit as Parus minor commixtus based on suggestion of IOC v1.6 (2008) and recent DNA study (in prep.). RC Checklist Sub-committee will also review the pended Japanese Tit records (those suggested as Parus m. minor) since the RC meeting on 23 August 2018.
Additions to Cat IIA
• Chinese Babax Pterorhinus lanceolatus was moved from Cat III to Cat IIA based on recent records at Tai Mo Shan which could be previously undetected due to changes of their suitable preferred habitat in previous years (2007-2018).
Taxonomy and HK List nomenclature changes:
It incorporates changes introduced in the recent IOC Bird List v11.2 and v12.1 species and taxonomic updates as follows:
English name of Stejneger’s Stonechat Saxicolar stejnegeri has changed to Amur Stonechat. The change was incorporated in HK List.
Greyish-crowned Leafbird Chloropsis lazuline was split from Orange-bellied Leafbird C. hardwickii based on phylogenetic divergence and plumage differences. This HK List also adopted this change.
IUCN Red List Status (in 2021)
Mountain Hawk Eagle has been uplisted from Least Concern (LC) to Near threatened (NT).
Chinese Grassbird has been downlisted from Vulnerable (VU) to Near threatened (NT).
The HK List now stands at 572 species in Cat I and II. An updated HK List will be published soon.
Yat-tung Yu
RC Chairman
