Bird names are changing, species are splitting, and taxonomy continues to evolve – so what does this mean for you as a professional guide? Join BirdLife South Africa’s John Kinghorn and Dr. Dave Ehlers-Smith for a timely and practical session unpacking the latest developments in bird taxonomy and listing.
This webinar will explore how these updates impact your day-to-day guiding, species lists, and client interactions, while offering clear guidance on how to stay current in a fast-moving scientific landscape. It will also highlight the role of BirdLife South Africa’s List and Rarities Committee, and how its work—strengthened through BirdLife South Africa’s collaboration with the Field Guides Association of South Africa—supports the guiding community by providing authoritative, up-to-date information.
Designed specifically for professional field guides, this session will equip you with the knowledge and confidence to interpret and communicate taxonomic changes with clarity and credibility in the field and ensure you’re always one step ahead. The webinar will be presented by Dr David Ehlers Smith and John Kinghorn.
Dr. David Ehlers Smith
David is BirdLife South Africa’s Science and Spatial Planning Project Manager, whose position bridges the gap between detailed scientific data and effective conservation action. His role holds citizen science at its core, and includes supporting the Southern African Bird Atlas Project 2, the BirdLasser project, maintaining and developing BirdLife South Africa’s conservation data repository, coordinating the checklist of South Africa’s birds, and contributing to the Red Listing process of South Africa’s birds considered to be of conservation importance. In addition, David provides scientific support across all of BirdLife South Africa’s conservation programmes, serving a fundamental role in helping guide our conservation efforts through science-based methods. Dave conducted his PhD in the jungles of Indonesian Borneo, has over 16 years of experience in ecological and academic research, and is both a passionate conservation ecologist and avid birder.
John Kinghorn
John is BirdLife South Africa’s Avitourism Project Manager and has always had a deep-rooted passion for nature and storytelling. Qualifying and working as a professional specialist bird guide straight out of school, John traveled extensively across southern Africa, where he successfully completed a ‘Birding Big Year’ and recorded 803 species in a single calendar year (2014). His goal was to share his love for our region’s birds with as many people as possible, highlighting conservation efforts along the way. Whilst continuing to lead birding tours spanning the globe, John completed his LLB part-time, before taking a brief sabbatical from industry during which he successfully completed his articles of clerkship as a candidate attorney. The necessity to work toward his admission as an attorney was primarily COVID-induced, and it was not long before he accepted the call to return to conservation, exchanging his suit and tie for his much-preferred khakis and vellies. John has continued guiding specialist birding tours, recorded over 880 bird species within the subregion, served as an avifaunal consultant for renewable energy developments, and, more recently, has enjoyed exploring his passion for presenting through the television platform “WildEarth”.
We look forward to meeting all members online. Please register below:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PsKcgjwOQ6Co9nYD568DTA
