The islands of the Wallacean biodiversity hotspot support diverse and highly endemic bird communities, yet remain ornithologically poorly studied. There is a particular paucity of data regarding breeding biology for the region's birds. Here, we help to address this research gap by collating observations of breeding evidence made during nearly 20 years of field work between 1999 and 2018 in south-east Sulawesi and its offshore islands. Data were collected between April and September, with a special focus on July and August, which is the dry season across the southern half of Sulawesi. In total, we summarise 1,064 observations of potential breeding in 66 species, of which 27 are Wallacean endemics (including the Critically Endangered Maleo Macrocephalon maleo), and 39 species of wider range (including the Endangered Milky Stork Mycteria cinerea). Records include species with little or no previously published information on their breeding biology, such as Pygmy Hanging Parrot Loriculus exilis, Sulawesi Pitta Erythropitta celebensis and an undescribed Zosterops species, provisionally referred to as Wangi-wangi White-eye.

The description of the Subantarctic Diving Petrel Pelecanoides urinatrix exsul Salvin, 1896, creates confusion because the type series contains specimens of three different taxa. Here we nominate a lectotype, thereby fixing the identity of this taxon, and restrict its type locality to the Baie de l'Observatoire, La Grande Terre, Kerguelen Islands, Indian Ocean. This stabilises its taxonomy.

Blackpoll Warbler Setophaga striata migrates between its breeding grounds in northern North America and non-breeding areas in northern South America, mainly Amazonia, but the presence of apparently small numbers in southern South America suggests the existence of an additional wintering area. We investigated this possibility by reviewing available records, and report a new wintering record in South America's largest conurbation. Data from the literature, online platforms and field observations reveal 44 records over the last 52 years. Records are available from throughout the Atlantic Forest domain of south-east and southern Brazil, at all seasons, but mainly the austral summer and autumn. The concentration of records and permanence of some birds for several months at the same localities indicate a second wintering area for the species in south-east and south Brazil, north-east Argentina and south-east Paraguay.

I present evidence of sympatric occurrence of two subspecies of Blue-crowned Manakin Lepidothrix coronata in south-west Amazonia. Specimens collected in eastern Acre in Brazil and northern Bolivia, as well as records from south-east Peru, indicate that L. c. exquisita and L c. caelestipileata both occur in the south-east of the Inambari centre of endemism, when compared to their respective holotypes. Thus, L. c. exquisita, which was considered endemic to central-north Peru, is also present in the lowlands of south-west Brazilian Amazonia and northern Bolivia, whilst caelestipileata, previously known from the Juruá–Madeira region in Brazil, is present further south, reaching south-east Peru and northern Bolivia.

John James Audubon (1785–1851) claimed to have personally discovered Lincoln's Sparrow Melospiza lincolnii (Audubon, 1834) in his published account of that species. However, his narrative is contradicted by his wife Lucy's transcript of his diary. A second diary transcript, published by his granddaughter Maria, fully complies with Audubon's published account. The unpublished diary of Thomas Lincoln (1812–83), for whom the sparrow was named, relocated after nearly a century, provides support for Lucy's version. The most parsimonious explanation for the evidence presented here is that Audubon (1834) fabricated his story about discovering Lincoln's Sparrow; then Maria doctored her published transcript of his diary to bring the primary record into alignment with his false narrative. This study sheds light on the ‘primary source problem’ which pervades Audubon scholarship, and highlights the need for a systematic review of his contributions.

‘Drawing all day.’—Audubon in Buchanan (1868: 268)

White-cheeked Turaco Menelikornis (leucotis) leucotis and Crimson-crested Turaco M. (l.) donaldsoni have long been treated as conspecific. Because of the lack of data concerning their distribution and areas of potential geographical overlap, they have been considered to be parapatric at most. In 2019 and 2021, we conducted a field study that produced nearly 40 records of the two taxa. In the study area, which stretched 120 km north to south from the upper Shabelle Valley via the Oda and Bale Mts. to Harenna Forest, both leucotis and donaldsoni occurred. The presence of both taxa was recorded across c.50 km west to east, which indicates an area of range overlap of about 6,000 km^2. Sympatry between leucotis and donaldsoni, together with clear differences in morphology (mainly crest colour) as well as molecular evidence, strongly support treating them as different species.

Whether dark-morph Herald Petrel Pterodroma heraldica exists or not has been debated for many years. We summarise previous contributions on the subject, provide indisputable evidence of the dark morph, describe its plumage based on museum specimens and live birds, highlight differences between dark, light and intermediate morphs, and enumerate characters that relatively easily separate the dark morph from ‘all-dark’ Henderson Petrel P. atrata. Dark-morph Herald Petrel is scarce and local. Since the 1970s, records have been restricted to the central South Pacific at Mangareva Island (Gambier Islands) and Ua Pou (Marquesas Islands).

Barking Owl Ninox connivens has two recognised subspecies in Australia: N. c. connivens and N. c. peninsularis. N. c. connivens currently includes the isolated south-west Australian population, which is separated from eastern populations by the Nullarbor Plain and from N. c. peninsularis to the north. N. c. connivens in south-west Australia occurs from near Perth in the north, east to Northam and south-east to Katanning and Bremer Bay; it has been treated subspecifically as N. c. addenda Mathews, 1912, but this name is not currently in use. Given concern over the apparent rarity of the south-west Australian population, we sought to compile all known historical and contemporary records in order to assess its conservation status and ecology. We located the holotype of N. c. addenda Mathews, 1912, and found only ten sightings in the past 20 years that met our criteria for acceptance. No sound-recordings or photographs of wild birds are known.

A recent proposal to seek to suppress the name Strix pumila is shown by a careful search of the old literature to be unnecessary as the name was first applied to one species where it ranks as a junior synonym, and later applied to a different species where it has no nomenclatural availability as it is preoccupied.