Welcome to the Taconic Region’s 2019 Winter Geocaching Series.
About this cache: Most field guides and checklists present birds in taxonomic order, which represents the best understanding of the evolutionary relationships between bird families. Generally speaking, the groups at the front of the list/book are thought to have split off earlier from the common ancestor of all birds, or what is called the “root” of the bird tree of life. (That common ancestor is now known to have been a theropod dinosaur.)
Taxonomic sequence is fluid—each year ornithologists gather to discuss and implement changes based on the latest science. One year, for example, they split the Western Scrub-jay species into two species: California Scrub-jay and Woodhouse's Scrub-jay. That day, my life list increased by one more species, as I had seen Scrub-jays in both of their non-overlapping regions. Easy peasy!
But then there is the downside, when two species are lumped into one species and you lose a species on your life list. Easy come, easy go!
You are looking for a bison tube attached to something larger.