Another IOC update due

I try to follow BOU (British Ornithologists Union) rulings when it comes to my lists and update as they do which they do in line with IOC (International Ornithological Community) changes. This has cost me Steppe Grey Shrike and three Redpoll species as the IOC maintained their list with lumping these leaving them now as sub species. 

Well the IOU (International Ornithologists Union) have now stepped in to bring the IOC together with Clements/EBird and Birdlife International to produce one globally recognised bird taxonomy list. They set up a working group of ornithologists in 2018 to bring about the agreed list and the news leaking from the group is that in the UK we could lose Green-winged Teal which looks to become a sub-species of our Eurasian Teal, Hooded Crow which will become a sub-species of Carrion Crow and Hudsonian Whimbrel looks set to become a sub-species of Eurasian Whimbrel meaning I'll lose these three from my British list if this does indeed happen as part of the review.

Also affected could be Stejneger's Stonechat and Siberian Stonechat which look likely to be lumped and this again would result in me losing yet another bird from my total British list and Yelkouan and Balearic Shearwater looks likely to become one species and referred to as Mediterranean Shearwater, this won't affect me having dipped Yelkouan Shearwater a while back.

Once agreed the final list will be called AviList and will become the global list of taxonomic species globally. Currently the three lists from the three parties listed above (IOC 11276 / Clement 11017 and Birdlife Int. 11524) shows variation of upto 507 species and this work will bring them all in line which obviously makes sense but it would be nice if once in a while this kind of work produced some additions to the life list.

The work is due to be finalised later this year and published early in 2025 so I'm bracing myself for another four losses to my list in 2025. Will I ever get to the next landmark of 450 and does it really matter anyway?