Omani Owl (1 Viewer)

[Richard Klim]

Undiscovered owls

Lee Evans, UK400ClubRareBirdAlert, 27 Apr 2015: UNDISCOVERED OWLS - the new production from The Sound Approach Team.

 

[Richard Klim]

Brown Fish Owl

Robb 2015...

Turkish Fish Owl B semenowi
Brown Fish Owl B zeylonensis
Bengal Fish-owl B leschenaulti

Bengal Fish Owl Bubo [zeylonensis] leschenaulti: includes ssp orientalis (despite the possibly narrower geographic scope suggested by the common name).

Btw, just realised that Robb provisionally restricts the range of leschenaulti to approximately West Bengal and eastwards, with most of South Asia included in the range of zeylonensis (usually restricted to Sri Lanka).

Ref Holt et al 2013 (HBW Alive).

 

[Richard Klim]

Birdwatch

Kirwan et al. 2015. Multiple lines of evidence confirm that Hume’s Owl Strix butleri (A. O. Hume, 1878) is two species, with description of an unnamed species (Aves: Non-Passeriformes: Strigidae). Zootaxa 3904 (1): 028–050.

Breaking news...

Birdwatch Listcheck, 3 Jun 2015: Desert owls get complicated.

 

[James Lowther]

Breaking news...

3

 

[Richard Klim]

Undiscovered owls

Martin Collinson, Brit Birds 108(8): 495–496. Undiscovered Owls: a Sound Approach guide.

 

[daveholden]

Martin Collinson, Brit Birds 108(8): 495–496. Undiscovered Owls: a Sound Approach guide.

good review, one interesting point: "the evidence presented remains indicative of potential splits, but many of the biological situations remain in flux or under-studied. For example, the authors’ summary of the genetic data supporting a split of western European Little Owls from the ‘Cucumiau’ significantly underplays the subtlety of the genetic data as provided in the original paper". My take on that paper was that it had nothing to say about any potential splits! And some of the other sound-approach splits are mooted/claimed without even this level of genetic support!

Also, is there no argument for publishing these results in a peer-reviewed scientific journal and uploading the recordings to a public database? I may be over-idealistic, but having the scientific argument take place behind a pay-wall doesn't seem the way to go if you want your results widely available and generally scrutinized (and accepted).

 

[Xenospiza]

having the scientific argument take place behind a pay-wall doesn't seem the way to go if you want your results widely available and generally scrutinized (and accepted).

You can get all the data for the price of a single Reed Elsevier article. I think that's not too much to ask.

 

[mb1848]

New article:
http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/08/20/025122 .

 

[James Lowther]

What a great story! The discovery in oman, the realisation that the butleri type specimen was not what we thought it was, and this incredible coincidence of the discovery in Iran. Most exciting development in the western half of the palearctic I've seen.
Well done everyone
James

 

[Nutcracker]

Most exciting development in the western half of the palearctic I've seen.

Oman's Afrotropical, and Iran's eastern Palearctic

 

[Richard Klim]

Robb et al (in press)

New article:
http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/08/20/025122 .

Robb, Sangster, Aliabadian, van den Berg, Constantine, Irestedt, Khani, Musavi, Nunes, Willson & Walsh (in press). The rediscovery of Strix butleri (Hume, 1878) in Oman and Iran, with molecular resolution of the identity of Strix omanensis Robb, van den Berg and Constantine, 2013. bioRxiv.

To avoid confusion, we propose to exclude 'Hume's Owl' (and 'Hume's Tawny Owl') as the English name for either species because this is an ambiguous name. Until the end of 2014, it was used universally for what is now S. hadorami. At the same time it has historical links to S. butleri, the species actually described by Hume. Retaining it for either species may result in misunderstanding. Kirwan et al. (2015) proposed the name 'Desert Tawny Owl' for S. hadorami, but this may be shortened to 'Desert Owl' to avoid the implication of a close relationship with Tawny Owl S. aluco or having to add a modifier such as 'Forest' to the latter name. We recommend the name 'Omani Owl' for S. butleri sensu stricto, because the only known population of this species is in Oman, with only single individuals ever having been located outside Oman.

 

[James Lowther]

Well....
Oman is not afrotropical. Dhofar is. The batinah coast is oriental. The al hajar mountains, where the owl was discovered, are palearctic.
And Iran is in the western half of the palearctic -I chose my words deliberately.

James

 

[Richard Klim]

Oman's Afrotropical, and Iran's eastern Palearctic

Oman is commonly considered to be within the Palaearctic region (eg, Voous 1973/1977, Beaman 1994), with the possible exception of a small Afrotropical enclave in S Dhofar (eg, King 1999, Roselaar 2006 Fig 10).

And both Oman and Iran are included in the WP by Dutch Birding and Shirihai & Svensson (HWPB).

PS. As James notes, Roselaar 2006 also concluded that the coastal plain of N Oman (Batinah) is Oriental.

 

[Nutcracker]

Well....
Oman is not afrotropical. Dhofar is. The batinah coast is oriental. The al hajar mountains, where the owl was discovered, are palearctic.
And Iran is in the western half of the palearctic -I chose my words deliberately.

James

Standard boundaries, western (vs eastern) palearctic, afrotropical.

 

[Richard Klim]

Standard boundaries, western (vs eastern) palearctic, afrotropical.

Ref Wikipedia?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Palaearctic (cites BWP)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrotropic_ecozone

 

[lewis20126]

Ref Wikipedia?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Palaearctic (cites BWP)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrotropic_ecozone

I think Nutcracker is winding you up Richard.

cheers, a

 

[Richard Klim]

I think Nutcracker is winding you up Richard.

Very easy to do.

 

[Nutcracker]

Ref Wikipedia?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Palaearctic (cites BWP)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrotropic_ecozone

That's just where I got the maps from. But originally, BWP.

 

[mb1848]

Is this article published as published is used in the Code? The website says : Articles are not peer-reviewed, edited, or typeset before being posted online. And "Authors may submit a revised version of an article to bioRxiv at any time. Once posted on bioRxiv, articles are citable and therefore cannot be removed." Preprints deposited in bioRxiv can be cited using their digital object identifier (doi). Article 9 of the code. 9.9. preliminary versions of works accessible electronically in advance of publication (see Article 21.8.3); are not published.

 

[George Sangster]

No. This is a preprint / prepublication version of a manuscript. BioRxiv is intended to facilitate communication among scientists about scientific findings before formal publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

It may take a year before a paper is peer-reviewed, revised and published. Peer-review is usually performed by only 2-3 peers (who may overlook problems or miss opportunities for improvement). Prepublication has the advantages that it speeds up the release of new findings to the scientific community (and thus improves progress), and by seeking feedback from that community, it may improve the quality of the final publication.
http://amapress.gen.cam.ac.uk/?p=1316

When the paper is formally published elsewhere, a link will appear on BioRxiv directing you to that publication.

It is unlikely you'll find any new descriptions of zoological taxa on BioRxiv because this is not a journal, and has no ISSN.