• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Anatidae (1 Viewer)

Stella Y. Lee, Graham R. Scott, William K. Milsom, 2008. Have wing morphology or flight kinematics evolved for extreme high altitude migration in the bar-headed goose?
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part C 148, pp. 324–331.
Abstract

...We found the same close relationship
between pink-footed, bean, and white-fronted geese as that of
Ruokonen et al. (2000), but our phylogeny also places bar-headed,
greylag, and Ross' geese in a monophyletic group in agreement with
Donne-Goussé et al. (2002)...
 
When looking at the images, I must say I don't buy the results of the Fulton et al. study. Surely the morphological differences must have a genetical basis.
I'd rather think of some kind of introgression. Maybe a small founder population of flyers was genetically swamped by resident non-flyers through initial (and sporadically recurring) hybridization? They seem to be sympatric and should continue to be treated as two species.

Rainer
 
When looking at the images, I must say I don't buy the results of the Fulton et al. study. Surely the morphological differences must have a genetical basis.
I'd rather think of some kind of introgression. Maybe a small founder population of flyers was genetically swamped by resident non-flyers through initial (and sporadically recurring) hybridization? They seem to be sympatric and should continue to be treated as two species.

Rainer

yes it seems clear at least from these photos (thanks Richard) that there are very definitely two distinctive forms on the Falklands and that the differences in morphology mirrors those I recall from the mainland.

These differences clearly aren't picked up by the Fulton et al. study. Why? Did they really sample both of the forms? How did they identify their specimens? There may of course be a genetic reason for the minor genetic differences as you suggest but there may be a simpler answer.

cheers, alan
 
Falkland Flying Steamer Duck

Agreed. There's a clear distinction between Falkland flightless and flying steamers, and the latter (unsurprisingly) look remarkably like mainland patachonicus. I'd like to see the discussion in the full paper...
 
Falkland Flying Steamer Duck

These differences clearly aren't picked up by the Fulton et al. study. Why? Did they really sample both of the forms? How did they identify their specimens?
Having now seen the paper...

The only comment on morphological differences is "Individuals of this small population are difficult, if not impossible, to confidently differentiate from the Falkland flightless steamer duck in the field" (citing Livezey & Humphrey 1992).

39 modern specimens were obtained, but didn't include any Falkland Flying Steamer Ducks. The latter were represented only by seven historic toepad samples (including four collected at Cape Dolphin, East Falkland). One of these yielded no DNA data presumably due to degradation, and only D-loop sequence data (but not ND2, CHD1Z or MB) could be obtained from the other six.

I suggest that Tachyeres patachonicus should be retained on the Falklands list for now!
 
Last edited:
Anatinae

Kraus, Kerstens, van Hooft, Megens, Elmberg, Tsvey, Sartakov, Soloviev, Crooijmans, Groenen, Ydenberg & Prins 2012. Widespread horizontal genomic exchange does not erode species barriers among sympatric ducks. BMC Evol Biol 12:45. [abstract] [provisional pdf]
 
South American sheldgeese

Bulgarella, Kopuchian, di Giacomo, Matus, Blank, Wilson & McCracken (in press). Molecular phylogeny of the South American sheldgeese with implications for conservation of Falkland Islands (Malvinas) and continental populations of the Ruddy-headed Goose Chloephaga rubidiceps and Upland Goose C. picta. BCI. [abstract]

Perhaps the continental population of Ruddy-headed Goose would at least merit treatment as a separate subspecies, but there doesn't seem to be an available name.
 
Last edited:
South Georgia Pintail

Forthcoming...
  • McCracken, Wilson, Peters, Winker & Martin (in review). Late Pleistocene colonization of South Georgia by Yellow-billed Pintails predates the Last Glacial Maximum. J Biogeogr.
AOU-SACC:
As noted by Ridgely & Greenfield (2001), no rationale has ever been published for the merger (by Meyer de Schauensee 1966) of mainland Anas spinicauda with A. georgica from South Georgia Island, which was treated as separate species by Hellmayr & Conover (1948a); see also Jaramillo (2003). Proposal needed.
Carboneras 1992 (HBW 1).

Jaramillo 2003 (Birds of Chile):
Yellow-billed Pintail
Most recent works treat Yellow-billed Pintail (spinicauda) as a continental form of the South Georgia Pintail (nominate georgica). While in plumage the two are extremely similar, georgica is significantly smaller, more compact, shorter-tailed and differs behaviourly. More study is needed, but it may be prudent to consider the two as species given that georgica is isolated and has clearly diverged from spinicauda, ...
Burton & Croxall 2012 (A Field Guide to the Wildlife of South Georgia):
South Georgia Pintail Often treated as a subspecies of Yellow-billed Pintail Anas g. georgica but we treat it as a full species, based on differences in plumage, measurements and number of tail feathers.
 
Last edited:
"Perhaps the continental population of Ruddy-headed Goose would at least merit treatment as a separate subspecies, but there doesn't seem to be an available name." Richard said.

I suggest C. chiloe (edit C. chiloensis )since in the original description of C. rubidiceps Sclater says that the British museum had specimens from the island of Chiloe which he considered C rubidiceps.
"C. poliocephala. Specimens of this latter bird in the British Museum are from the island of Chiloe, and it appears to be the westen representative of the present species."
 
Last edited:
Volkovsky et al 2013

An article from the far east on White-fronted and Bean Geese: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S1022795413040169
Volkovsky, Kulikova, Gerasimov & Zhuravlev 2013. Genetic diversity of Anser albifrons Scopoli, 1769 and Anser fabalis Latham, 1787 in the Russian Far East. Russ J Genet 49(4): 428–440.
... On the territory of Eurasia, the greater white-fronted goose is mostly found in the tundra; in the Far East, it also breeds in forest tundra near the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and is represented by the subspecies A. a. albifrons. In recent years, studies have appeared that refute this view and indicate the presence of A. a. frontalis Baird, 1858, in Eastern Siberia. ...

... The high and statistically significant level of differentiation of large and small clusters of A. albifrons suggested that samples that form haplotypes of the small cluster were either representatives of a separate differentiated population of A. a. albifrons or representatives of another subspecies, A. a. frontalis. ...
It's notable that the authors don't recognise or acknowledge the revised Greater White-front taxonomy proposed by Banks 2011, which assigns all of the Russian population to nominate albifrons (and treats frontalis as a synonym of gambelli, breeding in interior and northern Alaska and across arctic Canada to the Hudson Bay region).

[See also: Greater White-fronted Geese.]
 
South Georgia Pintail

Forthcoming...
  • McCracken, Wilson, Peters, Winker & Martin (in review). Late Pleistocene colonization of South Georgia by Yellow-billed Pintails predates the Last Glacial Maximum. J Biogeogr.
McCracken et al 2013. J Biogeogr 40(12): 2348–2360. [abstract]

McCracken, Wilson & Martin 2013. Gene flow and hybridization between numerically imbalanced populations of two duck species on the Subantarctic island of South Georgia. PLoS ONE 8(12): e82664. [article] [pdf]
[South Georgia Pintail Anas g georgica x Yellow-billed Teal A f flavirostris.]​
 
Seon-Deok Jin, Md. Rashedul Hoque, Dong-Won Seo, In-Kyu Kim, Cheorun Jo, Woon-Kee Paek and Jun-Heon Lee, 2012. Phylogenetic Relationships among Dabbling Duck Species in Korea using COI Gene Variations in mtDNA. J. Poult. Sci., 49: 163-170.

[PDF]
 
Anas

Forthcoming...

Peters, Winker, Millam, Lavretsky, Kulikova, Wilson, Zhuravlev & McCracken (in review). Mito-nuclear discord in six congeneric lineages of Holarctic ducks (genus Anas).
 
think it means analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial sequences respectively from 6 holarctic Anas species results in different phylogenetic trees.

probably

James
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top