Has this been split Andy?A
Has this been split Andy?
HBW is a bit of a nuisance now, it provides yet another, standalone, taxonomic authority to confuse.
Many field guides adopt the odd split which doesn't get widely applied, why are people suddenly using this work as the basis for their lists?
Especially when answering ID queries, I think it better to stick to established authorities? A
BirdLife Data Zone also splits, but the bonus is that it also provides maps.
MJB
I know that in Sri Lanka they have a vested interest in splitting as many island endemics as possible.
The same applies to books, it's a selling point, the Illustrated checklist from HBW contains over 600 splits, far fewer lumps.
Re field guides, many of the splits adopted by Rasmussen have since been accepted more widely. It's still quite a minefield though.
So wait for that to happen in due course if ever, no issue with that
HBW will be shaking up taxonomy even more when they publish revisions to their species list. Among the changes that caught my eye are lumping Hooded and Carrion Crow, all forms of Southern Grey Shrike (except nominatemeridionalis) with Great Grey and all forms of Lesser Whitethroat, including Hume's. Arabia is not spared, with Arabian Accentor being lumped with Radde's (!), although to make up for it, we're getting a new endemic in Arabian Sunbird, split from Shining. As far as I can see, I'll be losing as much as I'm gaining in terms of my life list!
Together with Bird Life International, it IS an authority. This is taken from the IOC website:
The IOC World Bird List complements three other primary world bird lists that differ slightly in their primary goals and taxonomic philosophy, i.e. The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World, The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World, 4th Edition, and HBW Alive/BirdLife International.
Obviously it's an issue that these checklists differ from each other in terms of species treatment and the website mentions that the International Ornithologists's Union will try to bring them into closer alignment.
By the way, I don't have a subscription to HBW Alive - I just use the free functionality of the website. And here in the UAE we use IOC.
In future I'll try to avoid confusion.
HBW are the only ones with a major financial interest in producing a list, I'm always sceptical of such and maybe I'm just a dinosaur, birders quoting them as a listing authority is fairly new to me!