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Lynx-BirdLife Taxonomic Checklist (1 Viewer)

Interesting idea - it seems odd that input is only required in relation to non passerines as far as I can see. Is this the illustrated checklist?

cheers, alan
 
lewis20126 said:
...it seems odd that input is only required in relation to non passerines as far as I can see. Is this the illustrated checklist?
Click to expand...
Yes, I assume that it's for the Illustrated Checklist, Vol 1 (Non-passerines). Presumably passerines will follow.

Lynx originally stated that Vol 1 was due to be published in late 2012. Clearly it's now going to be much later.
 
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Richard Klim said:
Yes, I assume that it's for the Illustrated Checklist, Vol 1 (Non-passerines). Presumably passerines will follow.
Click to expand...

Aha, that all makes sense.

ref the detail, surely that Rainbow Starfrontlet stuff will put the cat amongst the pigeons. Those really are "micro-ranges" more akin to endemic amphibians or similar. I can't think of any similar examples within birds, where such a large number of splits is possible over such a small area.

cheers, alan
 
Mexican/Mottled Ducks

Considers splitting Anas (platyrhynchos) diazi, with subspecies fulvigula. But fulvigula 1874 has priority over diazi 1886.

[See also IOC 2009.]
 
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Hudsonian Whimbrel

Looks like another thumbs-down for BOURC's recent split of Numenius (phaeopus) hudsonicus (Sangster et al 2011), echoing AOU's concerns re lack of differences in vocalisations. eg, Van Remsen (2011):
Concerning the Whimbrels and the Sandwich Terns, note that the BOU is basing this on a single gene tree -- the branching pattern shown by a single gene. We are learning the hard way that "gene trees" and "species trees" are not necessarily the same thing, as dramatized by Jacobsen and Omland's recent paper on North American orioles and Carling and Brumfield's paper on Passerina buntings. Therefore, bar is being raised rapidly on using single gene trees to change classifications. Also, note that the BOU seems to be applying "bar-coder" logic to these decisions, namely if two taxa differ by more than a certain % sequence divergence, then they are ranked as species. That logic is widely disputed, at least here in North America. As for the Whimbrels, the last I heard was that calls are indistinguishable -- is there any new data on this? If not, then I think they would be the only shorebird species pair that is not diagnosable by calls ... if correct, highly suspicious.
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Richard says "Considers splitting Anas (platyrhynchos) diazi, with subspecies fulvigula. But fulvigula 1874 has priority over diazi 1886." Could there be a problem with using fulvigula for Mexican Ducks since fulvigula was originally described as a var. (sub-species) of Black Duck and A. diazi was described as its own species by the same author??
Mottle OD: Page 111 : http://books.google.com/books?id=zQgrAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false .
Mexican Duck: http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v003n03/p0331-p0333.pdf .
 
BirdLife splits: 12 Nov 2012

The BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group is continuing to apply the Tobias et al 2010 criteria for species delimitation to the BirdLife Checklist - a big job!
* = split by IOC.

[BirdLife hasn't (yet) given common names.]​
 
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BirdLife splits: 13 Nov 2012

 
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lewis20126 said:
Does anyone have any idea if the application of the Tobias et al criteria is going to be publsihed anywhere (in relation to any or all relevant taxa) so that it can be subject to scrutiny or is this a "black box" process?
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Don't know, Alan. It's notable that the earlier consultation on potential taxonomic changes generally outlined the quantitative scores supporting potential splits, whereas the splits actually declared in recent days have no explicit justification (so far, anyway)...

PS. Perhaps the BirdLife species factsheets will include scoring details...?
 
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BirdLife splits: 14 Nov 2012

 
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If you look at some of differences of species they propose in Asia and Africa what about the many American species with similar or larger differences? There are very few in the region in the list. Where are undulated tinamou, ruddy duck, speckled chachalaca, crested bobwhite, sharp-shinned hawk, sapphire quail-dove, brown-throated parakeet, burrowing parrot, blue-headed parrot, speckle-faced parrot, band-winged nightjar, collared inca, toucans, toucanets, aracaris and more? They even suggest Aglaiocercus could be 1 species. By standard of variable dwarf kingfisher and some others on list it would be more logic to split Aglaiocercus in to more than 3 species. In hummingbirds at least we know gorget, frontlet and tail color is important in species recognition and if they don't overlap like they speculate (published material say they do) ranges must be in contact.
A few outside America are also missing in action. You would think red-breasted parakeet and long-tailed parakeet score in size, plumage and male-female difference is the same as or more than blue-rumped parrot. Silver pheasant the same or more than crested fireback?
Perhaps I'm wrong in the examples but the list feels a bit inconsistent to me.
 
Roy'N said:
If you look at some of differences of species they propose in Asia and Africa what about the many American species with similar or larger differences? There are very few in the region in the list. Where are undulated tinamou, ruddy duck, speckled chachalaca, crested bobwhite, sharp-shinned hawk, sapphire quail-dove, brown-throated parakeet, burrowing parrot, blue-headed parrot, speckle-faced parrot, band-winged nightjar, collared inca, toucans, toucanets, aracaris and more? They even suggest Aglaiocercus could be 1 species. By standard of variable dwarf kingfisher and some others on list it would be more logic to split Aglaiocercus in to more than 3 species. In hummingbirds at least we know gorget, frontlet and tail color is important in species recognition and if they don't overlap like they speculate (published material say they do) ranges must be in contact.
A few outside America are also missing in action. You would think red-breasted parakeet and long-tailed parakeet score in size, plumage and male-female difference is the same as or more than blue-rumped parrot. Silver pheasant the same or more than crested fireback?
Perhaps I'm wrong in the examples but the list feels a bit inconsistent to me.
Click to expand...

My impression is that BLI are focusing on Asia & Africa at least for the moment in the absence of well established regional bodies in those areas. Perhaps when they are done with those areas they will move on to the Americas with the Tobias et al. criteria? The focus also seems to be on island allospecies which was one of the main reasons for developing these criteria in the absence of contact (or the potential for contact).

cheers, alan
 
Thanks for the answer Alan perhaps you right are that there will be more focus on America in future.

The focus also seems to be on island allospecies which was one of the main reasons for developing these criteria in the absence of contact (or the potential for contact).
Click to expand...

I'm sure you already know but mountain tops separated by valleys or lowland rainforests separated by high mountains/dry country/big rivers are ecologic islands in the exact same way as real islands.
 
As Alan notes, BirdLife seems to be concentrating its initial efforts on those regions that have been most neglected taxonomically.

It's also worth noting that all of the 2013 taxonomic changes declared so far concern examples where one or more of the resulting species are being proposed for at least Near Threatened (NT) status. Presumably the Tobias et al criteria would also identify numerous splits where the resulting species are of Least Concern (LC) – but we probably won't learn of those until the 2013 checklist update...
[On the other hand, perhaps BTWG is only examining species of potential conservation concern, although Lynx Edicions would presumably like to have a balanced, taxonomically-consistent checklist...?]

PS. For completeness, two additional 2013 changes (previously 'Under Review') declared earlier (29 Aug):
 
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Roy'N said:
If you look at some of differences of species they propose in Asia and Africa what about the many American species with similar or larger differences? There are very few in the region in the list. Where are undulated tinamou, ruddy duck, speckled chachalaca, crested bobwhite, sharp-shinned hawk, sapphire quail-dove, brown-throated parakeet, burrowing parrot, blue-headed parrot, speckle-faced parrot, band-winged nightjar, collared inca, toucans, toucanets, aracaris and more? They even suggest Aglaiocercus could be 1 species. By standard of variable dwarf kingfisher and some others on list it would be more logic to split Aglaiocercus in to more than 3 species. In hummingbirds at least we know gorget, frontlet and tail color is important in species recognition and if they don't overlap like they speculate (published material say they do) ranges must be in contact.
A few outside America are also missing in action. You would think red-breasted parakeet and long-tailed parakeet score in size, plumage and male-female difference is the same as or more than blue-rumped parrot. Silver pheasant the same or more than crested fireback?
Perhaps I'm wrong in the examples but the list feels a bit inconsistent to me.
Click to expand...

I don't think Nigel has opened those drawers yet ;)
 
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