[njlarsen]

Discussion thread for Little Wattlebird.

I have opened this thread to discuss some naming/taxonomy issues for this species and the entry for Brush Wattlebird (http://www.birdforum.net/opus/Brush_Wattlebird). These two species have at one time been considered one species under the name of Little Wattlebird. One part of the problem is that many current Australian field guides do not recognize this split; another part of the problem is that there is no agreement with regards to the post split species. The Western Australian form A. lunulata is Little W according to Clements and Sibley&Monroe, but Western according to Howard&Moore and Gill&Wrigth; the eastern Australian form A. chrysoptera is Brush W. according to Clements and Sibley&Monroe, but Little according to Howard&Moore and Gill&Wrigth.

I don't see an easy way out of this conundrum, so I propose a radical solution: (A) Use the names Western and Brush for the two forms, and (B) use the name Little for a disambiguation page telling why this has been done.

I will be willing to do the work on setting this up, but I want to hear what everyone else thinks about the problem before going ahead.

thanks
Niels

[jthoppes]

That sounds like a good solution to me.

[swiss7]

The new list of Australian birds by Christidis & Boles (2008), which is widely believed to be the definitive list for Australia has split Little Wattlebird with what they called the Western Wattlebird.

EDIT: Am trying to say that Little is a much more commonly used name in Eastern Australia than Brush which is rapidly disappearing.

[Alan Manson]

I would go with the Gill&Wright common names, especially considering that Little W is more commonly used in e Aus.

[njlarsen]

I just had a go at this. I first of all made a new entry for western wattlebird which is here: http://www.birdforum.net/opus/Western_Wattlebird. I followed the advice of the two last posts and made the entry for Little Wattlebird into an entry for the Eastern form; however, that entry now starts with a heading "disambiguation" where the situation is explained. I then deleted content of the entry for Brush Wattlebird, and made that one into a redirect to the entry named Little W.

Take a look at the Little and western entries as see if it all makes sense.

thanks
Niels

[Alan Manson]

Take a look at the Little and western entries as see if it all makes sense.

Looks good to me Niels - Thanks!