HBW and BirdLife Taxonomic Checklist v6 (December 2021) (1 Viewer)

[Peter Kovalik]

HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 6. Available there

 

[gusasp]

HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 6. Available there

Mostly alignments, as relumping of Black-winged Starling, resplitting of Himalayan and Oriental Cuckoos plus consensus on babbler genera, sylvids, grassbirds and more.

A few novel interesting splits and lumps though. Yellow-crested Cockatoo is split in two, and it was critically endangered to begin with! Endangered Ash’s Lark lumped in Somali Lark and Foxy Lark in Fawn-colored, bringing the number of lark species both IOC & eBird/Clements recognize but not BLI up to ten!

New moves are also transfering Rusty and Gillett’s Larks to Calendulauda as well as (correctly) placing Halmahera Cicadabird back in Coracina.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

! Endangered Ash’s Lark lumped in Somali Lark and Foxy Lark in Fawn-colored, bringing the number of lark species both IOC & eBird/Clements recognize but not BLI up to ten!

IOC still recognise Ash's and Foxy as species 🤔🤔🧐🧐

New moves are also transfering Rusty and Gillett’s Larks to Calendulauda a

Based on ?


Why the pdf files end to page 163 ?

 

[l_raty]

New moves are also transfering Rusty and Gillett’s Larks to Calendulauda a

Based on ?

Barnes 2007 (PhD thesis - https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11427/6228/thesis_sci_2007_barnes_k_n.pdf ) wrote :

Although no genetic material was available for these species, I also believe that based on consistent plumage, including a lack of rufous on the wing and a long dark tail, and morphometric characters (K. Barnes unpubl. data) the taxa rufa, gilletti and degodiensis belong in Calendulauda. The inclusion of rufa and gilletti in a group with sabota and poicilosterna is supported by White's (1956a, 1959) treatment of these taxa in the pipit-like Mirafra.

AFAIK, there genetic data are still lacking.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Barnes 2007 (PhD thesis - https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11427/6228/thesis_sci_2007_barnes_k_n.pdf ) wrote :


AFAIK, there genetic data are still lacking.

Mouokay


It doesn't tell me why the PDF I'm downloading is only 163 pages long

 

[jts1882]

Mouokay


It doesn't tell me why the PDF I'm downloading is only 163 pages long

Clearly there is a problem with the pdf file (only 11% of the species). It also says "HBW/BirdLife Digital Checklist v.5" at the bottom or each page.

You can get the full excel file with subspecies from the zip download at the bottom of the page. The pdf there is also truncated.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

You can get the full excel file with subspecies from the zip download at the bottom of the page. The pdf there is also truncated.

Yes I did 😉 and yes I saw

 

[l_raty]

You can get the full excel file with subspecies from the zip download at the bottom of the page.

In the same .zip (direct link: here)., there is also a .xlsx file with taxonomic notes. (Beware that for some reason many rows are hidden in this file.) For the larks, they say:

Calendulauda rufa

Gillett’s Lark and Rusty Lark were previously included in Mirafra (del Hoyo & Collar 2016). Recent (as yet unpublished) genetic work supports previous assertions that their slender, pipit-like shape, lack of white outertail, proclivity for perching in trees and (in the case of Gillett’s Lark, as the song of Rusty Lark is unknown) simple song structure all clearly place them in Calendulauda. Close relationship with C. gilletti suggested by some authors, but no data on genetics for either species; Calendulauda poecilosterna (which has been sampled molecularly) suggested as third member of same grouping. We follow Donald & Alström (in prep) in synonymising the subspecies nigriticola with the nominate. Two subspecies recognized.

Calendulauda gilletti

Gillett’s Lark and Rusty Lark were previously included in Mirafra (del Hoyo & Collar 2016). Recent (as yet unpublished) genetic work supports previous assertions that their slender, pipit-like shape, lack of white outertail, proclivity for perching in trees and (in the case of Gillett’s Lark, as the song of Rusty Lark is unknown) simple song structure all clearly place them in Calendulauda. Bears close resemblance to Calendulauda alopex intercedens. Form degodiensis, sometimes treated as a full species, differs only in its marginally smaller size (Collar et al. 2009), and perhaps better synonymized with nominate. Subspecies arorihensis intergrades with nominate in NW Somalia. Three subspecies recognized.

So it seems they are basing their treatment on unpublished genetic data.
(Some of these notes still need some reworking... The third sentence in the C. rufa note is inherited from version 5, and should probably be gone.)

 

[Andy Adcock]

Mostly alignments, as relumping of Black-winged Starling, resplitting of Himalayan and Oriental Cuckoos plus consensus on babbler genera, sylvids, grassbirds and more.

A few novel interesting splits and lumps though. Yellow-crested Cockatoo is split in two, and it was critically endangered to begin with! Endangered Ash’s Lark lumped in Somali Lark and Foxy Lark in Fawn-colored, bringing the number of lark species both IOC & eBird/Clements recognize but not BLI up to ten!

New moves are also transfering Rusty and Gillett’s Larks to Calendulauda as well as (correctly) placing Halmahera Cicadabird back in Coracina.

With what?

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

With what?

With A. tertius IMHO

 

[gusasp]

With what?

They previously split in three and now lump them back into one, in agreement with everybody else.

 

[Andy Adcock]

They previously split in three and now lump them back into one, in agreement with everybody else.

Not something I've ever known.

 

[l_raty]

Not something I've ever known.

See:

The conservation value of admixed phenotypes in a critically endangered species complex - Scientific Reports

In today’s environmental crisis, conservationists are increasingly confronted with terminally endangered species whose last few surviving populations may be affected by allelic introgression from closely related species. Yet there is a worrying lack of evidence-based recommendations and...

doi.org

 

[Andy Adcock]

See:

The conservation value of admixed phenotypes in a critically endangered species complex - Scientific Reports

In today’s environmental crisis, conservationists are increasingly confronted with terminally endangered species whose last few surviving populations may be affected by allelic introgression from closely related species. Yet there is a worrying lack of evidence-based recommendations and...

doi.org

Thanks, this is literally the first I've heard of this and here's why.

'The IUCN itself has followed a recent taxonomic re-assessment that elevates the three subspecies of the BWM to species level33 based on variation in plumage and biometrics34. This treatment has been controversial within the IUCN’s Asian Songbird Trade Specialist Group32, and has not been followed by any of the other major global or regional avian taxonomic authorities26,35,36,37. (We do not follow this treatment in this study either and predominantly refer to the three entities as ‘taxa’). '

 

[T.O.]

Mostly alignments, as relumping of Black-winged Starling, resplitting of Himalayan and Oriental Cuckoos plus consensus on babbler genera, sylvids, grassbirds and more.

A few novel interesting splits and lumps though. Yellow-crested Cockatoo is split in two, and it was critically endangered to begin with! Endangered Ash’s Lark lumped in Somali Lark and Foxy Lark in Fawn-colored, bringing the number of lark species both IOC & eBird/Clements recognize but not BLI up to ten!

New moves are also transfering Rusty and Gillett’s Larks to Calendulauda as well as (correctly) placing Halmahera Cicadabird back in Coracina.

Where do you find all those splits/changes? In the excel documents I download there are only 39 rows on the changes tab.... Only Galliformes, Gruiformes and Caprimulgiformes seem covered...

 

[gusasp]

Where do you find all those splits/changes? In the excel documents I download there are only 39 rows on the changes tab.... Only Galliformes, Gruiformes and Caprimulgiformes seem covered...

It’s there in 2021 Red List changes, but you’ll have to scroll down and gather the information.

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Where do you find all those splits/changes? In the excel documents I download there are only 39 rows on the changes tab.... Only Galliformes, Gruiformes and Caprimulgiformes seem covered...

In short
Species added:

Oreotrochilus cyanolaemus
Campylopterus diamantinensis
Campylopterus calcirupicola
Ducula nicobarica
Cuculus optatus
Rheinardia nigrescens
Cacatua citrinocristata
Glaucidium sylvaticum

Species deleted:

Calendulauda alopex
Mirafra ashi
Acridotheres tricolor
Acridotheres tertius

Family added:

Alcippeidae
Paradoxornithidae

Changed name of family:

i.a. from Ptiliogonatidae to Ptiliogonidae [?]

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Calendulauda alopex
Mirafra ashi

What studies justify the lumping of these two species, because IOC and others always recognizes them ?

 

[l_raty]

What studies justify the lumping ( of these two species, because IOC and others always recognizes them ?

The taxonomic notes say:

• Calendulauda africanoides / alopex -

The north-eastern African forms of this complex were previously split as Foxy Lark Calendulauda alopex (del Hoyo & Collar 2016), largely on the basis of wide allopatry, from C. africanoides (del Hoyo & Collar 2016). However, the two populations are extremely similar or inseparable in plumage, structure and song, and the molecular phylogeny of Alström et al. (2013) and other, as yet unpublished, genetic analyses suggested that they are not deeply divergent. We therefore follow Howard & Moore and Donald & Alström (in prep) in treating them as conspecific, under the name Fawn-coloured Lark. The three subspecies alopex, macdonaldi and intercedens thus become subspecies of C. africanoides (HBW/BirdLife International 2021), which now has nine subspecies. Geographical variation largely clinal, plumage colour generally matching regional soil colour, and streaking reduced in more arid areas; subspecies broadly intergrade, and further study may reveal that several of those currently accepted are unsustainable; other named subspecies include omaruru, gobabisensis and rubidior (from various parts of NW & NC Namibia), all synonymized with harei, and austinrobertsi (thornveld of Zimbabwe–Botswana–South Africa border region), synonymized with nominate. Nine subspecies currently recognized.
Calendulauda africanoides (del Hoyo and Collar 2016) was previously listed as Mirafra africanoides, but genetic evidence situates it in present genus.

• Mirafra somalica / ashi -

See Mirafra hypermetra. M. somalica (HBW/BirdLife International 2021) was previously separated as M. somalica and Ash’s Lark M. ashi (del Hoyo & Collar 2016). Ash’s Lark M. ashi was described by Colston (1982) from a small area of open grassland in coastal Somalia near Uarsciek, and has been seen in the field by only a handful of ornithologists. Like Somali Lark M. somalica, ashi has the habit of running between clumps of grass and perching on their tops. The type description notes its smaller size than somalica, and greyer and more scaly upperparts. However, the same paper also notes a cline in body size and coloration in Somali Lark, which becomes smaller and greyer in southern populations. The type and paratypes of Ash’s Lark are all birds in fresh plumage, the pale fringes accentuating the form’s grey appearance. However, in terms of plumage pattern, for example the complex patterning of the tertials, there is little to distinguish ashi from Somali Lark. Both have pale rufous outer webs to the primaries and outer secondaries, forming a rufous wing-panel in flight. In the same article in which he described ashi as a full species, Colston also described Mirafra somalica rochei, also from Uarsciek, and stated that it was sympatric with ashi. However, somewhat remarkably he did not diagnose rochei from ashi. Compared with ashi, rochei is considerably more rufous on the upperparts; however, although the type specimen is in very worn plumage, there are some greyish feathers on the upperparts similar in tone to those of ashi, and it is unclear how different the two forms would look if compared in a similar state of plumage. John Miskell (in litt.), one of the few ornithologists to have seen ashi in the field, confirms that he encountered grey and rufous birds (presumably relating to ashi and rochei) together in the same small area. Recent genetic analyses (as yet unpublished) indicate that ashi and rochei are practically indistinguishable and that the divergence between these two forms and northern somalica is shallow (Donald & Alström in press). Thus it appears that ashi is a southern subspecies of somalica and that rochei is nothing more than a rufous colour morph of ashi (which has nomenclatural priority). Two subspecies recognized.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

The taxonomic notes say:

• Calendulauda alopex -

• Mirafra ashi -

Thank you