Lynx-BirdLife Taxonomic Checklist (3 Viewers)

[Peter Kovalik]

...ie, of the 10,000+ species recognised in HBW 1–16, ~97.5% were originally described as species, and (remarkably) only ~2.5% result from subsequent splits (although many others have been lumped and re-split since description).

Thanks Richard.

 

[njlarsen]

It is my impression that many taxa currently considered subspecies also originally were described as species, especially when going back more than 100 years.

Niels

 

[Richard Klim]

Non-passerine taxonomy revisions

BirdLife, 4 Aug 2014: Suggested revisions to HBW/BirdLife non-passerine taxonomy – background and guidelines.

Family-specific pages: www.birdlife.org/globally-threatened-bird-forums/category/taxonomy/

 

[lewis20126]

My copy arrived yesterday. My main thought is that I will need to invest in some reading glasses - the font is tiny! Some if the splits look a bit thin - I was struggling to see any substantive differences in the pictures for some - a couple of the Pheasant-pigeons and the "Variable Kingfishers" for example.

cheers, alan

 

[Richard Klim]

My main thought is that I will need to invest in some reading glasses - the font is tiny!

Yes, my desk lamp, reading glasses (and even magnifying glass) have been heavily used in recent days, especially for the (microscopic) bibliography citation numbers!

...but I wouldn't want any of the info to be omitted, and 900+ pages is already pushing the limit, so I'll happily take the tiny font...

 

[Richard Klim]

...and still no information from Lynx to HBW Alive subscribers about when the automated transition to the new HBW/BirdLife taxonomy can be expected. At the moment, we have an up-to-date Illustrated Checklist, and an obsolete (but pay-to-view) online version.

 

[lewis20126]

Some of the possible splits look like they haven't been scored. One I'm amazed at is the Crested Argus (Malay vs Indochinese) - there is a vague comment but no evidence of further work.

cheers, a

 

[thyoloalethe]

...and still no information from Lynx to HBW Alive subscribers about when the automated transition to the new HBW/BirdLife taxonomy can be expected. At the moment, we have an (expensive) up-to-date Illustrated Checklist, and an obsolete (but pay-to-view) online version.

I'm hoping that they're waiting a bit for those of us on "the wrong side of the pond" to get our copies, rather than "spoiling the surprise." Or perhaps it's just turning out to be a more mammoth undertaking to rearrange everything on HBW Alive. Better to take the time and do it right.

For those of us who have already entered sightings in the My Birding section, it's going to be a bit of work to reassign many of these to the correct split/lump.

Liam

 

[njlarsen]

I'm hoping that they're waiting a bit for those of us on "the wrong side of the pond" to get our copies, rather than "spoiling the surprise." Or perhaps it's just turning out to be a more mammoth undertaking to rearrange everything on HBW Alive. Better to take the time and do it right.

For those of us who have already entered sightings in the My Birding section, it's going to be a bit of work to reassign many of these to the correct split/lump.

Liam

Which is one reason I am not using that service. Something like ebird where your sightings are not only valuable as a life list but as citizen science, and where the majority of splits and lumps get taken care of by the administrators (from the location you have supplied) is much more valuable in my opinion.

Niels

 

[Richard Klim]

I'm hoping that they're waiting a bit for those of us on "the wrong side of the pond" to get our copies, rather than "spoiling the surprise."

Yes, perhaps Lynx intends to fulfil all pre-orders before adopting the revised taxonomy in HBW Alive (although most of the 'surprise' has already been revealed in BirdLife Checklist v7).

 

[Melanie]

A first review

http://dantallmansbirdblog.blogspot.com.es/2014/08/review-illustrated-checklist-of-birds.html

 

[Melanie]

What about the Timor Pheasant Coucal, Centropus phasianinus mui? Is there any new information compared with HBW 4?

 

[lewis20126]

What about the Timor Pheasant Coucal, Centropus phasianinus mui? Is there any new information compared with HBW 4?

from memory, it is not scored and they suggest it could "just" be a morph (ie normal Pheasant Coucal plumage birds might be present on Timor). It is not split here.

cheers, a

 

[Melanie]

from memory, it is not scored and they suggest it could "just" be a morph (ie normal Pheasant Coucal plumage birds might be present on Timor). It is not split here.

cheers, a

Oh thanks. It is still recognized as subspecies or it is lumped with another race?

 

[Richard Klim]

Fuiloro Coucal

What about the Timor Pheasant Coucal, Centropus phasianinus mui? Is there any new information compared with HBW 4?

It's treated as a monotypic subspecies group (Fuiloro Coucal).

Timor form mui may represent a separate species, but to date is known only from a single specimen and a handful of observations, so that its distinctiveness (including possibility of its being polymorphic) requires confirmation.

 

[Melanie]

Thanks to Richard I've just learned that many extinct taxa in the HBW check-list received only English vernacular names. It is somewhat pity but it shows that German taxonomists are very slow (not to say behind the times) when it comes to built up a modern and up to date nomenclature.

 

[Richard Klim]

Thanks to Richard I've just learned that many extinct taxa in the HBW check-list received only English vernacular names.

The 50 extinct species in Appendix 1 (illustrated) are given English, French, German and Spanish names, but the 49 extinct species in Appendix 2 (without illustration) are given only English names.

 

[Richard Klim]

Winkler et al

HBW/BirdLife Illustrated Checklist...

Macrosystematics
... For this checklist, however, rather than following a recently published classification, we adopt—so far as possible, although minor discrepancies may occur owing to the time lag between the three publications involved—one that will appear in due course in Bird Families of the World: a Guide to the Spectacular Diversity of Birds (Winkler et al. in prep.). Because this book will provide a comprehensive, current interpretation of systematic findings, covering each of the 35 avian orders and more than 230 avian families, we make no attempt here to offer an explanation of or commentary on macrosystematic relationships.
...
Winkler, D.W., Lovette, I.J. & Billerman, S.M. (in prep.). Bird Families of the World: a Guide to the Spectacular Diversity of Birds. Lynx Edicions & Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Barcelona & Ithaca, New York.

 

[martin_WA]

Can anyone with the book tell me how they have dealt with the Rufous-bellied Spinifex Pigeon (dodgy name btw), do they include the rufous-bellied Kimberley birds as ferruginea, write them off as stable 'hybrids' (thus gaining 2 extra Tobias points - BINGO!), or treat them as intermediate forms (which should by rights be more troublesome to species limits). At what point does a stable hybrid become an intermediate anyway? This is an interesting test for the BSC since the definitive paper Crome 1980 actually did interbreeding experiments out to F2, as well as noting other problems, eg. clinal, ecophenotypic, and local isolate variation.

Same for Black-shouldered Lapwing, the hybrids were always the problem, do they mention how they treat them? This seems to a more genuine case of true 'hybrid zone' (though a pretty broad one), which is admittedly much less of a problem for species limits than it used to be a few decades ago.

 

[andrew147]

Re: Rufous-bellied Spinifex Pigeon/Black-shouldered Lapwing

Geophaps plumifera (with ssp plumifera & leucogaster) includes "proposed race proxima (SW Kimberley region of Western Australia) [which] is intermediate between nominate race of present and N population of G. ferruginea "

Geophaps ferruginea (monotypic) includes "population between Kimberleys and Great Sandy Desert described as race mungi"

The lapwings are "usually considered conspecific... owing to intergrades in at least two areas of overlap, N Queensland and L Eyre catchment area" but are separated on morphological grounds.

I'm working my way through this book slowly and I have just noticed a rather significant blunder. They have moved the type species of Hylocharis - H. sapphirina - into Amazilia whilst retaining Hylocharis for eliciae/cyanus/chrysura!