Rock-Thrush WC Madagascar Help Needed (1 Viewer)

[cuckooroller]

I am not exactly sure what this is and have not heard that this taxon, in this locale, has been further examined and described. Maybe someone else is more current...

http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=151585

 

[martinf]

Steve, Monticola sharpei was split into M. sharpei and M. erythronotus following Goodman and Weigt (2002). erythronotus being known now as Amber Mountain Rock thrush

 

[cuckooroller]

Steve, Monticola sharpei was split into M. sharpei and M. erythronotus following Goodman and Weigt (2002). erythronotus being known now as Amber Mountain Rock thrush

Hi Martin,
Yes, I have the ref. in my footnotes for the treatment of these bird in HBW Vol. 10. However, as defined by HBW, sharpei has a coastal eastern distribution and their interpretation of erythronotus (Amber Mountain Rock-Thrush) has it very restricted and only in a small zone of extreme N Madagascar - only on and around Mt. Amber. So, the problem remains - in the locale in which the bird in question was shot - what is it? My problem is that I do not have any further information that this ill-defined WC Madagascar ranging taxon has been fully understood and was wondering if anyone had newer and further information. The HBW is of no help only mentioning that there may be an undescribed species in this zone, or that it may be an intergrade between erythronotus and sharpei (though given the distribution of this latter it would be hard for me to understand given that there is quite a distance between the understood range of sharpei (as defined by HBW) and where this bird was shot!), and I can advance the same reflection in relation to the defined restricted HBW distribution of erythronotus.

 

[James Williams]

forest rock thrush mystery

Steve & co, please advise if you would like another of my photos of same bird, James

 

[rob stoff]

This may well be an undescribed species. Birds of Madagascar states that an an unidentified Rock Thrush at Bemaraha (= Tsingy NP) may be Forest Rock Thrush but Birdlife state that the Monticola sp present at Tsingy probably represents a distinct species:

http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/sites/index.html?action=SitHTMDetails.asp&sid=6558&m=0

more photos would be interesting, maybe the first ever published of this taxon!



Rob

 

[cuckooroller]

Rob,
I think the African Bird Club article included some photos of the undescribed taxon - don't know if those articles are still on-line on their site though.

EDIT: This comment is redundant. James stuck a link to that article under his photo.

 

[James Williams]

forest rock thrush puzzle

Hi again

Here is the African Birds link referred to above

http://www.africanbirdclub.org/feature/rkthrush.html

And here is my second photo of the bird I saw in June this year, looks pretty similar to the one seen in 1995 but my untrained eyes can not confirm!

Lets hope this helps someone solve this puzzle!

James

 

[cuckooroller]

Hi James,
Thanks for the other photo. I have the feeling that this taxon has not been understood unless there are papers in the pipeline and not yet published. I do not even know if anyone is looking further at this bird in Madagascar. I may try to scare up an e-mail for Nick Garbutt, or the Authors of "Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands" and just ask one of them. I think someone is getting set to publish a new Madagascar bird guide, but can't recall who.

It is probably best to rename these photos "Pseudocossyphus sp." (instead of Monticola because BF still uses the Sibley-Monroe), and annotate the exact locale while mentioning that its' taxonomic status is not clear as yet.