AOU-NACC Proposals 2022 (1 Viewer)

[mb1848]

2022-C-4 N&MA Classification Committee p. 288 Treat Anthracothorax aurulentus as a separate species from A. dominicus (Antillean Mango)
I have a tiny disagreement with the English name recommendation .

If split, we recommend the following English names, used by HBW: Hispaniolan Mango for dominicus and Puerto Rican Mango for aurulentus.

In the OD it surely says the bird was from Puerto Rico.
t.1 (1802) - Oiseaux dorés ou à reflets métalliques - Biodiversity Heritage Library .
And this bird is still in PR. But a recent look at all four specimens collected by Rene Mauge on the Baudin exploration in the MNHN were collected in Saint Thomas.
Page 8 of (PDF) The Baudin Expedition to Tenerife, St. Thomas, St. Croix, and Puerto Rico in 1796–1798 .
JJFJ Jansen & J. Fuchs 2019.
On page 35 Audebert and Vieillot state the source for the bird was the Mauge collection in the museum.

 

[JustinJansen]

Did check both birds just now (have photographs here), both have a the pedestal underside as on the label in front of the specimen written St Thomas, and have both the name dominicus as aurulentus written on both labels.

 

[mb1848]

Thank you so much for checking Justin! So my choice for English name is St. Thomas Mango Gould.
After all St. Thomas is patron saint of Geometricians.
v.2 (1852-1854) - A monograph of the Trochilidæ, or family of humming-birds - Biodiversity Heritage Library .

 

[raymie]

There is world that the committee has apparently split Eastern Meadowlark, with the Lillian's and Chihuahuan subspecies being lumped together into a new species.

 

[mb1848]

Yes. New bird for me. This is discussed here:
https://www.aba.org/2022-splits-and-lumps-with-nick-block/ .
Around minute 18 in. We know it passed because a survey of bird people was sent out discussing common names?

 

[Mysticete]

There is world that the committee has apparently split Eastern Meadowlark, with the Lillian's and Chihuahuan subspecies being lumped together into a new species.

Any hints on what the whimbrel or spruce grouse decisions were? Lillian's I figured was the most likely split of the proposed aba relevant splits to pass

 

[raymie]

Any hints on what the whimbrel or spruce grouse decisions were? Lillian's I figured was the most likely split of the proposed aba relevant splits to pass

No word yet.

 

[Paul Clapham]

I noticed the name "Pallid Meadowlark" on an e-mail I got from the ABA today. More speculation I suppose, but we'll find out soon enough.

 

[Jacana]

The NACC had a poll on this a bit ago with a longlist of names to choose between:

Chihuahuan Meadowlark
Desert Meadowlark
Desert Grassland Meadowlark
Golden-breasted Meadowlark
Lilian's Meadowlark
Madrean Meadowlark
Mexican Meadowlark
Pale-cheeked Meadowlark
Pale-sided Meadowlark
Pallid Meadowlark
West Mexican Meadowlark
White-cheeked Meadowlark
White-tailed Meadowlark

eBird reviewers (maybe others too) were then given a poll for a second round of voting with a shortlist to choose between at the end of May:

Chihuahuan Meadowlark
Madrean Meadowlark
Mexican Meadowlark
Southwestern Meadowlark

The deadline for the second poll was the 1st of June, so I expect we will be hearing the new name soon. If I was to make a guess at the one they'll finally land on, I'd go for Chihuahuan. If I hadn't been busy with fieldwork and missed the deadline, I would have voted for that probably myself.

 

[mb1848]

Thank you Paul and Will. Seems like Thick-billed all over again. I did not have a vote but I would have chosen Lilian's. Young bird people hate white rich women who were honored because they were some white rich men's relative. She did not have the option to change her society and become an ornithologist.
The Key to Scientific Names - Birds of the World .
Here she is described as a socialite. Class criminal.

 

[njlarsen]

Pallid was my top choice (with Lilian's no 2).
Niels

 

[Jacana]

The first round was a ranked choice vote between 3 options. Again, if I hadn't been incommunicado I would have voted Lilian's, Chihuahuan, Pallid.

 

[cajanuma]

Lilian's would have been my first choice as well, as it is pretty well established, but Chihuahuan seems like an excellent alternative. Southwestern Meadowlark would instantly rank as one of the worst bird names ever as it is only 'southwestern' from a US perspective

 

[cajanuma]

Lilian's would have been my first choice as well, as it is pretty well established, but Chihuahuan seems like an excellent alternative. Southwestern Meadowlark would instantly rank as one of the worst bird names ever as it is only 'southwestern' from a US perspective

Just after posting this, I started listening to the ABA podcast discussing the meadowlark issue: https://www.aba.org/2022-splits-and-lumps-with-nick-block/

I hadn't realized/forgotten that the researcher who did the study backing up the meadowlark split, and who wrote the proposal to NACC, suggested Pallid Meadowlark as the English name. I think that when researchers who did the taxonomic studies behind splits go to the trouble of proposing English names, then those names should become the default option unless they are spectacularly bad. And Pallid Meadowlark certainly isn't.

 

[pbjosh]

I think that when researchers who did the taxonomic studies behind splits go to the trouble of proposing English names, then those names should become the default option unless they are spectacularly bad. And Pallid Meadowlark certainly isn't.

I definitely agree, though the patronymic issue generates more conflict here of late.

I also think that they brought up a good point in the podcast, when talking about Alvaro’s Short-billed/Mew name proposal: the people on the committee are deciding English names but are not always focused on English name users when they decide. I greatly favor useful and memorable names instead of 13 types of green backed white tailed yellow bellied trogons or, worse 50 shades of gray antwrens! In the case of Short-billed Gull, I really believe that the only people who were confused about the names were the people voting on it. The rest of the world had a very clear view of what a Common Gull is and what a Mew Gull is.

 

[njlarsen]

Lilian's would have been my first choice as well, as it is pretty well established, but Chihuahuan seems like an excellent alternative. Southwestern Meadowlark would instantly rank as one of the worst bird names ever as it is only 'southwestern' from a US perspective

Chihuahuan would as far as I remember fit well if only the northern subspecies was included and should be saved for if there were a further split (but.don’t fit the southern subspecies). At the same time, doesn’t Western M also reach into the Chihuahua?
Niels

 

[Mysticete]

My preference would have been for Pallid, although that almost certainly means its not going to be Pallid, but probably something like Southwestern White-tailed Meadowlark /s

 

[Kirk Roth]

Lilian's would have been my first choice as well, as it is pretty well established, but Chihuahuan seems like an excellent alternative. Southwestern Meadowlark would instantly rank as one of the worst bird names ever as it is only 'southwestern' from a US perspective

Actually auropectoralis is in the southwestern part of Mexico, especially as compared to all the other Sturnella. None of the geographic names are great, but "Southwestern" and "Madrean" are the only names that actually apply to both the lilianae and auropectoralis ranges. But "Madrean" is also a slur in Mexico so there is that.

I'm not sure why "Pallid" got knocked off in the second set of NACC inquiry - as has already been stated it was proposed by the researchers and there isn't anything terrible about it - its certainly at an accuracy level of most of the other proposed names and has some degree of uniqueness.

Of course, the bird is already named "Lillian's."

 

[THE_FERN]

50 shades of gray

Is there something I should know about them?

 

[pbjosh]

Is there something I should know about them?

Just a joke I have heard many times and am repeating about ashy-grey-grayish-black-sooty-blackish-leaden-headed-hooded-throated-ant-wren-bird-shrikes