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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Potential WP splits (1 Viewer)

I am partucularly interested in shorelarks (again paper will be submitted this year), and other Morrocan stuff which I don't do, but my friend is doing (more my friends are doing Azores and Canary islands)
A lot of splits will be regarding song birds, but for me the most interesting one is shore lark. Unfortunately i can tell more after deep analysis of data. For now I can say at least 3 different species
Anyways for some splits, listed above we shall see, don't belive in all
Best regards
 
Hi all and Macrourus,

I'm surprised no more in B. cirtensis. For your information, I compared recording of voices, and cirtensis has similar voice with buteo, but easily distinguished from rufinus.!

I'm interested by any studies or comment on the subject.

Thanks
 
New splits in the updated Collins Bird Guide

The article speculates that the following taxa could be possible future split candidates [scientific names assumed, authorities already recognising indicated]:
  • Rhodopechys (sanguineus) alienus [IOC, DB]
References are posted on the Birdwatch website:
http://www.birdwatch.co.uk/categories/articleitem.asp?item=587
Tobias, Seddon, Spottiswoode, Pilgrim, Fishpool & Collar 2010. Quantitative criteria for species delimitation. Ibis: in press.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2010.01051.x/abstract

A test of the system against 23 WP ssp pairs suggests that Oenanthe (oenanthe) seebohmi Seebohm's Wheatear and Rhodopechys (sanguinea) aliena African Crimson-winged Finch [usually treated as masculine?] qualify for species status. [The former is already recognised by Dutch Birding and Svensson et al 2009; the latter by DB and IOC.]

There's free access to the supporting info:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2010.01051.x/suppinfo

Finally our Maghreb endemic (African Crimson-winged Finch) got the treatment it deserves in the updated Collins Bird Guide (after all, birders use the ID book not articles). Read the announcement (20 May) in Rare Bird Alert.

There are a few other splits.
 
Not seen the new edition but I am guessing that any taxonomic changes are little more than the authors' opinions, right or wrong.

Steve
 
Not seen the new edition but I am guessing that any taxonomic changes are little more than the authors' opinions, right or wrong.

Steve


Ipso facto, a healthy quota of any taxonomic approach or decision is opinion based; the author of the Bird Guide is no different to any other authority in making judgement calls. But, in any case, most (not all) of the changes advocated are based on published work in periodic (peer-reviewed) literature.
 
Hello Valéry,
read only now your post...

I knew of course and sound recorded as well the call of cirtensis being very close or identical to buteo, and indeed that's why also they mate so easely in N Africa, and South Europe, most notably at Pantelleria island and Gibraltar area !

Previous genetic studies by the Austrian team and the Swiss as well failed to find any getetic evidencesof any differences with nominate rufinus, which is highly suprising and once more tell us how MUCH we have to understand and learn on how to use genetic versus morphology versus voice verus our understanding and personal interpretation of data ! cirtensis being ALL in ALL different from rufinus (moult pattern, voice, measurements, morphs, etc etc )

However, some Portugese friends (Luis Palma) with my helps too are working on genetic of cirtensis, as are some Spanish friends too !

We will see what they end on after many years of study !

Will like to see the Collins BG new version soon :)
 
Previous genetic studies by the Austrian team and the Swiss as well failed to find any getetic evidencesof any differences with nominate rufinus
But, so far as I know, they found no clear evidence of differentiation with western Buteo buteo either. Quoting Kruckenhauser at al. 2004 [pdf]:
For the West Palearctic taxa, the genetic situation appears rather complex as there is no unequivocal genetic differentiation within the buteo–vulpinus–rufinus–oreophilus complex. Under the biological species concept (Mayr 1940, 1963), the West Palearctic taxa (sharing a common gene pool) should be lumped into one species with 14 subspecies (including, e.g. B. rufinus and the African B. oreophilus).
[...]
Buteo r. cirtensis appears clearly differentiated from B. r. rufinus in the morphometric analysis (Fig. 1), although this separation is based only on size-related characters. In the network (Fig. 5) the haplotypes of B. r. cirtensis are randomly distributed within the West Palearctic cluster. Because there is no convincing argument to connect B. r. cirtensis to any other species, we decided to retain the current taxonomy.
 
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African Crimson-winged Finch

Finally our Maghreb endemic (African Crimson-winged Finch) got the treatment it deserves in the updated Collins Bird Guide (after all, birders use the ID book not articles). Read the announcement (20 May) in Rare Bird Alert.
Incidentally, Arnaiz-Villena et al 2014 seems to understand that the Atlas Mountains population are perhaps mostly winter visitors (from Asia?!)... :eek!: ;)
Arnaiz-Villena, Ruiz-del-Valle, Gomez-Prieto, Rey, Enriquez-de-Salamanca, Marco, Muñiz, Martín-Villa & Areces 2014. Carduelini new sistematics: Crimson-winged Finch (Rhodopechys sanguineus) is included in "Arid-Zone" Carduelini finches by mitochondrial DNA phylogeny. Open Ornithol J 7: 55–62. [pdf]
Rhodopechys sanguineus thrives discontinuously across all desert strip margins and mountains that go from Africa to China. Its presence in Atlas Mountains may be due to winter migration, but it has been recorded in breeding season [Clement et al. 1993].
Clement et al 1993 (Finches & Sparrows)...
R. s. aliena: high Atlas Mountains, Morocco, and possibly northeast Algeria (though may be only a winter visitor here (recent information lacking)).
[Obviously misreading Clement et al as suggesting that the entire African population may be only winter visitors.]
 
New splits in the Collins Bird Guide

Read the announcement (20 May) in Rare Bird Alert.
RBA, 28 May 2015: Collins Bird Guide updated, but did anyone know?
  • Zoothera [dauma] aurea - White's Thrush
  • Sylvia [cantillans] inornata - Western Subalpine Warbler
  • Sylvia [cantillans] subalpina - Moltoni's Warbler
  • Sylvia [sarda] balearica - Balearic Warbler
  • Scotocerca [inquieta] saharae - Saharan Scrub Warbler
  • Phylloscopus [trochiloides] plumbeitarsus - Two-barred Greenish Warbler
  • Rhodopechys [sanguineus] alienus - African Crimson-winged Finch
 
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