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AOU-NACC proposals 2013 (1 Viewer)

Richard Banks from the Cabot's Tern proposal:
"I am not certain whether there are valid reports of Old World birds in North America, but I am sure there soon will be."

There was a Sandwich Tern in Chicago a few years back, and I happened to notice the extra-long, "old world style" bill. Richard Klim sent me this: Garner et al (Identification of American Sandwich Tern, Dutch Birding Vol:29:5) which I then sent to Greg Neise who subsequently ran with it:

http://www.nabirding.com/2011/09/25/sandwich-or-cabots/

Bill shape/size, primary pattern, and molt details seem to point to an Old World Sandwich Tern.
 
I admittedly skimmed over the woodpecker split, as it doesn't really effect the ABA, and I haven't birded much south of the border. But yes that seems likely to pass.
 
Proposal 2013-A-3

njlarsen said:
It sounds like both of you have difficulty seeing the Sandwich tern split passing?
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Nigel Collar (and therefore BirdLife?) seems unconvinced of its merits. This from Collar 2013...
... However, they [Tobias et al 2010] also take the uncomfortable step of excluding molecular evaluation from the criteria [for species delimitation]. This is primarily because there is no fixed threshold of genetic divergence which can be used to determine whether two taxa are species or not, but also because different techniques, measurements and interpretations all effect the equivalence of the results, so that (for the present, at any rate) the whole process of comparison between taxa is fraught with uncertainty. This exclusion applies even in cases where greater genetic distances between taxa are reported from within a recognised species than between that species and another, as in the case of the ... Palearctic Sandwich Sterna sandwichensis and Nearctic Cabot's Terns S. acuflavida (Efe et al. 2009). While such molecular paraphyly is unacceptable to pure cladists, it need not dictate terms to broader taxonomies based on other evidence; and in any case such counterintuitive results need painstaking validation and evaluation. ...
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I am skeptical it will pass, although I have mixed feelings on that assessment. The snowy plover split passed, which might have been only a somewhat stronger case (haven't read that proposal in a long time, so my memory might be fooling me).

On the other hand, proposals to split Herring Gull failed, even though a lot of the committee felt that Vega Gull was a valid split.

I think we can all agree that the Canada Goose split doesn't have a chance in hell though :p
 
njlarsen said:
It sounds like both of you have difficulty seeing the Sandwich tern split passing?

Niels
Click to expand...

I could see it passing... I just don't see it as the slam dunk that the Barolo Shearwater seems to be. The proposal seems to say "Cabot's Tern is more closely related to Elegant Tern than Sandwich. End of story." We've seen AOU deny splits that had much more robust evidence of differentiation. Now with the terns there are probably differences in molts, vocalizations, breeding timing and behavior and so on... but the proposal mentions none of this! Is the NACC going to dig into all this research to make a decision? Are they expected to? Or will they go only by the (single!) reference provided?

And after giving it another look, the Velasquez's Woodpecker proposal could stand to be more robust. The difference here (in my mind) is that the Garcia-Trejo article (about woodpeckers) is harder to argue against than the Efe article (about terns). Plus a series of vocalizations is a nice touch.

I feel that the Sage Sparrow proposal is a good one, but the recent inactions on Scrub Jays and Yellow-rumped Warblers makes me pause. The confusion about the canescens sparrows may be enough for the committee to reserve judgement until its all figured out. If they feel that the species limits are not well-enough drawn, they may hold out because "more study is needed." After all, what is canescens? It appears that there are two taxa in there, one or both of which may or may not bleed into the Bell's or Nevada Sage Sparrows. Are we dealing with one, two, three, or four species here? AOU might want to know before shaking up the field guides. Not that I agree with this approach one bit... but I would not be surprised if that's how it goes.
 
Snowy Plover

Mysticete said:
The snowy plover split passed, which might have been only a somewhat stronger case...
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Another of the many recent splits discussed critically in Collar 2013...
... But there are other issues to negotiate in these taxonomic reviews, molecular or otherwise, than the incongruence of their findings. Making the appropriate comparisons is perhaps the next most salient. ... And when Küpper et al. (2009) split Snowy Plover Charadrius nivosus from Kentish Plover C. alexandrinus on (almost entirely) genetic grounds (despite the title's claimed 'phenotypic... analyses', some of which had to be supplied by Donegan et al. 2011), they missed out South Asian seebohmi despite the fact that – for all its biogeographical disjunction – it is closer to nivosus in coloration and measurements than it is to alexandrinus. ...
Click to expand...
 
Richard Klim said:
Mike, are you suggesting that rosegrisea (Sundevall, 1857) from Nubia should now be considered as an informal name for domesticated birds, in a straight swap? [Have any other domesticated avian forms been accorded scientific names?]
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Richard,
Thomas Donegan got me out of jail here, I think... Thanks, Thomas!

What I was rather lazily referring to was the inconsistent way breeders of domesticated birds label them... For example, at one time, there was a sizeable population attributed to 'roseogrisea' in the Miami area, but once decaocto appeared, the former, possbly not self-sustaining in any case, soon disappeared.

I was just being grateful for the apparent clarity from the ICZN decison, but now that Thomas has explained the circumstances, I'll just keep schtumm!
MJB
 
African Collared Dove

MJB said:
For example, at one time, there was a sizeable population attributed to 'roseogrisea' in the Miami area...
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Mike, confusion is probably compounded by the fact that Streptopelia risoria was recognised in the 4th (1931) to 7th (1998) editions of the AOU Check-list. This was changed to roseogrisea in the 47th Supplement (2006), but AOU hasn't reverted to risoria following the debatable 2010 ICZN ruling.

[Incidentally, I omitted to mention in my original reply to locustella that the Check-list notes: "Present North American feral populations may be entirely human-dependent and not self-sustaining."]
 
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AOU-NACC proposals 2013-B

www.aou.org/committees/nacc/proposals/2013-B.pdf
  • 2013-B-1: Make changes to the linear sequence in the family Mimidae
  • 2013-B-2: Split Nutting's Flycatcher into two species: Myiarchus nuttingi and M. flavidior
  • 2013-B-3: Add Common Moorhen Gallinula chloropus to the AOU Checklist
  • 2013-B-4: Merge all North American rosy-finches into Leucosticte tephrocotis
  • 2013-B-5: Change the linear sequence of Haemorhous finches
  • 2013-B-6: Change the citations for nine species described by Thomas Say
  • 2013-B-7: Transfer Terenura callinota to the genus Euchrepomis (SACC 557)
  • 2013-B-8a: Split South American endemic Automolus rufipectus from A. rubiginosus (SACC 394)
  • 2013-B-8b: Split South American endemic Dendrocincla turdina from D. fuliginosa (SACC 540)
  • 2013-B-8c: Split South American endemic Troglodytes cobbi from T. aedon (SACC 526)
  • 2013-B-9: Change the English name of Thamnophilus atrinucha (SACC 570)
  • 2013-B-10a: Split Schiffornis veraepacis from S. turdina (SACC 505, SACC 543)
  • 2013-B-10b: Split Schiffornis stenorhyncha from S. turdina (SACC 505, SACC 543)
  • 2013-B-11: Split Myrmeciza zeledoni from M. immaculata (SACC 541)
  • 2013-B-12: Treat Thalurania fannyi and Thalurania colombica as conspecific (SACC 558)
 
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Brown-capped Rosy-Finches hybridize with Brown-capped Rosy-Finches in the Bitterroot Mountains in Idaho and Montana.
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Well I guess that settles that.

I recommend that the authority for the following species be changed from “Say, 1823, in Long, Exped. Rocky Mount.” to “Say, 1822, in James, Acct. Exped. Rocky Mount.”:
Dendragapus obscurus (Blue Grouse)
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A nice regression from "Dusky Grouse."
 
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AOU Checklist 8th edition

locustella said:
When are they going to release that new checklist ?
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There were 15 years between the 6th and 7th editions, which would suggest the 8th edition ~2013.

But on average there have been 19 years between editions, which would suggest the 8th edition ~2017.

???
 
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"shrugs"

At least one of the blocks of proposals every year is maintenance, either just SACC catch up, minor nomenclatural changes, or changes in distribution to account for new records. So not much different than most years.
 
Mysticete said:
"shrugs"
At least one of the blocks of proposals every year is maintenance, either just SACC catch up, minor nomenclatural changes, or changes in distribution to account for new records. So not much different than most years.
Click to expand...
Of course. My observation wasn't meant as a criticism.
 

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