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Larks of the World - Helm (1 Viewer)

Great to see Faansie Peacock as the artist, the plates should be fantastic, but I suspect November publication is optimistic. Curious as to what they will do with taxonomy, sure hope they split out the Horned Lark complex for starters
 
Great to see Faansie Peacock as the artist, the plates should be fantastic, but I suspect November publication is optimistic. Curious as to what they will do with taxonomy, sure hope they split out the Horned Lark complex for starters

Did you see this Phil or is it coincidence?

https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=158417&page=4

Six potential species listed on HBW below but only four seem to be supported in this paper.

https://avianhybrids.wordpress.com/...ks-how-many-species-of-horned-lark-are-there/

E. a. alpestris (Linnaeus, 1758) – American Horned Lark – E Canada (W Ontario E to Newfoundland and S to Nova Scotia) and E USA (E from Minnesota and S to Kansas and N Carolina); N populations winter in E USA.
E. a. strigata (Henshaw, 1884) – W & WC Canada and USA (British Columbia S to N California and E to Idaho, Nevada and Utah); N populations winter in W USA.
E. a. leucolaema Coues, 1874 – SW & SC Canada (S Alberta E to Manitoba) S to WC & SC USA (S to New Mexico E to Texas).
E. a. rubea (Henshaw, 1884) – NE & C California.
E. a. insularis (Dwight, 1890) – Channel Is, off SW California.
E. a. occidentalis (McCall, 1851) – SW USA (S California and SW Nevada E to C New Mexico) and NW Mexico (N Baja California and NW Sonora).
E. a. adusta (Dwight, 1890) – S Arizona E to S New Mexico S in Mexico to Durango and E to Coahuila.
E. a. enertera (Oberholser, 1907) – C Baja California.
E. a. giraudi (Henshaw, 1884) – coastal S USA (S Texas) S to NE Mexico.
E. a. chrysolaema (Wagler, 1831) – S Mexican Plateau from SE Coahuila and Zacatecas S to Jalisco, Michoacán, Morelos, Veracruz and NE Puebla; also C Oaxaca.
E. a. peregrina (P. L. Sclater, 1855) – E Andes of Colombia (Altiplano Cundiboyacense, N of Bogotá).
E. a. flava (J. F. Gmelin, 1789) – Shore Lark – N Eurasia E to NE Russia (Anadyrland), S to S Norway, L Baikal and NW Amurland; winters in W & C Europe E to Kazakhstan, Mongolia and C China.
E. a. brandti (Dresser, 1874) – Steppe Horned Lark – SE European Russia (lower R Volga) and N Transcaspia E to NE China (Inner Mongolia), S to N Turkmenistan, Tien Shan and Mongolia; N populations migrate S.
E. a. atlas (Whitaker, 1898) – Atlas Horned Lark – Morocco (Atlas Mts).
E. a. balcanica (Reichenow, 1895) – SE Europe (S Balkans and Greece).
E. a. kumerloevei Roselaar, 1995 – W & C Asia Minor.
E. a. penicillata (Gould, 1838) – Caucasian Horned Lark – E Turkey and Caucasus E to N & W Iran.
E. a. bicornis (C. L. Brehm, 1842) – Lebanon and N Israel–S Syria border (Mt Hermon).
E. a. albigula (Bonaparte, 1850) – SW Turkmenistan and NE Iran E to W Tien Shan and S to NW Pakistan.
E. a. argalea (Oberholser, 1902) – N Ladakh, extreme W China (W Kunlun Shan) and W Tibetan Plateau.
E. a. teleschowi (Przevalski, 1887) – C & E Kunlun Shan from S Xinjiang E to NW Qinghai and S to N Xizang (W China).
E. a. przewalskii (Bianchi, 1904) – Qaidam Basin, in N Qinghai.
E. a. nigrifrons (Przevalski, 1876) – mountains of NE Qinghai.
E. a. longirostris (F. Moore, 1856) – Himalayan Horned Lark – Himalayas from NE Pakistan and Kashmir E to Sikkim.
E. a. elwesi (Blanford, 1872) – S & E Tibetan Plateau.
E. a. khamensis (Bianchi, 1904) – SC China (SE Xizang, W Sichuan).
 
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......….Six potential species listed on HBW below but only four seem to be supported in this paper.

https://avianhybrids.wordpress.com/...ks-how-many-species-of-horned-lark-are-there/

E. a. alpestris (Linnaeus, 1758) – American Horned Lark – E Canada (W Ontario E to Newfoundland and S to Nova Scotia) and E USA (E from Minnesota and S to Kansas and N Carolina); N populations winter in E USA.
E. a. strigata (Henshaw, 1884) – W & WC Canada and USA (British Columbia S to N California and E to Idaho, Nevada and Utah); N populations winter in W USA.
E. a. leucolaema Coues, 1874 – SW & SC Canada (S Alberta E to Manitoba) S to WC & SC USA (S to New Mexico E to Texas).
E. a. rubea (Henshaw, 1884) – NE & C California.
E. a. insularis (Dwight, 1890) – Channel Is, off SW California.
E. a. occidentalis (McCall, 1851) – SW USA (S California and SW Nevada E to C New Mexico) and NW Mexico (N Baja California and NW Sonora).
E. a. adusta (Dwight, 1890) – S Arizona E to S New Mexico S in Mexico to Durango and E to Coahuila.
E. a. enertera (Oberholser, 1907) – C Baja California.
E. a. giraudi (Henshaw, 1884) – coastal S USA (S Texas) S to NE Mexico.
E. a. chrysolaema (Wagler, 1831) – S Mexican Plateau from SE Coahuila and Zacatecas S to Jalisco, Michoacán, Morelos, Veracruz and NE Puebla; also C Oaxaca.
E. a. peregrina (P. L. Sclater, 1855) – E Andes of Colombia (Altiplano Cundiboyacense, N of Bogotá).
E. a. flava (J. F. Gmelin, 1789) – Shore Lark – N Eurasia E to NE Russia (Anadyrland), S to S Norway, L Baikal and NW Amurland; winters in W & C Europe E to Kazakhstan, Mongolia and C China.
E. a. brandti (Dresser, 1874) – Steppe Horned Lark – SE European Russia (lower R Volga) and N Transcaspia E to NE China (Inner Mongolia), S to N Turkmenistan, Tien Shan and Mongolia; N populations migrate S.
E. a. atlas (Whitaker, 1898) – Atlas Horned Lark – Morocco (Atlas Mts).
E. a. balcanica (Reichenow, 1895) – SE Europe (S Balkans and Greece).
E. a. kumerloevei Roselaar, 1995 – W & C Asia Minor.
E. a. penicillata (Gould, 1838) – Caucasian Horned Lark – E Turkey and Caucasus E to N & W Iran.
E. a. bicornis (C. L. Brehm, 1842) – Lebanon and N Israel–S Syria border (Mt Hermon).
E. a. albigula (Bonaparte, 1850) – SW Turkmenistan and NE Iran E to W Tien Shan and S to NW Pakistan.
E. a. argalea (Oberholser, 1902) – N Ladakh, extreme W China (W Kunlun Shan) and W Tibetan Plateau.
E. a. teleschowi (Przevalski, 1887) – C & E Kunlun Shan from S Xinjiang E to NW Qinghai and S to N Xizang (W China).
E. a. przewalskii (Bianchi, 1904) – Qaidam Basin, in N Qinghai.
E. a. nigrifrons (Przevalski, 1876) – mountains of NE Qinghai.
E. a. longirostris (F. Moore, 1856) – Himalayan Horned Lark – Himalayas from NE Pakistan and Kashmir E to Sikkim.
E. a. elwesi (Blanford, 1872) – S & E Tibetan Plateau.
E. a. khamensis (Bianchi, 1904) – SC China (SE Xizang, W Sichuan).

My main conclusions when I see such an impressive list is how nicely some fellows manage to get trips to far away places justified. ;) I presume this is not all museum work, and even then, not all specimens will be in one or two museums. As for me as a non-specialist, I'm just happy to get to see ANY Horned Lark. It's been all too rare for me to have had that luck.
The other point is the fascination about how widespread Horned Larks occur.
 
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Actually the new paper proposes 3 spp. of horned lark plus temminck’s (i.e. 4 Eremophila in total)

Compared to the HBW list it lumps American, shore and steppe together (as “common horned”), plus atlas and Caucasian (as “mountain horned”)

Cheers
James
 
[cutting the subspp that HBW don't suggest splitting]

E. a. alpestris (Linnaeus, 1758) – American Horned Lark

E. a. flava (J. F. Gmelin, 1789) – Shore Lark

E. a. brandti (Dresser, 1874) – Steppe Horned Lark

E. a. atlas (Whitaker, 1898) – Atlas Horned Lark

E. a. penicillata (Gould, 1838) – Caucasian Horned Lark

E. a. longirostris (F. Moore, 1856) – Himalayan Horned Lark

Actually the new paper proposes 3 spp. of horned lark plus temminck’s (i.e. 4 Eremophila in total)

Compared to the HBW list it lumps American, shore and steppe together (as “common horned”), plus atlas and Caucasian (as “mountain horned”)
I reckon Drovetski's 2014 setup is better - that has 6 Eremophila in total, same as HBW except for including brandti in flava as subspp of one species (makes sense as they're close in DNA), and of course bilopha (Temminck's) as the 6th.


Edit: apologies, Drovetski does treat brandti as separate, i.e., 7 Eremophila in total. But I could live with it being lumped with flava.
 
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My reading of the Drovetski paper is they recommend a 6-way split of horned lark and 7 Eremophila in total, same as HBW.

“we suggest splitting the currently recognized horned lark into five Palearctic and one Nearctic species.”

“our data suggest that all Palearctic clades represent independent evolutionary units and should be treated as distinct species: elwesi (although longirostris should have priority if it belongs to this clade), bilopha, atlas, penicillata, brandti, and flava. Nearctic populations should be treated as a single species - alpestris pending further investigation.”

James
 
decisions, decisions........................which way will they go?

' Sergei Drovetski and his colleagues proposed to divide the Horned Lark into six distinct species. Now, another study in the Journal of Ornithology – using new samples – took a closer look at the genus Eremophila. How many species did they recognize?'

or Fatemeh Ghorbani et al

'the researchers propose to treat the four lineages as distinct species:

Himalayan Horned Lark E. longirostris (comprising E. l. longirostris, E. l. deosaiensis, E. l. elwesi, E. l. khamensis, E. l. przewalskii, E. l. argalea, E. l. teleschowi, and E. l. nigrifrons) from the Himalayas and Qinghai–Tibetan plateau
Temminck’s Lark E. bilopha (monotypic), from North Africa to the Middle East
Mountain Horned Lark E. penicillata (E. p. penicillata, E. p. atlas, E. p. albigula, E. p. balcanica, and E. p. bicornis) from northwest Africa and southeast Europe/southwest Asia
Common Horned Lark E. alpestris sensu stricto (E. a. alpestris and many other American subspecies, E. a. flava, E. a. brandti) from the Northern Palearctic and North and northern South America
 
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decisions, decisions........................which way will they go?

' Sergei Drovetski and his colleagues proposed to divide the Horned Lark into six distinct species. Now, another study in the Journal of Ornithology – using new samples – took a closer look at the genus Eremophila. How many species did they recognize?'

or Fatemeh Ghorbani et al

'the researchers propose to treat the four lineages as distinct species:

Himalayan Horned Lark E. longirostris (comprising E. l. longirostris, E. l. deosaiensis, E. l. elwesi, E. l. khamensis, E. l. przewalskii, E. l. argalea, E. l. teleschowi, and E. l. nigrifrons) from the Himalayas and Qinghai–Tibetan plateau
Temminck’s Lark E. bilopha (monotypic), from North Africa to the Middle East
Mountain Horned Lark E. penicillata (E. p. penicillata, E. p. atlas, E. p. albigula, E. p. balcanica, and E. p. bicornis) from northwest Africa and southeast Europe/southwest Asia
Common Horned Lark E. alpestris sensu stricto (E. a. alpestris and many other American subspecies, E. a. flava, E. a. brandti) from the Northern Palearctic and North and northern South America


You only need a very small shift in your baseline for chosing species rank in the genus: if you take the red line, you get Ghorbani's four species; shift to the green line and you get six species, with splitting atlas from penicillata, and (flava + brandti) from alpestris. Any further move to split brandti from flava starts giving you problems with the need to split alpestris into two or more species in N America (which gets much more complicated!) - hence my being happy to live with (flava + brandti) as one species. The diagram below is from Dussex et al. 2020, creative commons licence, and is basically the same as Ghorbani's (which is copyright so I can't reproduce it here) except without the longirostris clade (outside of the box here, the oldest divergence in the genus) - red & green lines my addition.


(edit: larger pic)
 

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Of course, the red line can be switched significantly to the left without any change in outcome, while the green line has a narrow range.

Niels
 
You only need a very small shift in your baseline for chosing species rank in the genus: if you take the red line, you get Ghorbani's four species; shift to the green line and you get six species, with splitting atlas from penicillata, and (flava + brandti) from alpestris. Any further move to split brandti from flava starts giving you problems with the need to split alpestris into two or more species in N America (which gets much more complicated!) - hence my being happy to live with (flava + brandti) as one species. The diagram below is from Dussex et al. 2020, creative commons licence, and is basically the same as Ghorbani's (which is copyright so I can't reproduce it here) except without the longirostris clade (outside of the box here, the oldest divergence in the genus) - red & green lines my addition.


(edit: larger pic)


But someone, somewhere, still has to make a decision as to which way to jump and tell us what we're ticking!
 
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