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Grey-crowned Tyrannulet (1 Viewer)

Daniel Philippe

Daniel Philippe

Well-known member
In 2004 Sebastian Herzog explained the problems surrounding the identity of Serpophaga griseiceps: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3793/is_200404/ai_n9396909/print

In 2007 Straneck published an article to describe a new species of Serpophaga: Serpophaga griseicapilla: Straneck R. Una nueva especie de Serpophaga (Aves Tyrannidae). Revista FAVE - Ciencias veterinarias 6 (1-2) 2007.

As explained by Sebastian this has been expected since 1993 when Straneck published an article to re-validate Serpophaga griseiceps. However this name is no more valid and Straneck proposes now a new name for the taxon he described in 1993: Serpophaga griseicapilla.

He insists that this taxon deserves species rank as it is smaller than Serpophaga s. subcristata and has different vocalizations.
 
Just looking into a possible future visit to Argentina, and noted that Birdquest reported this taxon on its Southern/Central Argentina tours in both 2006 (Mark Pearman) & 2007 (Luciano Naka). Ref. http://www.birdquest.co.uk/tripreports.cfm?region=9

[Also listed (as Sp nov) by Pugnali 2008 (Checklist of the birds of Argentina, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands) as an endemic breeder, occurring in Pampas, Central West, Northwest and Northeast.]

Richard
 
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Monte Tyrannulet

Alvaro Jaramillo has submitted a proposal (#419, Feb 2010) to AOU-SACC to recognise Serpophaga griseicapilla.
http://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCprop419.html

[Suggests 'Gray-crowned Tyrannulet' could be confusing, given the complicated history. I noticed last year in Argentina that Mark Pearman also uses 'Monte Tyrannulet'.]

Richard
 
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I disagree with this proposal. I have never understood why all of a sudden it became "illegal" to use person's names in bird names. Yes, a good, destinctive, descriptive name might be better, but when there are already in existence a Grey-capped Tyrannulet, Grey-capped Flycatcher, and Grey-crowned Flycatcher, in addition to other variations of grey/ashy/sooty and different parts of the head (and I am still talking only of South American Tyrannidae, not even including what is found in Central America or what flycatchers are found elsewhere): in that situation, another variation of the same theme is only confusing and not a good name.

The only argument to why Peoples names are bad given in the proposal is that it is not in fashion. What is in fashion and what is good often has nothing to do with each other. There should be arguments for why breaking the trend would be a bad idea before the proposal can be taken seriously IMHO.

Niels
 
Eponymous English bird names

njlarsen said:
I disagree with this proposal. I have never understood why all of a sudden it became "illegal" to use person's names in bird names...
The only argument to why Peoples names are bad given in the proposal is that it is not in fashion. What is in fashion and what is good often has nothing to do with each other. There should be arguments for why breaking the trend would be a bad idea before the proposal can be taken seriously IMHO.
Click to expand...
But as I understand it, Manuel Nores identifies three distinct cases (although his wording is perhaps a little unclear):

  1. The scientific and English names honour an individual (but not the describer), eg, Hume's Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus humei (Brooks, 1878).

  2. The English name takes the name of the describer himself, eg, Pallas's Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus proregulus (Pallas, 1811).

  3. The English name alone honours an individual (but not the describer), eg, Kloss's Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus ogilviegranti (La Touche, 1922).
It's only case 2 that Nores argues is no longer customary, particularly during the lifetime of the describer.
[Although, eg, HBW and BLI (but not IOC, Clements or OBC) use Alström's Warbler for Seicercus soror (Alström & Olsson, 1999); and HBW, IOC, BLI and Clements (but not OBC) use Martens's Warbler for S omeiensis (Martens et al, 1999).]

Richard
 
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Thanks Richard,
but that still does not answer why the customary stand (of avoiding peoples names) is a good one ... It only says, no-one else is doing this, so we shouldn't do it either.

Niels
 
Eponymous English bird names

njlarsen said:
Thanks Richard,
but that still does not answer why the customary stand (of avoiding peoples names) is a good one ... It only says, no-one else is doing this, so we shouldn't do it either.
Click to expand...
Well, surely cases 1 and 3 (honouring an individual in a scientific and/or English name) are still quite common. eg, this is readily evident in the numerous eponymous English names adopted for new species added to the IOC World Bird List just since Oct 2007:
http://www.worldbirdnames.org/updates-spp.html
http://www.worldbirdnames.org/updates-spp08.html

But as Nores argues, it's less usual for a new species to be named for the describer (case 2), except perhaps posthumously when elevating a long-standing subspecies to species rank. In the case of a completely new species, the describer often suggests the English name, and it would be very vain to suggest his own!

Richard
 
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Richard Klim said:
In the case of a completely new species, the describer often suggests the English name, and it would be very vain to suggest his own!

Richard
Click to expand...

The title of the paper in which this bird was described is in Spanish, and from the SACC discussion, there seems to have been no recommendation of an English name. It was therefore not Straneck himself, but according to the SACC, "a group of researchers from four different countries within its distribution deemed it appropriate to suggest an alternative common English name that was not included by him in the proposal: Straneck's Tyrannulet." And they go on to mention that this name has already been used in a Spanish paper.

Niels
 
Eponymous English bird names

njlarsen said:
The title of the paper in which this bird was described is in Spanish, and from the SACC discussion, there seems to have been no recommendation of an English name. It was therefore not Straneck himself, but according to the SACC, "a group of researchers from four different countries within its distribution deemed it appropriate to suggest an alternative common English name that was not included by him in the proposal: Straneck's Tyrannulet." And they go on to mention that this name has already been used in a Spanish paper.
Click to expand...
I fully appreciate that Roberto Straneck didn't propose the name Straneck's Tyrannulet, and I apologise if my post inadvertantly gave that impression – hopefully no describer has ever done such a thing! My comment was hypothetical, just giving a further reason why it's uncommon for a new species to be named after the describer.

Richard
 
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