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Taxonomic changes since the Birds of East Africa was published. (1 Viewer)

Steve Babbs

Well-known member
Hi all

Does anyone have a list, or a link to a list, of the taxonomic changes since The Helm guide was published please?

Steve
 
Terry Stevenson tells me the second edition is due out in October, but don't hold your breath as these schedules are notoriously elastic; I don't have a link to anything summarising changes
 
Hi Steve,
I don’t know if such a list exists but I did it manually for Kenyan species only last year by comparing the checklists for the 4 big taxonomies on avibase. A big job! If you can’t get a better answer I might be able to provide you with a list of Kenyan species affected by splits since the guide was published
Cheers
James
 
Hi Steve,
I don’t know if such a list exists but I did it manually for Kenyan species only last year by comparing the checklists for the 4 big taxonomies on avibase. A big job! If you can’t get a better answer I might be able to provide you with a list of Kenyan species affected by splits since the guide was published
Cheers
James
 
I doubt that there are so many changes anyway in fact there are a couple of lumps, Ruwenzori Nightjar back in with Montane and Ruwenzori Babbler with African Hill if you use the IOC.

Boubous and Red-necked Spurfowl are recent splits that I can think of.
 
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There’s a lot of changes, white-eyes, greenbuls 2 particularly heavily split groups, but plenty of others.
James

Really James, what do you call 'a lot', more than 30?

I just had a short foray in to the region and only came across a few that were relevant to my trip which was obviously, only a miniscule part of the area covered.

Kandt's Waxbill is another one that springs to mind.

In relation to the 2nd ed of Stevenson and Fanshawe, that should have been out in Nov 19.
 
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Hi all

Does anyone have a list, or a link to a list, of the taxonomic changes since The Helm guide was published please?

Steve

What about finding the index to the book electronically, you can then do a side by side comp with whatever list you use?

I think you'll end up doing this manually, I doubt a list exists?
 
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I've come across a few already - or ones that are different from eBird e.g southern citril. I've got two trips planned to the region before October and, as sicklebill says field guide do tend to be 'elastic' as this one seems to have been already.
 
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I've come across a few already - or ones that are different from eBird e.g southern citril. I've got two trips planned to the region before October and, as sicklebill says field guide do tend to be 'elastic' as this one seems to have been already.

Hi Steve,
Happy to help with a list of species affected by splits since the publication of the current edition if it’s helpful. I can’t go into the detail on every species and there will be some Tanzanian etc. splits missing but it will give you a head start
Cheers
James
 
That would be great James; as long as it doesn't involve you having to spend ages on it again. I'll be in Tanzania and Uganda but obviously there will be a big overlap and there's a high chance I'll be in the region again next year when the new edition may or may not be out.
Cheers
Steve
 
Hi Steve,
ok! list is below. This is (hopefully) all the (Kenyan) species as listed in the Stephenson & Fanshawe FG (2002 edition) that are affected in some way by a split (or in a few cases a proposed split) in any of the 4 big global checklists (IOC, Clements, Bird Life International, Howard and Moore) relative to how they are described in the FG. In some cases the taxa occurring in E Africa have been split into multiple spp (marked with an asterisk), in other cases the split will be with extralimital forms.

There's a few widespread spp. like Cattle Egret, Barn Owl, Yellow Wagtail that if I was being ultra picky I might have included but I figure you'll be aware of all of those already.

I don't really care about cleansing my FG of outdated and field guide splits so they aren't included on the list below. There are a few though, Heuglin's Gull, Barbary Falcon, Schalow's Wheatear etc.

It's too big a job to detail all the splits here but you should be able to work them all out with the help of IOC, Bird Life International and Avibase websites (the comparison checklist available on the IOC website is a big help). If there are any you are genuinely stumped by feel free to ask.

Any splits affecting spp. that don't occur in Kenya, or that don't affect the forms listed on the Kenyan checklist, will not have been captured so hopefully someone else can point you in the direction of any of those.

cheers,
James

Audubon’s Shearwater
Great Cormorant
Intermediate Egret
Woolly-necked Stork
Black Kite *
Short-Toed Snake Eagle *
Common Kestrel *
Red-necked Falcon
Crested Guineafowl *
Scaly Francolin
Moorland Francolin
Orange River Francolin
Chestnut-naped Francolin
Red-necked Spurfowl *
Black-rumped Button-Quail
Purple Swamphen
African Green Pigeon *
Bare-faced Go-away-bird *
Yellowbill *
White-faced Scops Owl *
Spotted Eagle Owl *
Violet Wood Hoopoe
Red-billed Hornbill *
Grey-throated Barbet
Yellow-spotted Barbet
White-headed Barbet *
D’Arnaud’s Barbet *
Yellow-billed Barbet
Tullberg’s Woodpecker
Grey Woodpecker *
Somali Short-toed Lark *
Fawn-coloured Lark
Plain Martin
Black Saw-wing
Grassland Pipit *
Common Bulbul *
Mountain Greenbul *
Shelley’s Greenbul *
Stripe-cheeked Greenbul *
Yellow-streaked Greenbul *
Tiny Greenbul *
Cabanis’s Greenbul *
Green-tailed Bristlebill
Yellow-throated Greenbul
Forest Robin
Olive Thrush *
Common Stonechat
Little Rush Warbler *
Olivaceous Warbler
Northern Crombec *
Green-backed Eremomela
Wailing Cisticola *
Winding Cisticola *
Rock-loving Cisticola *
Banded Prinia *
Grey-backed Camaroptera *
Olive-green Camaroptera
Miombo Wren-Warbler *
Yellow-breasted Apalis *
Bar-throated Apalis *
Black-headed Batis *
Cape Batis
Yellow-bellied Wattle-eye
Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher
Pale-breasted Illadopsis *
African Hill Babbler *
Spotted Creeper
African Penduline Tit *
Montane White-eye *
Yellow White-eye *
Abyssinian White-eye
Eastern Double-collared Sunbird *
Northern Double-collared Sunbird
Green Sunbird
Purple-banded Sunbird *
Violet-breasted Sunbird *
Beautiful Sunbird *
Common Fiscal *
Isabelline Shrike *
Tropical Boubou *
Mountain Black Boubou
Four-coloured Bush-Shrike
Fork-tailed Drongo *
Square-tailed Drongo *
Rufous Sparrow *
Vitelline Masked Weaver
Red-headed Weaver *
Red-collared Widowbird *
Black-faced Firefinch
Black-headed Waxbill
African Quail-Finch *
Black-and-white Mannikin *
Yellow-crowned Canary
African Citril *
Stripe-breasted Seedeater *
Streaky-headed Seedeater
House Bunting
 
Many thanks. That will be very useful. There certainly is a lot.

To add one candidate to James' helpful list, the continuning deconstruction of the Rock Martin complex produces Red-throated Rock Martin Ptyonoprogne rufigula as shown on the BLI Dtazone map...

Of course, you may already have taken this into account.
MJB
 
To add one candidate to James' helpful list, the continuning deconstruction of the Rock Martin complex produces Red-throated Rock Martin Ptyonoprogne rufigula as shown on the BLI Dtazone map...

Of course, you may already have taken this into account.
MJB

No!

that one slipped through the net....

James
 
Ruwenzori Nightjar is not on the list either I don't think, re-lumped with Montane by the IOC.

Eurasian Marsh Harrier is now Eastern and Western.

Yellowbill is split by HBW as Chattering and Whistling.

Osprey, Eastern and Western

Black-shouldered Kite is now Black-winged
 
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No!

that one slipped through the net....

James

You may have earlier included the del Hoyo et al 2014 split of Green Bee-eater (also BLI DZ) into the superspecies, African Green Bee-eater M. [o.] viridissimus (2 sspp, nominate & cleopatra), Arabian Green Bee-eater M. [o.] cyanophrys (2 sspp nominate & muscatensis) & Asian Green Bee-eater M. [o.] orientalis (4 sspp).
MJB
del Hoyo, J, N Collar and GM Kirwan. 2014. Arabian Green Bee-eater (Merops cyanophrys). In: del Hoyo, J, A Elliott, J Sargatal, D Christie and E de Juana. Eds. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
 
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