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BOURC TSC 7th Report (1 Viewer)

Richard Klim

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Sangster, Collinson, Crochet, Knox, Parkin, Svensson & Votier 2011. Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: seventh report. Ibis 153(4): 883-892. [abstract]

Represents a major catch-up. Recommendations include:

  • Split Pterodroma cahow Bermuda Petrel from P hasitata Black-capped Petrel.

  • Split Rallus indicus Brown-cheeked Rail from R aquaticus Water Rail.

  • Split Charadrius nivosus Snowy Plover from C alexandrinus Kentish Plover.

  • Split Numenius hudsonicus Hudsonian Whimbrel from N phaeopus Eurasian Whimbrel.

  • Split Stercorarius antarcticus Brown Skua, S chilensis Chilean Skua and S maccormicki South Polar Skua from S skua Great Skua.

  • Split Sterna acuflavida Cabot's Tern from S sandvicensis Sandwich Tern.

  • Synonymise Uria aalge hyperborea with nominate.

  • Transfer Lunda cirrhata to Fratercula.

  • Split Riparia diluta Pale Martin from R riparia Sand Martin.

  • Transfer Acrocephalus aedon, Hippolais caligata, H rama, H opaca and H pallida to Iduna.

  • Transfer Zoothera sibirica to Geokichla.

  • Transfer Luscinia cyane and L sibilans to Larvivora.

  • Transfer Luscinia calliope to Calliope.

  • Split Saxicola maurus Siberian Stonechat and S rubicola European Stonechat from S torquatus African Stonechat.

  • Transfer Carduelis chloris, C sinica, C ambigua and C spinoides to Chloris.

  • Split Pyrrhula murina Azores Bullfinch from P pyrrhula Eurasian Bullfinch.

  • Revise generic arrangement of Parulini...
    [Refer to: van den Berg 2011. Dutch Birding-vogelnamen / bird names. Aug 2011.]
 
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I know some British birders who will be quite happy with this!

I am kind of surprised though at some of the recommendations. I wouldn't suspect a ruling on Brown-cheeked Rail for instance, since I figured it would be extralimital. Are there records?

Also, wow...that Bermuda Petrel split is pretty behind...
 
How long does it usually take for the BOU to implement the TSC's recommendations? Am starting to regret not going for the Walney Whimbrel now :-C
 
Am I right in thinking there have been two skuas in the UK positively ID'ed as being part of the Brown group - the Oct 2001 bird on St Agnes and one from Aberdaron in early 2002?
 
Extralimital splits

I am kind of surprised though at some of the recommendations. I wouldn't suspect a ruling on Brown-cheeked Rail for instance, since I figured it would be extralimital.
I think it's useful to clarify the scope of the species on the British List, as recognised by BOURC, even where splits are extralimital (eg, as AOU does with the North American list). Much better than waiting until a Pacific Diver, Northern Harrier, Thayer's Gull etc shows up before deciding if it's a valid split or not. But I don't expect we'll be seeing a Brown-cheeked Rail anytime soon... ;)
 
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I think it's useful to clarify the scope of the species on the British List, as recognised by BOURC, even where splits are extralimital (eg, as AOU does with the North American list). Much better than waiting until a Pacific Diver, Northern Harrier, Thayer's Gull etc shows up before deciding if it's a valid split or not. But I don't expect we'll be seeing a Brown-cheeked Rail anytime soon... ;)

Might not see it, but it could very well turn up!

Rails are inveterate wanderers and we surely get European WR in winter, could one come just that bit further?

Any one know of any West Pal records?

GH
 
[*]Split Stercorarius antarcticus Brown Skua, S chilensis Chilean Skua and S maccormicki South Polar Skua from S skua Great Skua.

Curious, because the paper on identity of vagrant British South Polar Skuas, basically, claims that there is hybridization, differences are subtle and British vagrants couldn't be identified neither on plumage nor DNA. Seems really stringing to call them species, then...
 
'Southern skuas'

Am I right in thinking there have been two skuas in the UK positively ID'ed as being part of the Brown group - the Oct 2001 bird on St Agnes and one from Aberdaron in early 2002?
Both records are accepted by BBRC and BOURC as 'Southern Skua', race undetermined but of one of the subspecies maccormicki, antarcticus, hamiltoni or lonnbergi - ie South Polar Skua Stercorarius maccormicki or Brown Skua S antarcticus.
 
The eventual split of Siberian Stonechat is interesting and has been long talked about.
Thick-billed Warbler getting transferred to Iduna was a bit of a surprise (to me anyway).

Re the split of Bermuda and Black-capped Petrel - this must have been researched for a long, long time; the link to the abstract of the Ibis page refers to studies by Jesus et al... ;)
 
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As I read it Saxicola maurus Siberian Stonechat and S rubicola European Stonechat stay together, but both are split from S torquatus African Stonechat.
So Siberian Stonechat is not yet split.
 
Stonechats

As I read it Saxicola maurus Siberian Stonechat and S rubicola European Stonechat stay together, but both are split from S torquatus African Stonechat.
So Siberian Stonechat is not yet split.
No, the split is into three species (as stated in post #1) - as already recognised by CSNA, Urquhart & Bowley 2002, IOC, OSME:
  1. Saxicola torquatus African Stonechat
  2. Saxicola maurus Siberian Stonechat (incl variegatus, armenicus, indicus, stejnegeri, przewalskii)
  3. Saxicola rubicola European Stonechat (incl hibernans)
[IOC and OSME additionally split S stejnegeri Stejneger's Stonechat (monotypic), following Zink et al 2009.]
 
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Hi fellas

The TSC report will be free to view. We're just waiting for the publisher to activate the open access tag for this article.

We'll be issuing a formal statements re. the report later today.

Steve Dudley
BOU | www.bou.org.uk
 
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