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Taxonomic changes to the British List (1 Viewer)

Steve Dudley

Steve Dudley

aka The Toadsnatcher
United Kingdom
In the October issue of the British Ornithologists’ Union’s journal, Ibis, the BOU publishes the latest taxonomic recommendations for British birds by the Taxonomic Sub-committee (TSC) of the BOU Records Committee (BOURC) (Sangster et al. 2012. Ibis 154: 874-883).

You can see a summary of the key items from the report on the BOU website here.

The full report will be available free to view from 20 September 2012).

Steve Dudley | BOU
 
Interesting stuff. But I was disappointed not to see Northern Harrier on there as a newly recognised species...
I wonder if there have been proven any records of Siberian Nuthatch as yet unsubmitted, or photos of migrant 'Nuthatches' from the Northern Isles awaiting to be unearthed?

Mark
 
pdf

Steve Dudley said:
The full report will be available free to view from 20 September 2012.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Steve. :t:

The full report is actually online already:
  • Sangster, Collinson, Crochet, Knox, Parkin & Votier 2012. Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: eighth report. Ibis 154(4): 874–883. [pdf]
 
Mark Newsome said:
I wonder if there have been proven any records of Siberian Nuthatch as yet unsubmitted, or photos of migrant 'Nuthatches' from the Northern Isles awaiting to be unearthed?

Mark
Click to expand...

If I remember rightly Siberian Nuthatches are confined to far eastern Russia (the country's first endemic too I think) so a pretty unlikely candidate for the British List.
 
Siberian Nuthatch

jacana said:
If I remember rightly Siberian Nuthatches are confined to far eastern Russia (the country's first endemic too I think) so a pretty unlikely candidate for the British List.
Click to expand...
IOC's recommended English name 'Siberian Nuthatch' for Sitta arctica had previously been used by Birding World and Dutch Birding for S europaea asiatica - although DB later revised that to 'Asian Nuthatch'(!!!) following IOC's unilateral name grab ;). But given that S arctica reportedly breeds up to 68°N, perhaps 'Arctic Nuthatch' would have been a good alternative to avoid potential confusion.

PS. Red’kin & Konovalova 2006.
 
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I don't think there are any surprises here, perhaps apart from the Nuthatch. I assume the relevant work is convincing - the Arctic far east isn't an area I'd normally associate with endemics! The fact that Madeiran Storm-petrel sensu lato is still retained on Cat A, does at least suggest that, by analogy, "Southern Skua" might be acceptable for the same...

cheers, alan
 
Madeiran Storm Petrel

lewis20126 said:
The fact that Madeiran Storm-petrel sensu lato is still retained on Cat A, does at least suggest that, by analogy, "Southern Skua" might be acceptable for the same...
Click to expand...
Technically, Madeiran Storm Petrel Oceanodroma castro (monotypic) is on the British List. The BOURC 41st Report (Oct 2012, in Ibis Jan 2013) will confirm which of the TSC 8th report recommendations will be formally adopted by BOURC. Presumably BOURC will accommodate band-rumped storm petrel sp (and southern skua sp) on the British List...
 
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Richard Klim said:
Technically, Madeiran Storm Petrel Oceanodroma castro (monotypic) is on the British List. The BOURC 41st Report (Oct 2012) will confirm which of the TSC 8th report recommendations will be formally adopted by BOURC. Presumably BOURC will accommodate band-rumped storm petrel sp (and southern skua sp) on the British List...
Click to expand...

Richard, I am only using the BOURC phrasing, which verbatim is
"There is a single British record of ‘Madeiran Storm Petrel’ sensu lato (off Isles of Scilly, 28 July 2007; British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) 2012)."
..though i guess '.....' are important in these situations..;)

a
 
btw, can anyone find a good photo of Siberian Nuthatch online? I struggled to find anything in a brief search earlier.

cheers, alan
 
lewis20126 said:
Richard, I am only using the BOURC phrasing, which verbatim is
"There is a single British record of ‘Madeiran Storm Petrel’ sensu lato (off Isles of Scilly, 28 July 2007; British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) 2012)."
Click to expand...
Alan, splitting hairs, but more precisely you're using the TSC phrasing. ;) There's a (subtle) distinction between (BOURC)TSC and 'BOURC'. To quote Martin:
Docmartin said:
The process is quite simple, at least since we simplified it... the Taxonomic Subcommittee publishes recommendations relating to the British List. BOURC incorporates those changes into the List when changes are detailed in the BOURC reports published annually in January's Ibis.

BOURC is responsible for managing the List, which involves sorting out the collateral damage |=)| from TSC reports i.e. includes determining the status of 'new' species and subspecies, adopting vernacular names and setting a timescale for big (high ranking) sequence changes.
Click to expand...
 
However, in this context we really need to rename the concept, into 'feather-splitting' 8-P

B :)

Niels
 
jacana said:
If I remember rightly Siberian Nuthatches are confined to far eastern Russia (the country's first endemic too I think) so a pretty unlikely candidate for the British List.
Click to expand...
Siberian Grouse? And there are many breeding endemics, for example, several species of arctic waders.
 
Thanks guys. Bloody publishers! It wasn't free when I checked when I posted the announcement and was told by our publisher it wouldn't be available until tomorrow.

Ah well. At least it is available and thats the main thing!
 
lewis20126 said:
I assume the relevant work is convincing - the Arctic far east isn't an area I'd normally associate with endemics!
Click to expand...

I think we're going to see more of these east Siberian endemics. There are quite a few species over there that seem to be closer to their American counterparts than to the European ones: Vega Gull, borealis Northern Shrike, Barn Swallows to mention a few. Some sort of glacial refugia must have been going on.

And then we have the American waders that also breed in the East Asian Arctic: Long-billed Dowitcher, Pectoral Sandpiper! Plus Eastern Yellow Wagtail.
 
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