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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mysticete" data-source="post: 3496920" data-attributes="member: 67784">Are Empidonax flycatchers identifiable in the field outside of breeding season? There is currently a debate right now locally on whether an out of season empid in the area is a "Western" or a Yellow-bellied. Yet Empidonax have distinctive vocalizations and many species pairs (Willow Vs Acadian) are almost text book examples of BSC in action. So "easy to id" for a birder doesn't really have that much relevance in talking about whether something should be split or not.And sure...many studies using BSC in the past have been done on nonbird groups. But what facets of evolution and speciation did they examine? How do you test species recognition hypotheses on groups difficult to observe in the field. You can't test playback or go to a lekking ground for kingsnakes. Sure you can stick them in aquarium and see if they make happy little babies, but since animals didn't evolve in aquaria or are regularly forced to spend time in a tiny enclosures with other animals, that doesn't actually tell you anything about the wild condition.</blockquote>