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AOU-NACC Proposals 2016 (1 Viewer)

Richard Klim

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Proposals 2016-A

www.gizard.org/nacc/proposals/current_proposals.html
Proposals 2016-A (PDF)
  • 2016-A-1: Elevate Aphelocoma californica woodhouseii to species rank
  • 2016-A-2: Adopt "Whitestart" as the English surname of species of the genus Myioborus (SACC 63, SACC 171)
  • 2016-A-3: Lump Common Redpoll Acanthis flammea and Hoary Redpoll A. hornemanni into a single species
  • 2016-A-4: Revise generic assignments of woodpeckers in the genus Picoides
  • 2016-A-5: Split Cuban Bullfinch Melopyrrha nigra into two species
  • 2016-A-6: Split Rufous-naped Wood-Rail Aramides albiventris from Grey[sic!]-necked Wood-Rail A. cajaneus
  • 2016-A-7: Move Motacillidae and Prunellidae to the "core passeridans"
  • 2016-A-8: Change the linear sequence of genera in the family Odontophoridae
  • 2016-A-9: Merge Caribbean Coot Fulica caribaea into American Coot F. americana
  • 2016-A-10: Revise the classification of the Caprimulgiformes
  • 2016-A-11a: Split Momotus momota into two or three species (SACC # 412): Recognize lessonii (including coeruliceps) as a separate species from M. momotus or M. subrufescens
  • 2016-A-11b: Split Momotus momota into two or three species (SACC # 412): Recognize subrufescens as a separate species from M. momotus
  • 2016-A-11c: Split Momotus momota into two or three species (SACC # 412): Recognize coeruliceps as a separate species from M. lessonii
Nothing re Magnificent Hummingbird (Zamudio-Beltrán & Hernández-Baños 2015), Bell's Vireo (Klicka et al 2016), Sedge Wren (Robbins & Nyári 2014) or Rufous-backed Robin (Montaño-Rendón et al 2015).​
 
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Naive question

It would have been easier and logical to expand order Caprimulgiforma, no ?

HBW/BL: 1 order Caprimulgiformes
Cracraft in H&M4: 1 order Caprimulgiformes
TiF: 5 orders Caprimulgiformes, Steatornithiformes, Nyctibiiformes, Podargiformes and Apodiformes (+Aegothelidae)
IOC: 2 orders Caprimulgiformes and Apodiformes (incl. Aegothelidae)
Clements: 2 orders Caprimulgiformes (incl. Aegothelidae) and Apodiformes

The question is, what is better, one monophyletic order for all "short-legged birds" or one monophyletic order for "diurnal short-legged birds" plus five orders of "nocturnal short-legged birds".
 
Reasons for five separate orders include: the great morphological diversity in the clade (Bee Hummingbirds to Papuan Frogmouths and Great Potoos), and the divergence times are on the order of ordinal level in bird taxonomy.
Andy
 
Proposal 2016-A-2

2016-A-2: Adopt "Whitestart" as the English surname of species of the genus Myioborus
I like the idea of bird species having surnames (and presumably first names)...

"The name's Whitestart. Slate-throated Whitestart." ;)

But perhaps less effective as a chat-up line...

"The name's Nighthawk! Common Nighthawk." :smoke:
 
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I like the idea of bird species having surnames (and presumably first names)...

"The name's Whitestart. Slate-throated Whitestart." ;)

But perhaps less effective as a chat-up line...

"The name's Nighthawk! Common Nighthawk." :smoke:

The name's Starling, Vulgar Starling...:eek!:
MJB
 
Regarding the Coot proposal: I believe non-assortative mating has been seen commonly further east in the Lesser Antilles. (for example a poster I saw at a conference a few years ago).

My problem is with the name. After the lump, there will be 7 American species of Coots. Why this one should have the name American Coot is beyond me; a proper name is North American Coot, given that all the others belong to South America.

Niels
 
Regarding the Coot proposal: I believe non-assortative mating has been seen commonly further east in the Lesser Antilles. (for example a poster I saw at a conference a few years ago).

My problem is with the name. After the lump, there will be 7 American species of Coots. Why this one should have the name American Coot is beyond me; a proper name is North American Coot, given that all the others belong to South America.

Niels

In a way Niels "North American Coot" makes no better than "American Coot", besides "American" not specifying if its North, South or both.
 
(bit of color in the tail that is flashed, presumably to flush prey)

I've always assumed it was either a conspecifics signal (the exact pattern varies a bit from species to species), or else a 'startle defence' against potential predators (or something to make predators aim for the least useful part to try to catch).

Agree, 'Whitestart' is right, though :t:
 
HBW/BL: 1 order Caprimulgiformes
Cracraft in H&M4: 1 order Caprimulgiformes
TiF: 5 orders Caprimulgiformes, Steatornithiformes, Nyctibiiformes, Podargiformes and Apodiformes (+Aegothelidae)
IOC: 2 orders Caprimulgiformes and Apodiformes (incl. Aegothelidae)
Clements: 2 orders Caprimulgiformes (incl. Aegothelidae) and Apodiformes

The question is, what is better, one monophyletic order for all "short-legged birds" or one monophyletic order for "diurnal short-legged birds" plus five orders of "nocturnal short-legged birds".

Why Caprimulgiformes if treated as one order? Isn't Apodiformes the older name?
 
Proposal 2016-A-2

Well since the 'start' (bit of color in the tail that is flashed, presumably to flush prey) is actually white & not red... I say Whitestart, hell yes!
Barber et al 2000 (BNA Online: Painted Redstart (Myioborus pictus))...
Uses tail-fanning and wing-spreading during foraging, which evokes jump and flight in prey. Additionally, foraging birds often move bodies from side to side, in a way often described as twitching, pirouetting, or pivoting, which also helps to flush insects.
 
Whitestarts

The whitestart proposal brings up something that I have thought about before relating to changing common names. Although there are those that would disagree with me, I don't like changing common names without good reason, and I don't think monophyly of common names is a good reason at all. That is what we have scientific names for. It doesn't bother me that we have six genera worldwide that are called redstarts (in two families). I have seen, as all of us on this forum have, a good number of proposals to make common names monophyletic. Part of the reason for this is ostensibly to make it easier for non-scientists to see the relationships of the species in question. However, by the time a non-scientist birder understands that falcons are more closely related to parrots than hawks (for example), they are likely to have an understanding of the taxonomic classification scheme overall, and can appreciate the relatedness of a set of species regardless of the common name. I think that any proposals to change common names to be more monophyletic should be weighed carefully, and I generally don't think they are worth it.

That being said, in such proposals, if there is other supportable reasoning (e.g. a historical precedent or widespread usage issue), I think it is more permissible, and perhaps the best option, to make the change. These are the aspects that need to be considered more than common name monophyly when making these changes, in my opinion.

In the specific case of the Whitestart vs Redstart proposal, I have little opinion. As the author points out, other authorities treat Myioborus as the whitestarts, so there is perhaps the widespread usage issue. When I have seen Myioborus outside of the US, I have seen them referred to variously as whitestarts and redstarts, so I could easily see the case for calling them whitestarts.



Also, on an unrelated note, I couldn't get the link to the 2009-A proposals to work (that is provided in the Scrub-Jay proposal). However, I was able to find the proposals from that year anyway at the below link, in case anyone else has trouble with that:
http://www.gizard.org/nacc/proposals/prior_2009.html
 
The whitestart proposal brings up something that I have thought about before relating to changing common names. Although there are those that would disagree with me, I don't like changing common names without good reason, and I don't think monophyly of common names is a good reason at all. That is what we have scientific names for.

I'll disagree, for one — the people who really like, and benefit from, a mismatch between English and Scientific names are the bible-bashing fundamentalists; they love to maximise the obscurity of any evolution-based hierarchy. I'm just waiting for some fundamentalist group to come up with a new 'scientific name list' with a phylogeny based on "traditional" English names, and thus have Phoenicurus phoenicurus, Phoenicurus ruticilla, Phoenicurus pictus, Phoenicurus miniatus, etc., in their official standard list . . . definitely not something to encourage in any way whatsoever!
 
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