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Message: <blockquote data-quote="cwbirder" data-source="post: 3342403" data-attributes="member: 109663">WhitestartsThe 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:<a href="http://www.gizard.org/nacc/proposals/prior_2009.html" target="_blank">http://www.gizard.org/nacc/proposals/prior_2009.html</a></blockquote>

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