Central Asia (1 Viewer)

[Richard Klim]

Ayé, Schweizer & Roth 2012. Helm Field Guides: Birds of Central Asia. Christopher Helm, London.

Just received my copy. Great to have a set of distribution maps for Central Asia at last. A few taxonomic snippets...

Recognises a few splits not widely adopted elsewhere (eg, by IOC):

• Falco (cherrug/rusticolus) altaicus - Altai Falcon (tentatively follows Ferguson-Lees & Christie 2001)
• Lanius (excubitor) lahtora - Asian Grey Shrike (incl pallidirostris, Olsson et al 2010)
• Lanius (excubitor) borealis - Northern Grey Shrike (Olsson et al 2010; funereus treated as a synonym of mollis, Svensson in prep)
• Poecile (montana) songara [sic] - Songar Tit
• Passer (domesticus) indicus - Indian Sparrow
• Passer (moabiticus) yatii - Afghan Scrub Sparrow (Kirwan 2004)
• Passer (simplex) zarudnyi - Zarudny's Sparrow (Kirwan et al 2009)

Asian Short-toed Lark...

We treat the taxa henei [sic], persica and leucophaea as belonging to a single species, Asian Short-toed Lark Calandrella cheleensis. However, according to preliminary genetic results, C. c. leucophaea might be treated as a distinct species, and C. c. henei, probably together with C. c. persica, might also be specifically distinct from the extralimital C. c. cheleensis (P. Alström in litt.)

[See also: Asian Short-Toed Lark.]​

The three 'colour variants' of Variable Wheatear Oenanthe picata are treated as subspecies.

PS, for Daniel: "Authors' note: Raffael Ayé and Manuel Schweizer have contributed equally to this book."