Giles's Santa Marta Screech Owl (1 Viewer)

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Simply following the thread Owls (here) in the Bird Taxonomy and Nomenclature Forum regarding the recently described:

gilesi as in:
• Santa Marta Screech Owl Megascops gilesi KRABBE 2017 (here):

Etymology ─ I name the species after Robert Giles, who funded and took an active part in establishing a bird reserve near the type locality.

= the British active birder and conservationist (O. A.) Robert Giles (here), one of the founders and sponsors of the “El Dorado Reserve”*, in the montane forests of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia. As well as other Reserves in the same Country. He´s one of the trustees of ProAves Foundation, etc., etc, ... and so on, still going strong.


If I understand it correctly he is also commemorated in:
• the subspecies Scytalopus griseicollis gilesi DONEGAN & AVENDAÑO 2008 (here):

ETYMOLOGY.– This bird is named for O. A. Robert Giles of Wimbledon, London, UK. His name is formed as a fictional first declension masculine Latin noun and declined in the genitive singular. Robert is a keen birder and conservationist and a friend of the first author. He is among the founders and a member of the Consejo of Fundación ProAves, a bird conservation NGO based in Colombia, and is chairman of Ecoturs S.A., an ecotourism organization operating in Colombia that donates all its profits to ProAves. Robert has supported many conservation initiatives in Colombia. In particular, Robert's support was crucial in providing seed funding for various ProAves nature reserve purchases, including for the reserve in Serranía de los Yariguíes near where this new tapaculo is found.

• and the (probably extinct!?) subspecies Giles’s Antpitta Grallaria milleri gilesi SALAMAN, DONEGAN & PRŶS-JONES 2009 (here):

Etymology.—The epithet honours O. A. Robert Giles, who has been dedicated to the conservation and study of Colombian avifauna since the early 1990s. He has personally supported the creation of two reserves for threatened birds in Antioquia by Fundación ProAves (Arrierito Antioqueño and Loro Orejiamarillo Bird Reserves) and a further two bird reserves elsewhere in Colombia (Reinita Cerúleo and Hormiguero de Torcoroma Bird Reserves). Robert has travelled extensively in Colombia and aided Colombian ornithology by sponsoring research. Colombia’s birds are safer due to his generosity.

However; enjoy!

Björn

PS. He´s also "one of us", here on BirdForum!

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*"The El Dorado Bird Reserve was created on March 31, 2006, based on the urgency of conserving one of the most fragile and important zones in Colombia, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, home to a large number of unique plant and animal species. ..." [here]

"These important actions have been possible thanks to the support from organizations and individuals like American Bird Conservancy, Conservation International, Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, Global Conservation Fund and Robert Giles, as well as Colombian official institutions such as the Administrative Unit of National Natural Parks of Colombia, the mayor of Genoa, Quindío, the regional autonomous corporations of Antioquia, Tolima, Quindio, Magdalena, Santander, Cauca, Boyacá, Nariño and San Andres Islas. ..." [here]

Not to confuse with "Giles Fuertes’s Parrot Bird Reserve", named after the same Robert Giles.

 

[Taphrospilus]

The Eponym Dictionary of Birds claims

Giles's Pale-bellied Tapaculo Scytalopus griseicollis gilesi Donegan & Avendaño-C., 2008
Giles's Antpitta Grallaria milleri gilesi Salaman, , Donegan & Prys-Jones, 2009 [Alt. Brown-banded Antpitta ssp.]
O. A. Robert Giles is a British sponsor of research and conservation with strong links to the NGO ProAves Colombia. The antpitta lay unregarded in the British Museum (Natural History) (1878–2001). It is thought that the bird's habitat has already been destroyed and that it may have become extinct before being recognised.

The Key to Scientific Names

O. A. Robert Giles (fl. 2008) British sponsor, conservationist (‡subsp. Grallaria milleri, Megascops, subsp. Scytalopus griseicollis).

Both not solving the O. A. And of course not to be confused with him.