Hooded Dotterel (1 Viewer)

[The Bosun]

Discussion thread for Hooded Dotterel. If you would like to add a comment, click the Post Reply button.

I have started this discussion after some questions to Delia Todd regarding the naming of this bird in Opus. The bird is endemic to Australia and is now generally referred to in Australia as the "Hooded Plover". This name is used by "Christidis & Boles", who are accepted as the main authority on Aussie birds, in their 2008 checklist, by Birds Australia and all Australian Government bodies. It is also listed as the Hooded Plover by BirdLife International. On the IUCN Red List, the name Hooded Plover is used before the alternative name.

I have also noted that all photographs added to the BF Gallery (9) have referred to the bird as the Hooded Plover. A search for the Hooded Dotterel showed nil photographs (although Delia may by now have linked both names)

I would be interested in knowing if any BF members have any thoughts as to why we should not change BF Opus to list this bird on our website to Hooded Plover.

 

[delia todd]

Hi Eric

I've now amended everything so the searches find the article and the pictures. What a nightmare this one was, with several different scientific names in use as well as the two common names.

According to Avibase we have:

Thinornis rubricollis - IOC, S&M
Thinornis cucullatus - Clements, H&M
Charadrius rubricollis - historical
Charadrius cuculatus - presumably a Clements spelling error

As for the common names:

Hooded Plover - Clements, S&M
Hooded Dotterel - H&M, IOC

I can never remember which of the authorities take precedence and where the concensus comes from, so I'll leave that for the other editors to comment on.

D

 

[njlarsen]

I believe the current version of a consensus rule is that we follow Clements UNLES the other two main players (H&M and IOC) agree on something else. In this case those other two do agree on something else. According to rumors, H&M will come out with a new version in 12-18 month, so you can hope that has the plover version of the name; you could also petition the IOC group to change their version of the name.

For those of us who maintain Opus, it just becomes too complicated if we cannot make easy to implement rules about which name to use.

Niels

 

[The Bosun]

Thanks.

Thanks for your comment, Neil. I will look at making this suggestion to Birds Australia.