Latest IOC Diary Updates (27 Viewers)

[Andy Adcock]

I'm not sure they are? It's just that we see IOC updates more frequently than we see updates from other authorities.

Maybe but, can you point to any examples where one of the other authorities has changed a name to come in line with the IOC?

 

[Mysticete]

IOC is notable because we get every change piece meal. When Clements has recently changed names, those name changes are buried in with about a hundred other changes, including many splits and lumps which of course are going to attract the most attention.

 

[Andy Adcock]

IOC is notable because we get every change piece meal. When Clements has recently changed names, those name changes are buried in with about a hundred other changes, including many splits and lumps which of course are going to attract the most attention.

Not sure how this alters my question?

 

[Jacana]

Maybe but, can you point to any examples where one of the other authorities has changed a name to come in line with the IOC?

A couple of Clements examples from the 2023 update:
Marbled Teal to Marbled Duck
White-crowned Koel to White-crowned Cuckoo
Alexander's Swift to Cape Verde Swift
A bunch of Tolmomyias Flycatchers became Flatbills
Latakoo Lark to Melodious Lark

There were tons of others. Full list here: 2023 eBird Taxonomy Update - eBird Science

 

[Markus Lagerqvist]

Mar 16 Post split of monotypic Tahiti Swallow and polytypic Pacific Swallow.

 

[Andy Adcock]

A couple of Clements examples from the 2023 update:
Marbled Teal to Marbled Duck
White-crowned Koel to White-crowned Cuckoo
Alexander's Swift to Cape Verde Swift
A bunch of Tolmomyias Flycatchers became Flatbills
Latakoo Lark to Melodious Lark

There were tons of others. Full list here: 2023 eBird Taxonomy Update - eBird Science

They stated that these changes were to come in line with the IOC, fair enough if so?

 

[Jacana]

They stated that these changes were to come in line with the IOC, fair enough if so?

No, but they don't give any reason for the changes. Just that they've made the change. However, I think all of their changes conform to what the IOC and others already have, rather than coming up with something completely novel.

Edit: although they do say in the introduction to the overall 2023 changes that they support and work towards alignment.

 

[Andy Adcock]

No, but they don't give any reason for the changes. Just that they've made the change. However, I think all of their changes conform to what the IOC and others already have, rather than coming up with something completely novel.

Edit: although they do say in the introduction to the overall 2023 changes that they support and work towards alignment.

I'm still suspicious in regard to the loss of eponyms, how long have those alternative names been in use by e.g Clements?

 

[Swindon Addick]

Mar 16 Post split of monotypic Tahiti Swallow and polytypic Pacific Swallow.

Pacific Swallow H. javanica and Tahiti Swallow H. tahitica are split based on differences in morphology (del Hoyo & Collar 2016; HBW/BirdLife).

So Hirundo tahitica (Pacific Swallow) is now called Tahiti Swallow, while the name Pacific Swallow will apply to Hirundo javanica, which is a new scientific name for what was previously most of the subspecies but not the nominate one.

I'm not speaking as an expert taxonomist here, but I'm not a fan of keeping the original English name for one of the two new species in circumstances where the scientific name of that species is changing. It wouldn't worry me if tahitica wasn't the nominate, given that 6 of the 7 subspecies are still going to be called Pacific, and I'll admit I'd struggle to think of a better name than "pacific" given that "Non-Tahiti Swallow" sounds ridiculous. But this seems to me to be introducing confusion where it doesn't need to be introduced.

 

[Xenospiza]

So Hirundo tahitica (Pacific Swallow) is now called Tahiti Swallow, while the name Pacific Swallow will apply to Hirundo javanica, which is a new scientific name for what was previously most of the subspecies but not the nominate one.

I'm not speaking as an expert taxonomist here, but I'm not a fan of keeping the original English name for one of the two new species in circumstances where the scientific name of that species is changing. It wouldn't worry me if tahitica wasn't the nominate, given that 6 of the 7 subspecies are still going to be called Pacific, and I'll admit I'd struggle to think of a better name than "pacific" given that "Non-Tahiti Swallow" sounds ridiculous. But this seems to me to be introducing confusion where it doesn't need to be introduced.

An alternative name for Hirundo javanica is House Swallow, which is a bit confusing as well (cf. House Martin).

 

[Jacana]

I'm still suspicious in regard to the loss of eponyms, how long have those alternative names been in use by e.g Clements?

I don't know about the kingfishers, but the monal-partridges were changed by Clements at the last update.

 

[opisska]

I hope I'll remember Non-Tahiti Swallow for the next time in Indonesia

 

[Andy Adcock]

I don't know about the kingfishers, but the monal-partridges were changed by Clements at the last update.

Hmm, even more supicious

 

[Viktor Björkert]

Bronzy Sunbird

Nectarinia kilimensis

Bronze Sunbird

Change English name of Nectarinia kilimensis from Bronzy Sunbird to Bronze Sunbird to align with other major world bird lists.

 

[Xenospiza]

In the first world list I ever downloaded from the web (must have been Sibley & Monroe, late 90s) they were already Chestnut- and Buff-throated Partridge (but not: Monal Partridge). To me they are most easily remembered as Ticked and Dipped Monal-Partridge.

 

[Acanthis]

In the first world list I ever downloaded from the web (must have been Sibley & Monroe, late 90s) they were already Chestnut- and Buff-throated Partridge (but not: Monal Partridge). To me they are most easily remembered as Ticked and Dipped Monal-Partridge.

🤣
Actually, ignore my earlier comments.
They're not too bad as names go

 

[l_raty]

In the first world list I ever downloaded from the web (must have been Sibley & Monroe, late 90s) they were already Chestnut- and Buff-throated Partridge (but not: Monal Partridge). To me they are most easily remembered as Ticked and Dipped Monal-Partridge.

"Chestnut-throated Partridge" and "Buff-throated Partridge" were apparently inventions of Sibley & Monroe in the 1990's. Or, at least, I have not been able to trace any use of these names in the older literature for a Tetraophasis sp. (As I have already written above, "Chestnut-throated Partridge" can be found in quite a few older works, but it refers consistently to something entirely different there.)

Sibley & Monroe's names were subsequently adopted in the original BirdLife checklist (2007); from there, they were continued in the printed HBW/BLI illustrated checklist (2014; in the HBW book series, the traditional Verreaux's and Szechenyi's MP had been used), and then in subsequent online updates of the HBW/BLI checklist until now.
Clements used the traditional names up to their last update, at which point they opted for Chestnut- and Buff-throated Monal-Partridge instead, i.e, names making use of S&M's non-eponymous epithets, but with "Monal" added to "Partridge".
H&M, last, have always used the standard Verreaux's and Szechenyi's MP, and continued these in their Aug 2023 update of Phasianidae.

IOW, the recent move by IOC is arguably a switch from names that were in prevailing use among world checklists (IOC + H&M were using them, while the other two checklists each used their own, distinct flavour of non-eponymous names), to the non-eponymous variants adopted a year earlier by Clements, which have basically no history of usage...

 

[Andy Adcock]

Mar 17 Post splits of Nendo Whistler and Utupua Whistler from Vanikoro (formerly Temotu) Whistler.

 

[Paul Clapham]

BirdLife International is going to have to play catchup in the whistler department. It looks to me like their "Golden Whistler" species now encompasses 11 of the IOC species (if I counted right).

 

[Swindon Addick]

BirdLife International is going to have to play catchup in the whistler department. It looks to me like their "Golden Whistler" species now encompasses 11 of the IOC species (if I counted right).

When I'm trying to get my head round a new split, I quite often look at the Birdlife data page to help work out which species lives where. In this case, I really wished I hadn't.