Latest IOC Diary Updates (2 Viewers)

[James Jobling]

Raymie,
I wouldn't wish to tread on any American toes, but what about: North American Goldfinch Spinus tristis, and Lesser American Goldfinch Spinus psaltria?

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

If so, what about the third Member of the same Clade, would that make it; Lawrence's (Californian) American goldfinch Spinus lawrencei ... ?

 

[DDonsker]

The wording is a bit odd, if I may. (And I think this type of statements participates in misunderstandings about the status of nomen oblitum under the ICZN, which makes them a bit disturbing to me.)

A. maxima was made * a nomen oblitum relative to A. haastii by Palma et al. 2003 (p. 7), but the current Code allows for using a nomen oblitum when it ceases being treated as ** a synonym of its nomen protectum.​

*) Not "treated as". This was made via a published, formal act of reversal of precedence, based on Art. 23.9 of the ICZN, which affected the nomenclatural status of the name permanently. (I.e., the name will be a nomen oblitum forever -- even if it gains universal use.) Merely "treating a name as" a nomen oblitum (without a formal act of reversal of precedence -- for an example, see what the NACC did with Arremonidae, back in the old days) would have had exactly zero nomenclatural consequence: subsequently using a name that would have been so treated would not have required that "the Code allows for using [it] under these circumstances".
**) Here this wording would be correct. This is (subjective) taxonomic treatment -- reversal of precedence is pure (objective) nomenclature.

(PS -- Incidentally, the plural of nomen is nomina.)

Thanks, Laurent. Comment modified as suggested.

David

 

[DDonsker]

I don't understand how erythropygium et al. can be split from E. tenuirostre when in 14.1 they are subspecies of E. remotum (except for rooki, which is indeed a subspecies of tenuirostre).

Thanks, Paul. Sloppy cut-and-paste job. Comment will be revised.

David

 

[James Jobling]

Björn,
I think I read somewhere that the Americans were doing away with eponyms, so that would have to be Grey-mantled American Goldfinch Spinus lawrencei! Or perhaps Spinus psaltria should be renamed Least American Goldfinch, and Spinus lawrencei should become Lesser American Goldfinch? The possibilities are legion and should keep the AOS busy for years to come.

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

I think you are right James, possibilities are legion ...

At Least Lesser Grey-mantled (Lawrence's) Californian American Goldfinch ... will "keep the AOS busy for years to come".

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Lesser Grey-mantled (Lawrence's) Californian American Goldfinch ...

Will there be enough room on its ID card for a such name?

 

[pbjosh]

Northern Xenops was fine, and White-throated Xenops was great, but Amazonian Xenops was terrible. There's three xenops species in the Amazonian basin! Amazonian Plain Xenops is far clearer, at which point the rest should just change.

There was a very wide spread preference for Atlantic over White-throated given that White-throated is a recently coined name and there are a lot of Xenops with white throats and no one is really ID’ing Xenops by throat color and the white malar streaks that most Xenops show could be a point of confusion.

Also re: Amazonian… I mean it’s an obvious name available and there are at least 9 other Amazonian X birds that are not the only X in the Amazon… personally I very much see your point but at the same time it’s a good descriptor even if it isn’t uniquely identifying, and in many groups finding good names is challenging. The more I’ve been slowly involved in naming issues the more I (personally) have come to view that names need to be memorable and pretty good rather than perfect or uniquely identifying but super long or really obscure.

 

[Paul Clapham]

sukahujan is a ssp of Turdus deningeri (Moluccan Island-Thrush) in the recent Clements spreadsheet.

I'm just looking at this issue after being away for a while. So this is the unpublished 2024 Clements version you refer to? It would still be interesting to hear if IOC plans to do the same thing.

 

[l_raty]

So this is the unpublished 2024 Clements version you refer to?

Yes.
eBird-Clements-v2024-taxononomy_v24Jun2024

cell E28325 :

Polytypic Island Thrush Turdus poliocephalus is split into 17 species, including polytypic Moluccan Island-Thrush Turdus deningeri (with subspecies sukahujan and deningeri).

 

[raymie]

Raymie,
I wouldn't wish to tread on any American toes, but what about: North American Goldfinch Spinus tristis, and Lesser American Goldfinch Spinus psaltria?

Adding more information to a name doesn't necessarily make it better. Personally I feel a name that's a little misleading or even inaccurate is better than one that is way too long to say.

 

[pbjosh]

Far from a unique problem though. Last I checked there was more than one goldfinch in America, for one of many, many examples. The solution is to get a better name for that one taxa, not to make all of their names worse.

Yeah, there’s more than one Petrel in Hawaii but I wouldn’t change the name of Hawaiian Petrel. There’s more than one Chachalaca in Colombia, more than one Tern in Peru, more than one Duck in Mexico, more than one Egret in China, etc…

I think the pursuit of uniquely identifying names is really a bit of a (pardon the frank term) fool’s errand. Most of the best names for birds that are easy to remember and not too long and have a bit of color or panache to them are arguably “flawed.” Many of the “perfect” names are kinda lousy.

Names like Golden Eagle, Royal Tern, Wandering Albatross, Tufted Jay, Green Woodpecker, etc are kind of useless in terms of uniquely identifying the bird in question. Yet they are arguably great names that no one confuses and that do describe the bird. Would Golden-naped Eagle, Tufted-in-winter Tern, White-tailed Albatross, or Dickey’s Jay actually be better? (Eurasian) Green Woodpecker is a another great example. Everyone just calls it Green Woodpecker and knows what they’re talking about within context. The extra bit in the book or in the govt document or whatnot perfectly clarifies the situation but in casual usage, it’s a Green Woodpecker. I doubt many people use the full name “American Goshawk” and no one bothers with American vs Eurasian when referring to Three-toed Woodpeckers. So in the naming to some degree sanity is preserved in publications and in field guides but in casual usage no one is confused either by the shortened names.

I guess overall I’m just a fan of pragmatism in common names. Do what you can to minimize confusion and make memorable / concise names and not destabilize too much. Of course that is often hard, so again pragmatism plays a role.

 

[Viktor Björkert]

Some additional English name changes:

Racket-tailed Coquette	Discosura longicaudus	Racket-tipped Thorntail	Change English name of Discosura longicaudus from Racket-tailed Coquette to Racket-tipped Thorntail to align with other members of the genus Discosura and with other major world bird lists following SACC 807.
Houbara Bustard	Chlamydotis undulata	African Houbara	Change English name of Chlamydotis undulata from Houbara Bustard to African Houbara following other major world bird lists.
Macqueen's Bustard	Chlamydotis macqueenii	Asian Houbara	Change English name of Chlamydotis macqueenii from Macqueen's Bustard to Asian Houbara following other major world bird lists.

Yellow-billed Honeyeater	Gymnomyza viridis	Yellow-billed Giant Honeyeater	Change English name of Gymnomyza viridisfrom Yellow-billed Honeyeater to Yellow-billed Giant Honeyeater to align with other major world bird lists.
Giant Honeyeater	Gymnomyza brunneirostris	Chattering Giant Honeyeater	Change English name of Gymnomyza brunneirostris from Giant Honeyeater to Chattering Giant Honeyeater to to align with other major world bird lists.

Javan Cuckooshrike	Coracina javensis	Oriental Cuckooshrike	Change English name of revised Coracina javensis from Javan Cuckooshrike to Oriental Cuckooshrike with the revision of the C. macei/C. javensiscomplex (WGAC 1088).
Solomons Cuckooshrike	Edolisoma holopolium	Solomons Cicadabird	Change English name of E. holopolium from Solomons Cuckooshrike to Solomons Cicadabird to better reflect its relationships.
Grey-capped Cicadabird	Edolisoma remotum	Bismarck Cicadabird	Change English name of Edolisoma remotumfrom Grey-capped Cicadabird to Bismarck Cicadabird in face of subspecies rearrangements and to align with other major world bird lists.
Common Cicadabird	Edolisoma tenuirostre	Sahul Cicadabird	Change English name of Common Cicadabird to Sahul Cicadabird with the revision of the Edolisoma tenuirostrecomplex.

Greater Lophorina

Lophorina superba

Vogelkop Lophorina

Change English name of Lophorina superbafrom Greater Lophorina to Vogelkop Lophorina with the restoration of the more traditional classfication of the genus Lophorina.

Steere's Liocichla

Liocichla steerii

Taiwan Liocichla

Change English name of Steere's Liocichla Liocichla steerii to Taiwan Liocichla to align with other major world bird lists.

 

[Markus Lagerqvist]

Lophorina	Lophorinas		TAX	Restore the tradiional classficaton of the species within Lophorina following Elliott et al. (2020, 2022) who argue that the neotypification of Irestedt et al. (2017), formerly followed, is neither required nor justified and, as such, the revised nomenclature of the Lophorina complex should be rejected in favour of traditional usage (WGAC 876).
Lophorina superba latipennis	Greater Lophorina	Lophorina latipennis	TAX	Restore Lophorina latipennis as a full species with the restoration of the more traditional classfication of the genus Lophorina.

 

[Swindon Addick]

.Aug 5 Revise English name of reconfigured Coracina javensis to Oriental Cuckooshrike

Based on morphology and vocalizations Coracina macei is reconfigured to include just two taxa within the Indian Subcontinent. Change English name of Coracina macei from Large Cuckooshrike to Indian Cuckooshrike with the revision of the C. macei/C. javensis complex (WGAC 1088).

Change English name of revised Coracina javensis from Javan Cuckooshrike to Oriental Cuckooshrike with the revision of the C. macei/C. javensis complex (WGAC 1088).

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Lophorina superba latipennis	Greater Lophorina	Lophorina latipennis	TAX	Restore Lophorina latipennis as a full species with the restoration of the more traditional classfication of the genus Lophorina.

Suggested name : Huon Bird-of-paradise / Paradisier de Huon

 

[twitcherf]

Aug 6 Accept lump of Olive-headed and Stripe-faced Greenbuls.

 

[TomDerutter]

Philydor fuscipenne, Philydor erythrocercum

Slaty-winged Foliage-gleaner, Rufous-rumped Foliage-gleaner

Neophilydor fuscipenne, Neophilydor erythrocercum

TAX, PHY

Gen. nov.: Neophilydor Sangster, Harvey, Gaudin & Claramunt, 2023. Neophilydor is described to resolve the polyphyly of Philydor that is demonstated in phylogenetic analyses (Derryberry et al. 2011; Harvey et al. 2020; SACC 991).

 

[TomDerutter]

Xanthomixis tenebrosa

Dusky Tetraka

Crossleyia tenebrosa

TAX, PHY

Move Dusky Tetraka from Xanthomixis to Crossleyia based on molecular studies (Younger et al. 2019).

 

[Swindon Addick]

Olive-headed Greenbul Arizelocichla olivaceiceps is lumped with Stripe-faced Greenbul Arizelocichla striifacies based on the absence of consistent morphological differences and similarity of vocalizatons (del Hoyo & Collar 2016; HBW/BirdLife). English name of combined species is Olive-headed Greenbul.

So we now have a single species named Olive-headed Greenbul Arizelocichla striifacies i.e. the English name of one of the two previous species and the scientific name of the other.