Latest IOC Diary Updates (17 Viewers)

[cajanuma]

In general terms, I think that identifying Cory's & Scopoli's Shearwaters in photos is significantly overestimated. Any time spent looking at the eBird photoset shows that! Misidentified photos seem regular. I posted on one such scenario and did not receive a single response on here and this is not normally a forum where the absence of a credible opinion holds people back. I certainly do not use it as a personal bar.

😀

Post in thread 'Cape Verde Shearwater in Cornwall - Breaking news from RBA (2.03pm 19 Dec)' https://www.birdforum.net/threads/c...ws-from-rba-2-03pm-19-dec.464773/post-4732839

Firstly, you need an angle for the bird which is shown in less than 10% of photos. Even when a bird banks it rarely banks side on and showing the photographer the underside of p10 clearly.

Secondly, you need to get the exposure correct so that you are discerning the patterning in the underside of the primaries properly. Most photos from land in particular show the underside of the primaries overexposed. I have seen a number of these trumpeted as showing Scopoli's patterning. Further any pics of the underside of the primaries are normally overexposed even from boats. I have taken thousands of Cory's pics (mainly I think) in several countries.

My experience is that you can have ten competent photographers photographing a group of say 100 Cory's/Scopoli's with maybe one or two Scopoli's present & one photographer may get a clinching photo whilst everyone else dips. I am up to maybe six pelagics now where that has not been uncommon. Also you can simply end up with inconclusive photos even in the opinion of one of the main authors of the identification paper bobbing around on the same boat. 😀

Of course, in any event, one third of Scopoli's are considered to be indistinguishable on the p10 criteria.

The main identification paper recommends further studies on the one third of cryptic Scopoli's with p10 with less than a 20% white tongue and refers to hybridisation.

So with a camera bobbing around on a boat next to a flock of 100 Cory's/Scopoli's Shearwaters in flight, you need to be setting the identification bar far lower than most bird committees to be identifying more than 10% of the birds in my view. (If they are not flying, you may as well spend your time looking at other birds.)

Most of the simplified comments that I have seen outside of a European context seem to significantly misrepresent the difficulty of the challenge. (A bit like Europeans making comments on Empidonax identification. 😀)

All the best

Paul

I'd say it's difficult in terms of proving a Scopoli's beyond any doubt in a vagrant context (and as you say, some of the difficulties are actually photographic in nature, namely nailing the exposure of a brightly lit, black-and white underwing against a dark backround of water), but otherwise I don't think it's a particularly difficult ID challenge as most birds will be pretty straightforward or even obvious. There are also solid vocal differences between the two and a small degree of range overlap, so I think this is one split that's quite solid, even though it sometimes muddies the waters for birders.

 

[Mysticete]

Is anyone keeping a tally of which scientists have had the most splits reversed in this process & do they win a prize? 😀

All the best

Paul

Most ornithologists tend to work on only a very small group of birds, so are not very comparable. It would be interesting to see as far as field guide authors however, who has been the "best" at predicting new splits, or the "worst". Although that is probably starting to take the thread a bit too far from IOC updates

 

[Paul Chapman]

I'd say it's difficult in terms of proving a Scopoli's beyond any doubt in a vagrant context (and as you say, some of the difficulties are actually photographic in nature, namely nailing the exposure of a brightly lit, black-and white underwing against a dark backround of water), but otherwise I don't think it's a particularly difficult ID challenge as most birds will be pretty straightforward or even obvious. There are also solid vocal differences between the two and a small degree of range overlap, so I think this is one split that's quite solid, even though it sometimes muddies the waters for birders.

I think the complexity is both ways as the paper suggests.

All the best

Paul

 

[kweetal]

Most ornithologists tend to work on only a very small group of birds, so are not very comparable. It would be interesting to see as far as field guide authors however, who has been the "best" at predicting new splits, or the "worst". Although that is probably starting to take the thread a bit too far from IOC updates

I've tried to get a metric of "ornithologists' quality" by counting per author the number of names in parentheses as a percentage of all that authors' names.
I expected for instance Hellmayr to do 'well', Mathews to be in the 'low' end. But that did not come out; there are likely too many other factors at work.

 

[halftwo]

It would be interesting to see the explanatory texts for the re-lumps beside the texts for the original splits.
If we accept the former, can we accept the latter? Or vice versa!
(I'd have a go, but I fear the task is probably beyond me!)

 

[James Lowther]

It would be interesting to see the explanatory texts for the re-lumps beside the texts for the original splits.
If we accept the former, can we accept the latter? Or vice versa!
(I'd have a go, but I fear the task is probably beyond me!)

You should be able to find those in the species updates page on the IOC website
Cheers
James

 

[halftwo]

I could do that bit, but would be good to edit them so as to appear adjacent.

 

[James Lowther]

I reckon that is just a “brute force” task I.e. just needs a bit of effort by someone with the necessary motivation……..
Cheers
James

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Laterallus xenopterus, Laterallus leucopyrrhus, Laterallus fasciatus

Rufous-faced Crake, Red-and-white Crake, Black-banded Crake

Rufirallus xenopterus, Rufirallus leucopyrrhus, Rufirallus fasciatus

TAX, PHY

Move these three species from Laterallus to Rufirallus based on multilocus (mtDNA + nucDNA) phylogenetic analyses (Depino et al. 2023)

I think this is a provisional treatment because it seems to me that the authors planned or considered describing a new genus

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Ramphastidae

Toucans

PHY
Sequence of genera and species within Ramphastidae is revised to align with the phylogenomic analysis of Ostrow et al. 2023.

Is it planned to put Andigena in synonymy of Selenidera?

 

[DDonsker]

Is it planned to put Andigena in synonymy of Selenidera?

Pondering it.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Cercotrichas coryphoeus, Cercotrichas signata, Cercotrichas leucosticta, Cercotrichas quadrivirgata, Cercotrichas barbata

Karoo Scrub Robin, Brown Scrub Robin, Forest Scrub Robin, Bearded Scrub Robin, Miombo Scrub Robin

Tychaedon coryphoeus, Tychaedon signata, Tychaedon leucosticta, Tychaedon quadrivirgata, Tychaedon barbata

TAX, PHY
Reassign five species of scrub robin from Cercotrichas to the resurrected genus Tychaedon based on phylogenetic analyses which show Cercotrichas to be paraphyletic as previously conceived (Sangster et al. 2010; Voelker et al. 2014; del Hoyo & Collar 2016; Zhao et al. 2023)

Aedonopsis Sharpe, 1883, instead

Post in thread 'Cercotrichas / Crythropygia' Cercotrichas / Crythropygia

 

[DDonsker]

Aedonopsis Sharpe, 1883, instead

Post in thread 'Cercotrichas / Crythropygia' Cercotrichas / Crythropygia

From James Jobling in that very thread:

Aedonopsis v. Tychaedon.
Well reasoned, Laurent. I think you should consider turning your thoughts to a published paper, but in the meantime I have taken the liberty of quoting from your #18 in the Key.

Wouldn't take much effort, Laurent, and it could clean this up.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

From James Jobling in that very thread:

Aedonopsis v. Tychaedon.
Well reasoned, Laurent. I think you should consider turning your thoughts to a published paper, but in the meantime I have taken the liberty of quoting from your #18 in the Key.

Wouldn't take much effort, Laurent, and it could clean this up.

He is too shy to publish, or very busy

 

[Lawts]

Are there any more accurate timescales for the unified list beyond "early 2025"?

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Olive-backed Flowerpecker

Prionochilus olivaceus

Pachyglossa olivacea

PHY, TAX
Olive-backed Flowerpecker Prionochilus olivaceus is moved from Prionochilus to the resurrected genus Pachyglossa as Pachyglossa olivacea based on phylogenetic analysis (Fjeldså et al. 2020; WGAC 1197). Note gender.

Whiskered Flowerpecker, Yellow-vented Flowerpecker, Yellow-bellied Flowerpecker, Legge's Flowerpecker, Brown-backed Flowerpecker, Thick-billed Flowerpecker

Dicaeum proprium, Dicaeum chrysorrheum, Dicaeum melanozanthum, Dicaeum vincens, Dicaeum everetti, Dicaeum agile

Pachyglossa propria, Pachyglossa chrysorrhea, Pachyglossa melanozantha, Pachyglossa vincens, Pachyglossa everetti, Pachyglossa agilis

PHY. TAX
Whiskered Flowerpecker, Yellow-vented Flowerpecker, Yellow-bellied Flowerpecker, Legge's Flowerpecker, Brown-backed Flowerpecker, Thick-billed Flowerpecker are moved from Dicaeum to the resurrected genus Pachyglossa based on phylogenetic analysis (Saucier et al. 2019; Fjeldså et al. 2020; WGAC 1197). Note gender.

Prionochilus Strickland, 1841
Pachyglossa Blyth, 1843

Make the right choice IOC

 

[Xenospiza]

Prionochilus Strickland, 1841
Pachyglossa Blyth, 1843

Make the right choice IOC

The choice seems correct: the type species of Prionochilus is percussus, which remains in this genus.
Note: "Support for the inclusion of olivaceus in the genus Pachyglossa is however poor and conflicting between analyses, thus requiring further study."

Updates and Corrections—October 2024 – Clements Checklist

www.birds.cornell.edu

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

The choice seems correct: the type species of Prionochilus is percussus, which remains in this genus.

Ok, I rushed, I thought first that they put everything in one genus, because it seems almost obvious that Prionochilus and Pachyglossa are paraphyletic, at least according to Saucier & al., 2019, and putting Prionochilus and Pachyglossa in synonymy seemed obvious to me.

 

[Jacana]

First changes of 2025, including some back-dated ones:

Jan 12 Split polytypic Little Heron from monotypic Striated Heron.

Jan 4 Recognize families Oxyruncidae and Onychorhynchidae distinct from Tityridae.

Jan 1 Revise genera and linear sequence of species within Pardirallini and Laterallini of Rallidae.

 

[opisska]

First changes of 2025, including some back-dated ones:

Jan 12 Split polytypic Little Heron from monotypic Striated Heron.

I always thought these names were synonyms, so what does this actually mean?