Latest IOC Diary Updates (4 Viewers)

[johnallcock]

Jan wrote

I find the idea that the species should be separable in winter in the field a bit shocking though, considering how difficult it is to even separate them from GSPs!

So easy that a full 'sum plum'atrifrons (think it was this race?) was held to be a Greater for a few days in the UK

Separation of Tibetan from Greater is more difficult than separation of Tibetan (or Greater) from Siberian. What surprises me about the genetic results is that it's mongolus that's sister to GSP, not atrifrons.

(Edit: In fact, the findings of the twitter thread linked by exilipes above was that GSP and atrifrons are sisters. I guess it depends on which genes are sampled.)

 

[jts1882]

Gustav, NE (Nationalencyklopedin/the Swedish National Encyclopedia) says:


Meaning (for our English readers ):
"Siberia, Russian Sibir, area East of the Ural Mountains in Russia; 12,8 million square km, including Russian Far East. ..."

In General NE is (far) more trustworthy than Wiki.

/B

That's the traditional English usage too, essentially Asian Russia. The Wikipedia article actually says "[t]raditionally, Siberia extends eastwards from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean".

 

[Mysticete]

No, based on a new study from Wei et al. 2022 where mongolus ends up closer to Greater Sand than to atrifrons.

(PDF) Genome-wide data reveals paraphyly in the sand plover complex (Charadrius mongolus/leschenaultii)

I like the name Tibetan for atrifrons, but not so sure of Siberian. To me, Siberia is further to the west, while the area mongolus breeds in is Russian Far East. (see Siberia - Wikipedia). A better suggestion would be Kolyma Plover . The range is somewhat similar to that of Great Knot which in Swedish we call kolymasnäppa. Anything is better than Mongolian though, as only atrifrons breeds there.

ahh...wasn't aware of any new papers on the subject.

 

[James Eaton]

Notoriously difficult to ID in winter plumage, how are they being done with such confidence unless they moult, post arrival?

As John mentions, in non-breeding plumage they are readily separable. Actually, just going on plumage, they are far more distinct from each other than Greater is from Tibetan. Structurally of course, the shorter bill.
I agree with John, White-faced and Kentish can be more difficult, but especially Javan and nihonensis Kentish Plovers are what I would struggle with more.

Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago split these in 2016 based on plumage differences - attached is the text which explains the plumage differences in greater detail (though is rather more cautious than needed for more experienced observers).
There are many photos online with them side-by-side, especially from Dave Bakewell who's been observing them in greater detail for past couple winters: Lesser Sand-Plover (Siberian) Macaulay Library ML392629641

James

 

[HH75]

Jan wrote

I find the idea that the species should be separable in winter in the field a bit shocking though, considering how difficult it is to even separate them from GSPs!

So easy that a full 'sum plum'atrifrons (think it was this race?) was held to be a Greater for a few days in the UK

A bird now accepted as a mongolus ('Siberian Plover'), at the Don Estuary in 1991, was originally identified as a Greater Sandplover, and accepted as such by BBRC, but the features of this species are more established nowadays. I do seem to recall that maybe an atrifrons was incorrectly identified more recently, which may be what you are referring to, but I have no actual idea as to when or where this was?

 

[Grahame Walbridge]

A bird now accepted as a mongolus ('Siberian Plover'), at the Don Estuary in 1991, was originally identified as a Greater Sandplover, and accepted as such by BBRC, but the features of this species are more established nowadays. I do seem to recall that maybe an atrifrons was incorrectly identified more recently, which may be what you are referring to, but I have no actual idea as to when or where this was?

Harry, I think Andy was referring to Britain's 1st Lesser Sand Plover at Pagham Harbour on 14-16 Aug 1997 which was initially identified as a Greater before re-identification as atifrons from photographs.

Grahame

 

[Andy Adcock]

Harry, I think Andy was referring to Britain's 1st Lesser Sand Plover at Pagham Harbour on 14-16 Aug 1997 which was initially identified as a Greater before re-identification as atifrons from photographs.

Grahame

Grahame,
plenty of people including myself, were adamant that it was a Lesser, in the field, at the site, not from photographs. Paul Flint put the phone down on me after I'd called him for about the fourth time, insisting on the ID and although a dubious honour and, he called me 'Andy Abcock', I got a mention in LGRE's rag for the same.

Let's be honest, it was a glaring error which led to accusations of a conspiracy as I recall.

 

[Grahame Walbridge]

Grahame,
plenty of people including myself, were adamant that it was a Lesser, in the field, at the site, not from photographs. Paul Flint put the phone down on me after I'd called him for about the fourth time, insisting on the ID and although a dubious honour and, he called me 'Andy Abcock', I got a mention in LGRE's rag for the same.

Let's be honest, it was a glaring error which led to accusations of a conspiracy as I recall.

I don't doubt your version of events for one minute Andy, it was a long time ago, just quoting what it said in the BB write-up.

Grahame

 

[Paul Clapham]

Feb 20 Post proposed split of Subdesert Jery from Stripe-throated Jery.

Feb 20 Post proposed split of Madagascar Plain Martin from Brown-throated Martin.

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Feb 12 Post proposed split of Lesser Sand Plover into two species: Siberian Sand Plover Charadrius mongolus and Tibetan Sand Plover C. atrifrons.

Chentao Wei, Manuel Schweizer, Pavel S Tomkovich, Vladimir Yu Arkhipov, Michael Romanov, Jonathan Martinez, Xin Lin, Naerhulan Halimubieke, Pinjia Que, Tong Mu, Qin Huang, Zhengwang Zhang, Tamás Székely, Yang Liu, Genome-wide data reveal paraphyly in the sand plover complex (Charadrius mongolus/leschenaultii), Ornithology, 2022;, ukab085, Genome-wide data reveal paraphyly in the sand plover complex (Charadrius mongolus/leschenaultii)

Abstract:

Correct assessment of species limits and phylogenetic relationships is a prerequisite for studies in ecology and evolution. Even in well-studied groups such as birds, species delimitation often remains controversial. Traditional avian taxonomy is usually based on morphology, which might be misleading because of the contingent nature of evolutionary diversification. The sand plover complex (genus Charadrius) may be such an example wherein 2 Lesser Sand Plover C. mongolus subspecies groups have been proposed to comprise 2 species. We use genome-wide data of 765K SNPs to show that the widely accepted taxonomic treatment of this sand plover complex appears to be a paraphyletic grouping, with two Lesser Sand Plover subspecies groups found not to be each other’s closest relatives, and with the mongolus subspecies group being the sister taxon of Greater Sand Plover C. leschenaultii. Based on genomic and acoustic analyses, we propose a three-way split of the Sand Plover complex into the Siberian Sand Plover C. mongolus, Tibetan Sand Plover C. atrifrons, and Greater Sand Plover C. leschenaultii. The similar sizes of the Siberian and Tibetan Sand plovers may be the result of niche conservatism coupled with rapid morphological and ecological differentiation in the Greater Sand Plover. Gene flow between the non-sister Tibetan and Greater Sand plovers might have happened in phases of secondary contact as a consequence of climate-driven range expansions. We call for further studies of the Sand Plover complex, and suggest that speciation with intermittent gene flow is more common in birds than currently acknowledged.

 

[MJB]

Feb 23 Post proposed split of MacGillivray's Prion from Salvin's Prion.

Feb 20 Latest Multilingual version including updated Dutch, Danish, and Norwegian bird names uploaded.

Feb 20 Post proposed split of Subdesert Jery from Stripe-throated Jery.
MJB

 

[mb1848]

Feb 23 Post proposed split of MacGillivray's Prion from Salvin's Prion.

I thought Salvin's Prion had a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail?
Additive Traits Lead to Feeding Advantage and Reproductive Isolation, Promoting Homoploid Hybrid Speciation .
Mathews our most careful ornithologist.
v.2 (1912-1913) - The Birds of Australia - Biodiversity Heritage Library .

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Feb 23 Post proposed split of MacGillivray's Prion from Salvin's Prion.

Masello, J. F., P. G. Ryan, L. D. Shepherd, P. Quillfeldt, Y. Cherel, A. J. D. Tennyson, R. Alderman, L. Calderón, T. L. Cole, R. J. Cuthbert, B. J. Dilley, M. Massaro, C. M. Miskelly, J. Navarro, R. A. Phillips, H. Weimerskirch, and Y. Moodley. 2022. Independent evolution of intermediate bill widths in a seabird clade. Molecular Genetics and Genomics 297: 183–198.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-021-01845-3

Abstract
Interspecific introgression can occur between species that evolve rapidly within an adaptive radiation. Pachyptila petrels differ in bill size and are characterised by incomplete reproductive isolation, leading to interspecific gene flow. Salvin’s prion (Pachyptila salvini), whose bill width is intermediate between broad-billed (P. vittata) and Antarctic (P. desolata) prions, evolved through homoploid hybrid speciation. MacGillivray’s prion (P. macgillivrayi), known from a single population on St Paul (Indian Ocean), has a bill width intermediate between salvini and vittata and could also be the product of interspecies introgression or hybrid speciation. Recently, another prion population phenotypically similar to macgillivrayi was discovered on Gough (Atlantic Ocean), where it breeds 3 months later than vittata. The similarity in bill width between the medium-billed birds on Gough and macgillivrayi suggest that they could be closely related. In this study, we used genetic and morphological data to infer the phylogenetic position and evolutionary history of P. macgillivrayi and the Gough medium-billed prion relative other Pachyptila taxa, to determine whether species with medium bill widths evolved through common ancestry or convergence. We found that Gough medium-billed prions belong to the same evolutionary lineage as macgillivrayi, representing a new population of MacGillivray’s prion that originated through a colonisation event from St Paul. We show that macgillivrayi’s medium bill width evolved through divergence (genetic drift) and independently from that of salvini, which evolved through hybridisation (gene flow). This represents the independent convergence towards a similarly medium-billed phenotype. The newly discovered MacGillivray’s prion population on Gough is of utmost conservation relevance, as the relict macgillivrayi population in the Indian Ocean is very small.

 

[Jacana]

Mar 23 Post proposed resurrection and redescription of New Caledonian Storm Petrel Fregetta lineata.

 

[MJB]

Mar 26 Move Calayan Rail from Gallirallus to Aptenorallus gen. nov. Kirchman et al. 2021.
MJB

 

[Mysticete]

Not sure if this showed up in the diary, but IOC under English names updates has a bunch of names changed to reconcile with names used in other checklists, mostly effecting owls (e.g. Hawk-Owl to Boobook):

 

[Paul Clapham]

Not sure if this showed up in the diary, but IOC under English names updates has a bunch of names changed to reconcile with names used in other checklists, mostly effecting owls (e.g. Hawk-Owl to Boobook):

There's another group under Subspecies Updates which don't get diarized either.

 

[DMW]

I notice in a previous update, Cuckoo Roller was changed to Cuckoo-roller to meet the hyphen rules. I'm sure it's heresy to suggest this, but if we can't live without a hyphen here, wouldn't Cuckoo-Roller be preferable? Otherwise it triggers images of flattened cuckoos.

 

[DDonsker]

I notice in a previous update, Cuckoo Roller was changed to Cuckoo-roller to meet the hyphen rules. I'm sure it's heresy to suggest this, but if we can't live without a hyphen here, wouldn't Cuckoo-Roller be preferable? Otherwise it triggers images of flattened cuckoos.

Actually, by the rules we've established for constructing English names, Cuckoo-roller is the correct format. See English Names>Spelling Rules on the IOC WBL website. Here's an excerpt from the relevant rule:

• Where both nouns are the names of birds or bird families a hyphen should be inserted to signify that the taxon belongs to the family of the second word, not the first (e.g., Eagle-Owl).
• If a name is of a taxon that is not a member of the stated bird family, the letter after the hyphen should be lowercase to clarify that status (e.g., Flycatcher-shrike).

Since Cuckoo-roller isn't a roller, the second component of the name is properly in lower case.

As for Diary listings...it's typically not our practice to post every update we make in the Diary. We generally reserve those Diary announcements for Proposed Splits and Lumps, Taxonomic Updates and Species Updates. It's always a good idea to visit our Updates pages regularly to see what's happening also on the English name and subspecies fronts.

 

[opisska]

I do like that the Diary is about taxonomic updates, not naming ones as that's what interests me.

However I must note that the idea of rolled cuckoos made me laugh