Owls (3 Viewers)

[Peter Kovalik]

Clive R. Barlow, Heimo Mikkola, Michael Wink, Eric Brohaugh, and Asaph Brohaugh. 2022. Molecular evidence for the taxonomic status of the Greyish Eagle Owl Bubo cinerascens, and a breeding study in The Gambia. Malimbus 44: 19-29.

Summary
The Greyish Eagle Owl Bubo cinerascens had long been considered a race of the Spotted Eagle Owl B. africanus until it was re-established as a full species in 1999, based on morphology. Sequencing of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, using material from The Gambia, Mali, Ethiopia and South Africa, validates the split. A skin of a Greyish Eagle Owl labelled Bathurst, 1894, is brought to light, and the first record in The Gambia since 1894 was made in the southern coastal area in 1979. It is now known throughout the country in a variety of habitats. The first observations anywhere of the Greyish Eagle Owl from eggs to fledging, made in eastern Gambia, showed successful nesting on the ground in 2018 and 2019, two clutches of two eggs, a nestling period between 35 and 43 days, and fledgling plumage greyish, resembling that of the parents. A review of new and published records suggests that the species may breed throughout the year.

 

[l_raty]

Clive R. Barlow, Heimo Mikkola, Michael Wink, Eric Brohaugh, and Asaph Brohaugh. 2022. Molecular evidence for the taxonomic status of the Greyish Eagle Owl Bubo cinerascens, and a breeding study in The Gambia. Malimbus 44: 19-29.

(PDF) Molecular evidence for the taxonomic status of the Greyish Eagle Owl Bubo cinerascens, and a breeding study in The Gambia

PDF | This is the first complete breeding record of this owl and it also confirms the taxonomic status of the Greyish Eagle Owl Bubo cinerascens through... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Clive R. Barlow, Heimo Mikkola, Michael Wink, Eric Brohaugh, and Asaph Brohaugh. 2022. Molecular evidence for the taxonomic status of the Greyish Eagle Owl Bubo cinerascens, and a breeding study in The Gambia. Malimbus 44: 19-29.

Summary
The Greyish Eagle Owl Bubo cinerascens had long been considered a race of the Spotted Eagle Owl B. africanus until it was re-established as a full species in 1999, based on morphology. Sequencing of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, using material from The Gambia, Mali, Ethiopia and South Africa, validates the split. A skin of a Greyish Eagle Owl labelled Bathurst, 1894, is brought to light, and the first record in The Gambia since 1894 was made in the southern coastal area in 1979. It is now known throughout the country in a variety of habitats. The first observations anywhere of the Greyish Eagle Owl from eggs to fledging, made in eastern Gambia, showed successful nesting on the ground in 2018 and 2019, two clutches of two eggs, a nestling period between 35 and 43 days, and fledgling plumage greyish, resembling that of the parents. A review of new and published records suggests that the species may breed throughout the year.

I can't access Malimbus articles

 

[l_raty]

I can't access Malimbus articles

Malimbus articles are in principle made freely available on the Society's website when they are 5 years old. Currently all the papers up to 2016 (vol. 38) can be accessed at: W.A.O.S | Table of Contents
(Beware this website has a French version, but this doesn't seem to be as up-to-date as the English version, and includes some blinds links. The odds of finding what you're after are higher if you use the English version.)

For this particular note, see my other post above.

 

[Andy Adcock]

In the preview for the latest Poyser Monograph 'The Tawny Owl', there is mention of

'sections on evolution and taxonomy, including the fascinating possibility that the British population is well on its way to full species status'.

 

[albertonykus]

Vinay, K.L., M. Natesh, P. Mehta, R. Jayapal, S. Mukherjee, and V.V. Robin (2022)
Re-assessing the phylogenetic status and evolutionary relationship of Forest Owlet [Athene blewitti (Hume 1873)] using genomic data
Ibis (advance online publication)
doi: 10.1111/ibi.13097

Phylogenetic relationships are often challenging to resolve in recent/younger lineages when only a few loci are used. Ultra Conserved Elements (UCE) are highly conserved regions across taxa that help resolve shallow and deep divergences. We utilised UCEs harvested from whole genomes to assess the phylogenetic position and taxonomic affiliation of an endangered endemic owlet in the family Strigidae – Forest Owlet Athene blewitti. The taxonomic placement of this species has been revised multiple times. A multigene study attempted to address the question but showed a discrepancy across datasets in its placement of the species within genus Athene. We assembled a dataset of 5018 nuclear UCE loci with increased taxon sampling. Forest Owlet was found to be an early split from the Athene clade but sister to other Athene; and consistent across three approaches - maximum likelihood, bayesian, and the multispecies coalescence. Divergence dating using fossil calibrations suggest that the Athene lineage split from its ancestor about 7.6 my, and Forest Owlet diverged about 5.2 my. This estimate is consistent with previous multigene approaches and confirms the role of climate-aridification across the Indian peninsula in species diversification. Despite osteological differences from other Athene, we suggest the placement of the Forest Owlet as a member of the Athene to emphasise its evolutionary relationship.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Vinay, K.L., M. Natesh, P. Mehta, R. Jayapal, S. Mukherjee, and V.V. Robin (2022)
Re-assessing the phylogenetic status and evolutionary relationship of Forest Owlet [Athene blewitti (Hume 1873)] using genomic data
Ibis (advance online publication)
doi: 10.1111/ibi.13097

Phylogenetic relationships are often challenging to resolve in recent/younger lineages when only a few loci are used. Ultra Conserved Elements (UCE) are highly conserved regions across taxa that help resolve shallow and deep divergences. We utilised UCEs harvested from whole genomes to assess the phylogenetic position and taxonomic affiliation of an endangered endemic owlet in the family Strigidae – Forest Owlet Athene blewitti. The taxonomic placement of this species has been revised multiple times. A multigene study attempted to address the question but showed a discrepancy across datasets in its placement of the species within genus Athene. We assembled a dataset of 5018 nuclear UCE loci with increased taxon sampling. Forest Owlet was found to be an early split from the Athene clade but sister to other Athene; and consistent across three approaches - maximum likelihood, bayesian, and the multispecies coalescence. Divergence dating using fossil calibrations suggest that the Athene lineage split from its ancestor about 7.6 my, and Forest Owlet diverged about 5.2 my. This estimate is consistent with previous multigene approaches and confirms the role of climate-aridification across the Indian peninsula in species diversification. Despite osteological differences from other Athene, we suggest the placement of the Forest Owlet as a member of the Athene to emphasise its evolutionary relationship.

The position of Margarobyas lawrencii in the tree in the additional file is curious

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Can we determine the species described by Buffon in the first volume of his "Histoire naturelle des oiseaux" with the name "Chouette ou grande chevêche" ? (Pl. Enl. 438)

Les oiseaux

Buffon : La Chouette ou la grande Chevêche

www.oiseaux.net

t.2 - Planches enluminées d'histoire naturelle - Biodiversity Heritage Library

The Biodiversity Heritage Library works collaboratively to make biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community.

www.biodiversitylibrary.org

 

[Jacana]

I'd call it a Short-eared Owl

 

[Xenospiza]

The description fits Eagle Owl, the plate Short-eared Owl and the German name Little Owl...

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

The description fits Eagle Owl, the plate Short-eared Owl and the German name Little Owl...

Looks like an hybrid species XD

Cuvier took Buffon's name and gave it the name "Strix ulula", but is it the same Strix ulula, now Surnia ulula? The illustration does not match at all

 

[Xenospiza]

Looks like an hybrid species XD

Cuvier took Buffon's name and gave it the name "Strix ulula", but is it the same Strix ulula, now Surnia ulula? The illustration does not match at all

Wow, combining four species now (it most definitely isn't Surnia ulula).

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Wow, combining four species now (it most definitely isn't Surnia ulula).

It could be an atypical specimen of the Tawny owl

 

[Mike Earp]

It could be an atypical specimen of the Tawny owl

Plate XXVII (page 376) which follows the text surely (also) shows a Short-eared Owl ...

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Plate XXVII (page 376) which follows the text surely (also) shows a Short-eared Owl ...

Ooh, indeed, I referred to the "Planches enluminées" but I didn't look at the following pages if there was an illustration. Despite the poor quality, I can recognize the Short-eared Owl. However, he describes the short-eared owl a few pages before. So either he described the same bird under different names, or he made a mistake in the illustration

Edit: sorry, he described the Long-eared owl

However, the description that Buffon gives to the "Chouette ou grande chevêche ", in particular on its habitat, does not match with the Short-eared owl contrary to the illustration which fits perfectly with the latter.

Edit : it's definitely Asio flammea. Temminck described it under the old name "Strix brachyotus"

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Johnstone, Ronald E., Darnell, John C., and Dolman, Gaynor. 2022. A new subspecies of Tyto owl (Aves: Strigiformes: Tytonidae) from Alor and Pantar islands, Lesser Sundas, Indonesia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 105: 57-73.
available at RSWA Journal List

Abstract
We describe a new subspecies of Barn Owl, Tyto javanica fallens, from Alor and Pantar islands in the Lesser Sunda islands of eastern Indonesia. This subspecies differs significantly in morphology and colouration from other members of the Tyto alba complex, namely the Common or Western Barn Owl Tyto alba from Africa and Eurasia; the Eastern or Australian Barn Owl Tyto javanica (including T. j. delicatula, T. j. sumbaensis and the Sulawesi Owl Tyto j. rosenbergii) restricted to southern and South-East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and parts of Polynesia; and the American Barn Owl Tyto furcata from North to South America. It also differs from the Lesser or Moluccan Masked Owl Tyto sororcula and the Australian Masked Owl Tyto novaehollandiae. These differences are corroborated by molecular analyses. Four specimens were collected, one from Pantar and 3 from Alor, in April 1991 during joint Western Australian Museum and Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense vertebrate surveys in eastern Indonesia. These are the first Tyto specimens recorded from these islands.

 

[l_raty]

Royal Society of Western Australia -

After Vol 98-2 in December 2015, the Journal is no longer printed.

The paper contains no evidence that it was registered in ZooBank, hence is, unfortunately, not published for the purposes of zoological nomenclature.

 

[albertonykus]

Dickinson, E.C., P. Smith, A. Sieradzki, S. van der Mije, and P. Kamminga (2022)
The history of the name Strix pumila and its authorship
Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 142: 377–379
doi: 10.25226/bboc.v142i3.2022.a10

A recent proposal to seek to suppress the name Strix pumila is shown by a careful search of the old literature to be unnecessary as the name was first applied to one species where it ranks as a junior synonym, and later applied to a different species where it has no nomenclatural availability as it is preoccupied.

 

[l_raty]

A recent proposal to seek to suppress the name Strix pumila is shown by a careful search of the old literature to be unnecessary as the name was first applied to one species where it ranks as a junior synonym, and later applied to a different species where it has no nomenclatural availability as it is preoccupied.

This abstract conflicts a bit disturbingly with the conclusion, which reads:

The name Strix pumila Temminck, 1821, is a junior homonym of Strix pumila Lichtenstein, 1818, and as such is invalid despite its availability (see Art. 10.6, ICZN 1999).

The abstract, actually, also conflicts with the ICZN -- a name being preoccupied does not result in it having no nomenclatural availability.

However, it should probably be noted that "Strix pumila Illiger" (the name and attribution that appeared on the 1821 wrapper, denoting plate 39 of the Nouveau recueil de planches coloriées) had already been associated by Temminck to Azara's Caburé (which he spelled "Cabouré") prior to 1821 (1820: Manuel d'Ornithologie, 2nd ed., part 1: 97), without it being associated there it to anything else :

Deux autres petites espèces viennent aussi du Brésil : l'une est décrite par Azara sous le nom de Cabouré, Strix pumila Illig., l'autre est nouvelle, elle est de la taille du moineau.

Thus "Strix pumila Temminck 1821" is probably best regarded as a mere misapplication of a name that had already been established (denoting Azara's Caburé, i.e., Glaucidium brasilianum, both in Lichtenstein's, as well as Temminck's own earlier writings). And as such it has, indeed, no nomenclatural availability (see Art. 49 of the ICZN).

 

[George Sangster]

Melo, M, Freitas, B, Verbelen, P, da Costa, SR, Pereira, H, Fuchs, J, Sangster, G, Correia, M, de Lima, RF & Crottini, A 2022. A new species of scops-owl (Aves, Strigiformes, Strigidae, Otus) from Príncipe Island (Gulf of Guinea, Africa) and novel insights into the systematic affinities within Otus. ZooKeys 1126: 1-54.