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Passeriformes (1 Viewer)

Yeah...I noticed that too. I am assuming no one has come across any justifications?

I remember one of the recent big bird phylogenies also had "Graueridae" for grauer's warbler, which is typically just thrown into Acrocephalidae now.
 
Mysticete said:
Yeah...I noticed that too. I am assuming no one has come across any justifications?

I remember one of the recent big bird phylogenies also had "Graueridae" for grauer's warbler, which is typically just thrown into Acrocephalidae now.
Click to expand...

It was Oliveros et al (2019) that used "Graueridae". I suppose this becomes an age of divergence issue.
 
jts1882 said:
H&M have an explanation (albeit Bock, 1994)
Click to expand...

I have never understood this "explanation".

Bock listed "Plectrophenacinae Olphe-Galliard 1890" as an invalid synonym of Emberizinae. Olphe-Galliard, however, used Plectrophaneae, a family-group name based on Plectrophanes Meyer 1815 (not Plectrophenax Stejneger 1882), which is a synonym of Calcarius Bechstein 1802. (Olphe-Galliard's Plectrophaneae was however preceded by Plectrophanidae Goebel 1879, but Bock failed to see this.)

"Plectrophenacidae" is a mere corruption, by Bock 1994, of Plectrophaneae as used by Olphe-Galliard. As no-one before him had ever used or suggested a family-group name based on Plectrophenax, "Plectrophenacidae" may be best attributed to Bock 1994. However, Bock did not use this name as the valid name of a taxon, and did not describe the taxon it would apply to (which were both required to make a name available in 1994), hence he did not make the name available. The name was subsequently used as valid in H&M4, but again without a description, and without being indicated as intentionally new (which is now required for any name proposed after 1999), hence they did not make the name available either. Wink 2021 is similar.

Please, do not "see precedence of these names as given by Bock (1994)" -- what Bock wrote there about "Plectrophenacidae" is 100% misleading and incorrect. "Plectrophenacidae" is Bock's creation, it's not an available name at all and it has no precedence whatsoever.
 
l_raty said:
I have never understood this "explanation".

Bock listed "Plectrophenacinae Olphe-Galliard 1890" as an invalid synonym of Emberizinae. Olphe-Galliard, however, used Plectrophaneae, a family-group name based on Plectrophanes Meyer 1815 (not Plectrophenax Stejneger 1882), which is a synonym of Calcarius Bechstein 1802. (Olphe-Galliard's Plectrophaneae was however preceded by Plectrophanidae Goebel 1879, but Bock failed to see this.)

"Plectrophenacidae" is a mere corruption, by Bock 1994, of Plectrophaneae as used by Olphe-Galliard. As no-one before him had ever used or suggested a family-group name based on Plectrophenax, "Plectrophenacidae" may be best attributed to Bock 1994. However, Bock did not use this name as the valid name of a taxon, and did not describe the taxon it would apply to (which were both required to make a name available in 1994), hence he did not make the name available. The name was subsequently used as valid in H&M4, but again without a description, and without being indicated as intentionally new (which is now required for any name proposed after 1999), hence they did not make the name available either. Wink 2021 is similar.

Please, do not "see precedence of these names as given by Bock (1994)" -- what Bock wrote there about "Plectrophenacidae" is 100% misleading and incorrect. "Plectrophenacidae" is Bock's creation, it's not an available name at all and it has no precedence whatsoever.
Click to expand...
And why Calcariidae and not Plectrophanidae ?
 
Plectrophanes was synonymized with Calcarius before 1961, and Calcariidae can be seen as having replaced Plectrophanidae before 1961 and is in prevailing usage.
 
Please correct me if I'm wrong but I'm almost certain I saw a phylogeny recently where Plectrophenax was nested within Calcarius and closest to the type species lapponicus.

With that in mind is there really any justification for a separate Plectrophenax genus at all?
 
l_raty said:
Plectrophenax is sister to Rhynchophanes maccownii.
(Beware that, in the tree of the Ecol. Evol. paper linked by Jimmy above, maccownii was apparently transferred to Plectrophenax : the two Plectorphenax spp there are Snow and MacCown's, not the usual Snow and McKay's. This is of course incorrect -- Rhynchophanes is older than Plectrophenax.)
See also Fig. 2 in Cai et al 2021 (PDF) Biogeography and diversification of Old World buntings (Aves: Emberizidae): radiation in open habitats .
Click to expand...
Excellent! Thanks guys:)

One thing though. In Cai et al 2021, the tree would suggest we need a new genus-level name for pictus and ornatus.
Alternatively, lump the lot into Calcarius!
They're not that old anyway:unsure:
 
Last edited:
albertonykus said:
Harvey, M.G., G.A. Bravo, S. Claramunt, A.M. Cuervo, G.E. Derryberry, J. Battilana, G.F. Seeholzer, J.S. McKay, B.C. O’Meara, B.C. Faircloth, S.V. Edwards, J. Pérez-Emán, R.G. Moyle, F.H. Sheldon, A. Aleixo, B.T. Smith, R.T. Chesser, L.F. Silveira, J. Cracraft, R.T. Brumfield, and E.P. Derryberry (2020)
The evolution of a tropical biodiversity hotspot
Science 370: 1343–1348
doi: 10.1126/science.aaz6970
The evolution of a tropical biodiversity hotspot | Science

The tropics are the source of most biodiversity yet inadequate sampling obscures answers to fundamental questions about how this diversity evolves. We leveraged samples assembled over decades of fieldwork to study diversification of the largest tropical bird radiation, the suboscine passerines. Our phylogeny, estimated using data from 2389 genomic regions in 1940 individuals of 1287 species, reveals that peak suboscine species diversity in the Neotropics is not associated with high recent speciation rates but rather with the gradual accumulation of species over time. Paradoxically, the highest speciation rates are in lineages from regions with low species diversity, which are generally cold, dry, unstable environments. Our results reveal a model in which species are forming faster in environmental extremes but have accumulated in moderate environments to form tropical biodiversity hotspots.
Click to expand...
TiF checklist Updates

June 26​

Suboscines Inspired by Harvey et al. (2020), I've started making changes to the suboscines. It's a long process, and although I now have a complete suboscine tree, it will still take a while to prepare the other new pages (5 total).

Old World Suboscines: The Sapayoa, Sapayoa aenigma, has been moved to be sister to the Pittidae. See Oliveros et al. (2019) and Harvey et al. (2020).
[Sapayoidae, Passeriformes I, 3.03]

Broadbills: Hose's Broadbill, Calyptomena hosii, has been moved to be sister to the other Calyptomena, based on Harvey et al. (2020).
[Calyptomenidae, Passeriformes I, 3.03]

Pittas The pittas are now arranged based on Harvey et al. (2020). As part of this, the Eared Pitta, formerly Hydrornis phayrei, has been moved to the monotypic genus Anthocincla (Blyth 1862).

Based on Yue et al. (2020) the Ornate Pitta, Pitta concinna, and Banda Sea Pitta, Pitta vigorsii, have been split from Elegant Pitta, Pitta elegans. Per Erritzoe and de Juana (2020), hutzi is merged into concinna.
[Pittidae, Passeriformes I, 3.03]
 
16 months between updates and only two in two years. I was beginning to wonder if this excellent resource was becoming inactive.

On the topic of updates, does anyone know what the plans fro H&M are? Is there going to be an H&M5 or are they going to start updating the online list?
 
jts1882 said:
16 months between updates and only two in two years. I was beginning to wonder if this excellent resource was becoming inactive.

On the topic of updates, does anyone know what the plans fro H&M are? Is there going to be an H&M5 or are they going to start updating the online list?
Click to expand...
Take a look at this [link]
 

Aves—A Taxonomy in Flux: Recent Changes

Avian Taxonomy
jboyd.net

July 3​

This is part 2 of the suboscine revisions (3 to go). All of today's changes are part of the project to incorporate Harvey et al. (2020) into the TiF list. Today focuses on the first part of Tyrannida — all but the tyrant flycatchers, Tyrannidae. Although the family tree has changed a bit, the only change to the linear order of the Tyrannida families is to move Tityridae before Oxyruncidae. We now turn to the individual families. Many genera have been internally reordered. For the most part, I won't mention those changes. What I do mention are species splits and changes at or above the generic level.

What do the stars mean? You'll notice stars on the species trees in this section. If you look closely, there is only one star per genus. It denotes the type species of that genus. I found this handy for deciding how to delimit genera, and decided to keep it. Expect these to show up on more of the pdf lists in the future.

Manakins: The Serra do Mar Tyrant-Manakin, Neopelma chrysolophum, is not closely related the other Neopelma. An alternate genus name is not available and I designate it "Neopelma" until one is available. The change in the tree has allowed me to return to a narrow Tyranneutes and a broad Neopelma. Also, Chloropipo has been repositioned. Other genera have not been affected, other than some internal reordering.
[Pipridae, Tyrannida I, 3.03]

Cotingas: The clade Gymnoderini, previously considered sister to Cotinga is now on an independent branch. This lead to some generic shuffling in the subfamily Cotinginae. Also, Phibalura has switched places with Phytotoma. Again, there has been some reordering with the genera.

Capuchinbird: The Capuchinbird, Cephalopterus tricolor, repositioned in the tree. This allows me to return it to the monotypic genus Perissocephalus. Although the genetic distance between the Capuchinbird and umbrella-birds is small, they are distintive, justifying a separate genus.
[Cotingidae, Tyrannida I, 3.03]

Schiffornis, Tityras, and Becards: There are no changes at the generic level, but some genera have had internal reordering.
[Tityridae, Tyrannida I, 3.03]

Royal Flycatchers: Whether the Royal Flycatcher, Onychorhynchus coronatus, is one species or four has long been disputed. Harvey et al. (2020) sampled one each of all four of them. The closest pair of taxo, mexicanus and occidentalis, have been separated for about a million years. In view of this, I think it makes sense to recognize four species in the complex.
  • Atlantic Royal Flycatcher, Onychorhynchus swainsoni
  • Amazonian Royal Flycatcher, Onychorhynchus coronatus
  • Northern Royal Flycatcher, Onychorhynchus mexicanus
  • Pacific Royal Flycatcher, Onychorhynchus occidentalis
[Onychorhynchidae, Tyrannida I, 3.03]

Mionectine Flycatchers and allies: The most obvious changes on the tree are at the generic level. Ceratotriccus has moved to a new place on the tree, sister to Poecilotriccus. Needless to say, this involved a change in membership for Ceratotriccus.

Idoptilon and Microcochlearius have disappeared into an expanded Oncostoma and Hemitriccus, respectively. In exchange, we added Perissotriccus (2 species removed from Myiornis) and Euscarthmornis (4 species that were in Ceratotriccus in the previous list).

Pipromorphinae — Mionectine flycatchers: Based on Harvey et al. (2020), I've moved the Serra do Mar Tyrannulet, Phylloscartes difficilis, and Sao Paulo Tyrannulet, Phylloscartes paulista, to genus Pogonotriccus.

There are also some splits in the Mionectine flycatchers. The following are based on Harvey et al. (2020), usually with the assistance of the HBW Checklist (i.e., del Hoyo and Collar, 2016).

The Slaty-capped Flycatcher, Leptopogon superciliaris has been split into
  • Western Slaty-capped Flycatcher, Leptopogon tranandinus, including hellmaryi, and if needed, troglodytes for the Darien population.
  • Eastern Slaty-capped Flycatcher, Leptopogon superciliaris
  • White-bellied Flycatcher, Leptopogon albidiventer
Although eBird recognizes L. tranandinus as a species group. They did not give it an English name, so I have given it and L. superciliaris temporary English names. Harvey et al. (2020) tested hellmayri and found it 2 million years distant from L. albidiventer, and more like 3 million from L. s. superciliaris (sensu stricto, from Loreto, Peru). I wouldn't have to write this way if they hadn't lumped many of the subspecies.

The Olive-striped Flycatcher, Mionectes olivaceus has been split into
  • Olive-streaked Flycatcher, Mionectes olivaceus
  • Western Olive-striped Flycatcher, Mionectes galbinus
  • Eastern Olive-striped Flycatcher, Mionectes venezuelensis
The English names are from the HBW Checklist (volume 2, del Hoyo and Collar, 2016).

Finally, the Junin Flycatcher, Pipromorpha peruana has been split from McConnell's Flycatcher, Pipromorpha macconnelli.

[Pipromorphinae, Tyrannida I, 3.03]

Rhynchocyclinae — Flatbills Everyone knows Tolmomyias is a mess. Harvey et al. (2020) sampled some of them, but I'm not ready for a full reorganization. I do recognize two splits based on Harvey et al. (2020), and the IOC and HBW Checklists.
  • The Yellow-margined Flycatcher / Yellow-margined Flatbill, Tolmomyias assimilisis split into
    1. Yellow-winged Flycatcher / Yellow-margined Flatbill, Tolmomyias flavotectus (monotypic)
    2. Zimmer's Flatbill, Tolmomyias assimilis.
    This separates the most divergent known Tolmomyias (flavotectus) as a separate species.
  • The Yellow-breasted Flycatcher, Tolmomyias flaviventrisis split into
    1. Ochre-lored Flatbill, Tolmomyias flaviventris, including aurulentus and dissors
    2. Olive-faced Flatbill, Tolmomyias viridiceps, including subsimilis and zimmeri.
Well, Tolmomyias is still a mess, but perhaps slightly less so. For one, the position of T. sulphurescens on the tree represents the nominate subspecies. They don't all belong there. At the very least, T.s. cinericeps, sometimes called Gray-headed Flatbill, is sister to Gray-crowned Flatbill, Tolmomyias poliocephalus. I don't have any idea whether other subspecies group with it or not, so I'm not splitting it at this time.
[Rhynchocyclinae, Tyrannida I, 3.03]

Triccinae — Genus Changes: A number of genera in the Triccinae subfamily have been realigned based on Harvey et al. (2020). Here is a summary:
  1. Two species have moved from Poecilotriccus to Ceratotriccus.
    • Black-and-white Tody-Flycatcher (Ceratotriccus capitalis
    • White-cheeked Tody-Flycatcher (Ceratotriccus albifacies
  2. The Boat-billed Tody-Tyrant, Microcochlearius josephinae, has been returned to Hemitriccus.
  3. The following have been transferred back to Hemitriccus from Ceratotriccus:
    • Buff-throated Tody-Tyrant, Ceratotriccus rufigularis,
    • Black-throated Tody-Tyrant, Ceratotriccus granadensis,
    • Cinnamon-breasted Tody-Tyrant, Ceratotriccus cinnamomeipectus,
    • Kaempfer's Tody-Tyrant, Ceratotriccus kaempferi,
    • Eye-ringed Tody-Tyrant, Ceratotriccus orbitatus,
    • Buff-breasted Tody-Tyrant, Ceratotriccus mirandae.
  4. The following have been transferred to Euscarthmornis from Ceratotriccus:
    • Pearly-vented Tody-Tyrant, Ceratotriccus margaritaceiventer,
    • Hangnest Tody-Tyrant, Ceratotriccus nidipendulus,
    • Stripe-necked Tody-Tyrant, Ceratotriccus striaticollis,
    • Johannes's Tody-Tyrant, Ceratotriccus iohannis.
  5. Two species have been transferred to Perissotriccus from Myiornis:
    • Black-capped Pygmy-Tyrant, Myiornis atricapillus,
    • Short-tailed Pygmy-Tyrant, Myiornis ecaudatus.
  6. Two species have been transferred to Myiornis from Ceratotriccus:
    • Zimmer's Tody-Tyrant, Ceratotriccus minimus,
    • Pelzeln's Tody-Tyrant, Ceratotriccus inornatus.
  7. Three species have been transferred to Oncostoma from Idioptilon and Poecilotriccus:
    • Buff-cheeked Tody-Flycatcher, Poecilotriccus senex,
    • White-eyed Tody-Tyrant, Idioptilon zosterops,
    • White-bellied Tody-Tyrant, Idioptilon griseipectum.
There was substantial genetic distance (almost 3 million years) in the various Eared Pygmy-Tyrants, Myiornis auricularis, and White-bellied Pygmy-Tyrants, Myiornis albiventris tested by Harvey et al. (2020). Further, albiventris was nested within the auricularis clade. I've not made any changes based on this.

[Triccinae, Tyrannida I, 3.03]
 

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