Picidae (1 Viewer)

[Peter Kovalik]

Ivory-billed Woodpecker

Back from the dead? Elusive ivory-billed woodpecker not extinct, researchers say

Sorry if this is a little off topic

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Ivory-billed Woodpecker

Back from the dead? Elusive ivory-billed woodpecker not extinct, researchers say

Sorry if this is a little off topic

Credible or not ?

 

[Jacana]

Absolutely not credible. I don't have the energy to go through it all, but here's one of the images from the preprint that the authors use to back up their claims. I'll let you judge for yourself.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Absolutely not credible. I don't have the energy to go through it all, but here's one of the images from the preprint that the authors use to back up their claims. I'll let you judge for yourself.

View attachment 1439836

I saw the pics on the manuscript.... Lol

Beautiful red arrows

 

[Mysticete]

IBWO folks are becoming more and more like "bigfoot researchers" every day.

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Aguillon, Stepfanie M., and Rohwer, Vanya G. (2022) Revisiting a classic hybrid zone: movement of the northern flicker [Colaptes auratus] hybrid zone in contemporary times. Evolution.
https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.14474

Abstract
Natural hybrid zones have provided important insights into the evolutionary process, and their geographic dynamics over time can help to disentangle the underlying biological processes that maintain them. Here, we leverage replicated sampling of an identical transect across the hybrid zone between yellow-shafted and red-shafted flickers in the Great Plains to assess its stability over ∼60 years (1955–1957 to 2016–2018). We identify a ∼73-km westward shift in the hybrid zone center toward the range of the red-shafted flicker, but find no associated changes in width over our sampling period. In fact, the hybrid zone remains remarkably narrow, suggesting some kind of selective pressure maintains the zone. By comparing to previous work in the same geographic region, it appears likely that the movement in the hybrid zone has occurred in the years since the early 1980s. This recent movement may be related to changes in climate or land management practices that have allowed westward movement of yellow-shafted flickers into the Great Plains.

 

[Mysticete]

Aguillon, Stepfanie M., and Rohwer, Vanya G. (2022) Revisiting a classic hybrid zone: movement of the northern flicker [Colaptes auratus] hybrid zone in contemporary times. Evolution.
https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.14474

Abstract
Natural hybrid zones have provided important insights into the evolutionary process, and their geographic dynamics over time can help to disentangle the underlying biological processes that maintain them. Here, we leverage replicated sampling of an identical transect across the hybrid zone between yellow-shafted and red-shafted flickers in the Great Plains to assess its stability over ∼60 years (1955–1957 to 2016–2018). We identify a ∼73-km westward shift in the hybrid zone center toward the range of the red-shafted flicker, but find no associated changes in width over our sampling period. In fact, the hybrid zone remains remarkably narrow, suggesting some kind of selective pressure maintains the zone. By comparing to previous work in the same geographic region, it appears likely that the movement in the hybrid zone has occurred in the years since the early 1980s. This recent movement may be related to changes in climate or land management practices that have allowed westward movement of yellow-shafted flickers into the Great Plains.

Skimmed this today:

"Despite this, our estimates of the width of the hybrid zone are suggestive of a strong selective pressure separating red-shafted and yellow-shafted flickers and it seems unlikely that phenotypic homogenization will occur imminently. We expect the patterns we identified for plumage characteristics to additionally be representative of patterns at the genomic level for flickers, as the few existing differentiated regions of the genome are associated with their coloration differences (Aguillon et al. 2021). It is possible that adaptations to differing environments on either side of the Great Plains ecotone are physically linked in the genome to the differences in coloration and that these adaptations, rather than the plumage color differences directly, are maintaining the narrow width of the hybrid zone. If adaptive differences between the flickers are similar to those found in orioles and buntings (Rising 1969; Carling and Thomassen 2012), it seems unlikely that the hybrid zone will continue moving westward in perpetuity. Instead, we predict it would be more likely that the hybrid zone would eventually stabilize in or near the Rocky Mountains, with yellow-shafted flickers unable to move into the hotter, drier habitats of the west."

Kind of sounds an argument could be made for treating each as a separate species.

 

[Snapdragyn]

Birdlife already does.

 

[Taphrospilus]

I am not sure has Multiple lines of evidence indicate survival of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Louisiana been placed here?

 

[Melanie]

I am not sure has Multiple lines of evidence indicate survival of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Louisiana been placed here?

There is a link in the above posted Guardian article to this article.

 

[pbjosh]

Manuel Schweizer, Qindong Tang, Reto Burri, Sergei V. Drovetski, Hugo Robles, Kristof Zyskowski, Sargis Aghayan, Marko Rakovic, Gilberto Pasinelli.
Deep genome‐wide phylogeographic structure indicates cryptic diversity in the Middle Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocoptes medius). Ibis,
First Published: 17 February 2022, https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.13054

Abstract:

Deep phylogeographic structure in mitochondrial DNA not reflected in morphological variation has been uncovered in a number of species over the past few decades. However, inferred phylogeographic structure solely based on mitochondrial DNA can be misleading and might not reflect the true history of evolutionary lineages. Consequently, such cases should be further investigated based on genome-wide data. One of these examples is provided by the Middle Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocoptes medius, a non-migratory habitat specialist associated with old deciduous forests of the Western Palearctic. It displays strong genetic divergence in mitochondrial DNA between Asian and European populations despite only slight variation in morphology between them. Here, we found a clear genomic divergence between Asian and European populations that is consistent with mitochondrial divergence patterns. As revealed by isolation by distance analyses, this differentiation in two lineages was not merely an effect of geography. Genomic population structure indicates that both the Asian and European lineages might each have been separated in more than one refugium during the last glacial maximum. The Middle Spotted Woodpecker might represent a case of cryptic diversity throughout its distribution range, as has been previously found for other taxa across the tree of life. However, we also found footprints of gene flow from the Asian into the European populations, suggesting at least limited introgression upon secondary contact. Processes and mechanisms that might prevent lineage fusion between the morphologically cryptic but genetically divergent lineages of the Middle Spotted Woodpecker need to be further investigated especially in the area of potential secondary contact.

A bit of an article regarding this paper, by the lead author:

Overlooked diversity in a European context - British Ornithologists' Union

Genome-wide data uncovers two morphologically cryptic lineages in the Middle Spotted Woodpecker

bou.org.uk

 

[jts1882]

If they do a species split the birds deserve a better name. Come to think about it, they need a better name species split or not. I understand that Lesser and Greater are commonly used, but Middle Spotted Woodpecker is unimaginative. They are not even in the same genus.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

If they do a species split the birds deserve a better name. Come to think about it, they need a better name species split or not. I understand that Lesser and Greater are commonly used, but Middle Spotted Woodpecker is unimaginative. They are not even in the same genus.

Caucasian Woodpecker for the eastern species Dendrocoptes sanctijohannis (Blanford, 1873)

 

[mb1848]

Caucasian Woodpecker for the eastern species Dendrocoptes sanctijohannis (Blanford, 1873)

The place of the type collection is the oak forests near Shiraz Persia.
ser.3:v.3=no.9-12;Suppl.:v.3 (1873) - Ibis - Biodiversity Heritage Library .
As far as I am aware Major Oliver B. C. St. John was not a slave trader so why not name it for him? Oliver's Woodpecker.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

As far as I am aware Major Oliver B. C. St. John was not a slave trader so why not name it for him? Oliver's Woodpecker.

It's not very informative, unlike Caucasian 🧐

 

[l_raty]

It's not very informative, unlike Caucasian 🧐

"Caucasian" for a wannabe species that breeds on Lesvos...?

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

"Caucasian" for a wannabe species that breeds on Lesvos...?

Yes.

Egyptian vulture for a species visible in Europe XD

Plectrophane des neiges for a species visiting French coastes and beaches.

Loriot d'Europe...

To be continued

 

[l_raty]

Egyptian vulture for a species visible in Europe XD

But this is not really informative either.
We use it because, historically, it has been the established name.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

But this is not really informative either.
We use it because, historically, it has been the established name.

Just like Caucasian Woodpecker will become. It is better that a species bears the name of a region, even if the distribution can go beyond this region.

 

[l_raty]

If anything, I'd be more tempted by Anatolian than by Caucasian.