Latest IOC Diary Updates (3 Viewers)

[opisska]

Can we interest you in the "Name a bird you've seen" thread? We've been stuck on 9134 species for several months...

Name a Bird You've Seen 2

Some members might remember that about 10 years ago there was a fun thread where we took it in turns to name a bird that we had seen, with no repeats, to see how far down the global species list we could get. What with the numerous taxonomic changes, with new species added to our personal lists...

www.birdforum.net

Does the thread accept birds like this, where the split is not yet accepted?

 

[awiner]

Can we interest you in the "Name a bird you've seen" thread? We've been stuck on 9134 species for several months...

Name a Bird You've Seen 2

Some members might remember that about 10 years ago there was a fun thread where we took it in turns to name a bird that we had seen, with no repeats, to see how far down the global species list we could get. What with the numerous taxonomic changes, with new species added to our personal lists...

www.birdforum.net

Got you unstuck with #9135.

 

[Jacana]

What are the ID features for Qilian Bluetail other than song? Especially females and non-breeding plumage.

 

[James Lowther]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1055790322001932?via%3Dihub#f0005

Doesn’t sound like they would be super easy to ID without reference to song

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

I saw the Goldfinch in Uzbekistan! But I'm not sure that I can figure out a way to add it to the "name a bird" thread. Any ideas how to link it to Scaly Spurfowl?

Would I also be correct in assuming that birds seen around Big Almaty Lake in Kazakhstan would also be "Eastern"?

 

[James Lowther]

Does the thread accept birds like this, where the split is not yet accepted?

I checked back through the diary and “post split” means it is accepted instantly without hanging around as a proposal see e.g. cryptic becard
Cheers
James

 

[opisska]

Aha! so that's a given now, that's cool.

 

[Xenospiza]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1055790322001932?via%3Dihub#f0005

Doesn’t sound like they would be super easy to ID without reference to song

"No diagnostic plumage characters were found for T. c. albocoeruleus (n = 3)".
Not a fan of the bluetail splits at all (and I've seen them)...

 

[Mysticete]

Mar 3 Post split of Northern Chestnut-breasted Wren from (Southern) Chestnut-breasted Wren.

 

[Paul Clapham]

Mar 3 Post proposed split of Taczanowski's Brushfinch from Slaty Brushfinch.

Mar 3 Post proposed split of Maranon Sparrow from Black-capped Sparrow.

 

[Xenospiza]

I saw the Goldfinch in Uzbekistan! But I'm not sure that I can figure out a way to add it to the "name a bird" thread. Any ideas how to link it to Scaly Spurfowl?

Would I also be correct in assuming that birds seen around Big Almaty Lake in Kazakhstan would also be "Eastern"?

Yes, at Big Almaty Lake the are Grey-crowned Goldfinches as well.

 

[Mysticete]

Sparrows could get interesting for us NA based birders; WGAC should be evaluating Savannah and Fox Sparrow if they are looking at or recently looked at New World Sparrows

 

[pbjosh]

Mar 3 Post split of Northern Chestnut-breasted Wren from (Southern) Chestnut-breasted Wren.

Mar 3 Post proposed split of Taczanowski's Brushfinch from Slaty Brushfinch.

Mar 3 Post proposed split of Maranon Sparrow from Black-capped Sparrow.

None of these should be a surprise, they've been long mooted. They at least seem to be common sense and I don't know of anything that contraindicates any of these three.

The more I watch the WGAC proceedings and see the results, the more that I realize how much I disagree with "status quo is sacrosanct" taxonomic philosophies. The status quo is just kind of dumb a lot of the time when you step back. It is very frequently based upon the decisions of one person in the often distant past, acting in a vacuum with far less information than we have now, and not even always providing justification.

WGAC will certainly get some things wrong, but overall I really think this is basically playing out as an end-run around more conservative taxonomic committees and the barriers that (to some degree rightly) exist to protect the status quo. Of course some changes will be reverted, there will be cases of subspecies needing adjustment / re-assignment, and further splits / reshufflings will be necessary. But I cannot fathom the post-WGAC "new status quo" being less accurate than what we had before.

 

[Mysticete]

I support the WGAC and I think it's good to have an international committee doing there own thing. My worry though is that post reconciliation and after they finally release there checklist, they will fall back to being a rubber stamp for existing committees, rather than independently evaluating taxonomic changes.

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

Yes, at Big Almaty Lake they are Grey-crowned Goldfinches as well.

Thanks. I figured that was the case, but it wasn't clear from the subspecies descriptions in Clements.

 

[pbjosh]

@Mysticete Indeed that remains to be seen. As well, and directly related, it remains to be seen how much eBird/Clements follow NACC/SACC after the fact. By following the WGAC they are expressly breaking with those two committees, at least in the short term. When novel taxonomic issues with new data are addressed by either committee I should like to think that Clements and IOC, even if WGAC is not active, would take them in stride. However I also doubt that, barring new publications/data, NACC or SACC drawing a line in the sand wrt WGAC accepted splits is likely to convince anyone to revert.

Again it’s the question of where do committees derive their authority and who will continue to listen to them in the case that they diverge significantly from “most everyone else” essentially.

 

[Markus Lagerqvist]

Mar 4 Post proposed split of Western Yellow-billed Barbet from (Eastern) Yellow-billed Barbet.

 

[Mysticete]

technically not a diary update, but perhaps of interest:

"Change English name of Chloris sinica from Grey-capped Greenfinch to Oriental Greenfinch to align with other major world bird lists."

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

to Oriental Greenfinch

Western/Occidental vs Eastern/Oriental, the union minimum or the pinnacle of intellectual idleness ?

 

[TomDerutter]

Mar 7 Post split of Angola White-eye from Northern Yellow White-eye.

Angola White-eye

Zosterops kasaicus

ADD

AS

Northern Yellow White-eye

Angola White-eye Zosterops kasaicus (including heinrichi and quanzae) is split from Northern Yellow White-eye Z. senegalensis on the basis of phylogenetic divergence (Martins et al. 2020). The specific epithet kasaicus Chapin, 1932 has priority over quanzae Meyer de Schauensee, 1933 [often attributed to 1932 but not actually published until 1933. (fide R. Dowsett)].