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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Recent content by daveholden

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    In Search of Hawf Title (No prefix) inch (Scotland)

    Arctic Redpoll - now that's an ecotype
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    In Search of Hawf Title (No prefix) inch (Scotland)

    I think the only remaining certainty is that some birds have larger bills - which probably true of any bird species :)
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    Prunellidae

    In the 2018 paper they estimate the caucasus/modularis split at 0.471 Ma and the iberian/modularis split at 0.408 Ma. The atrogularis/ocularis split (raddes/black-throated) is similar to the caucasus/modularis split according to their figures. So a bit ironic that further up the thread people...
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    Prunellidae

    It needs to be read in conjunction with the earlier paper in post 15 - the genetic difference between "Caucasian Dunnock" and nominate modularis is similar to the difference between raddes and black-throated (and way more than the difference between brown and Kozlov's). Haven't been to the...
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    Televue Delos vs. Baader Morpheus astro eyepieces on spotting scope

    Hi Chris - thanks for this useful info, I'm thinking of trying a DeLite combined with a Pentax 65EL scope. Do you have any advice on which eyepieces in the range are workable. I've done the maths that tells me that the 15mm is about 26x with this scope, but is there much point in using an 11mm...
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    Darwin Finches

    Rapid Evolution or Sisyphean Evolution Quite interesting in the context of the new paper: Lamichhaney, S., Han, F., Webster, M. T., Andersson, L., Grant, B. R., & Grant, P. R. (2017). Rapid hybrid speciation in Darwin’s finches. Science 358. DOI: 10.1126/science.aao4593
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    TiF – where are you?

    I don't know if John ever reads this, but I'm certainly grateful for his efforts - it's a wonderful resource!
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    Barbary / Peregrine Falcons

    Having seen the whole text - some interesting things in the cytB trees: The cytB tree has brookei as basal to the other peregrines (including barbary), but brookei commonly hybridises with these other races (I think this is in the text, but my German is poor). In that context, I wonder if...
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    Barbary / Peregrine Falcons

    The abstract only mentions brookei - is there some mention of pelegrinoides in the main text (which I can't access)?
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    Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata)

    Andrea - it's not every day that someone discovers an unequivocal new species in Western Europe so excuse any over-enthusiasm! Anyway if balearica and tyrrhenica are conspecific, there is a case for having a unique name to describe the whole species. For example, if you refer to a bird (say a...
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    Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata)

    The case for splitting tyrrhenica (including balearica) as a new species distinct from striata is based on genetic divergence, different call and different appearance - taken together, this all looks pretty watertight. But, the case for splitting tyrrhenica from balearica is based on what...
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    Automolus foliage-gleaners

    " 'difficult' eastern European names" are hardly the problem. The problem with (unrelated example) Przevalski's Parrotbill* is not pronunciation but actually finding one. (*and "Rusty-throated Parrotbill" just sounds boring) So I'd definitely vote for Taczanowski, especially now I've been told...
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    Strigiformes: barcoding

    "Maybe I'm missing some detail". I can't see that you have! It looks like a slam-dunk for Eastern Barn Owl (T. javanica). The Tyto rosenbergi sequence is a bit intriguing though - and the plate in HBW looks distubingly like a Barn Owl. I'm not sure how many species points it would rack up on...
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    Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata)

    Well, if the the Germans can manage to say Tyrrhenischer grauer Fliegenfänger, who are we to complain about Tyrrhenian Fylycatcher? Mediterranean Flycatcher probably makes more sense for both forms, but note that it will be abbreviated to med fly - causing some panic among fruit growers.
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    Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata)

    Does anyone know where the type specimen of tyrrhenica was obtained? If (for example) it was first described in Sardinia, why not go with Sardinian Flycather, which has the added advantage of being easily to spell and pronounce.
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