Caprimulgiformes Limits (1 Viewer)

[TicoTyler]

I didn't want to hijack this thread that is more focused on Nightjars. Someone asked me today if hummingbirds were in Apodiformes or Caprimulgiformes and I said Apodiformes...but then it was brought to my attention that Birds of the World classifies what was Apodiformes as being part of a broader Caprimulgiformes. This proposal to the SACC by Van Remsen passed in 2016 maintains Apodiformes as an Order as well as elevates Steatornithidae and Nyctibiidae to rank of Order. The current IOC 14.1 Checklist and AOS lists for both North and South America (although the SACC is now no longer associated with the AOS) also treat Apodiformes as their own order.

So my question is, why does eBird/BOW have this broad Caprimulgiformes limit? Has there been any discussion on it? Does anyone other than Clement's adopt this taxonomy? I haven't found anything recent.

 

[Paul Clapham]

So my question is, why does eBird/BOW have this broad Caprimulgiformes limit? Has there been any discussion on it? Does anyone other than Clement's adopt this taxonomy? I haven't found anything recent.

They made that change in their 2016 update, and previous to that they had a separate Apodiformes. They did explain why they did it back in 2016, but those "Updates and Corrections" documents don't stay online for very long.

Fortunately I'm a sort of historian so I have a copy of it. Here's what they said:

Genetic evidence consistently indicates that Apodiformes are embedded within
Caprimulgiformes (Hackett et al. 2008, Prum et al. 2015). Among the nomenclatural
solutions to this revelation, one option is to preserve Apodiformes, by raising each of
the families of Caprimulgiformes to the level of order. This route recently was enacted
by AOU-NACC (Chesser et al. 2016; see also AOU-SACC Proposal 703). Another
solution is to subsume Apodiformes into an expanded Caprimulgiformes (Cracraft
2013, Winkler et al. 2015). We have adopted the latter approach: we delete
Apodiformes, and include its three families – Apodidae, Hemiprocnidae, and
Trochilidae – in Caprimulgiformes.

References:

Cracraft, J. 2013. Avian higher-level relationships and classification: nonpasserines.
Pages xxi-xliii in E.C. Dickinson and J.V. Remsen, Jr. (editors), The Howard & Moore
complete checklist of the birds of the world. Fourth edition. Volume 1. Aves Press,
Eastbourne, United Kingdom.

Hackett, S.J., R.T. Kimball, S. Reddy, R.C.K. Bowie, E.L. Braun, M.J. Braun, J.L.
Chojnowski, W.A. Cox, K.-L. Han, J. Harshman, C.J. Huddleston, B.D. Marks, K.J.
Miglia, W.S. Moore, F.H. Sheldon, D.W. Steadman, C.C. Witt, and T. Yuri. 2008. A
phylogenomic study of birds reveals their evolutionary history. Science 320: 1763-1768.

Prum, R.O., J.S. Berv, A. Dornburg, D.J. Field, J.P. Townsend, E.M. Lemmon, and A.R.
Lemmon. 2015. A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted
next-generation DNA sequencing. Nature 526: 569-573.

Winkler, D.W., S.M. Billerman, and I.J. Lovette. 2015. Bird families of the world. Lynx
Edicions, Barcelona.

Chesser, R.T., K.J. Burns, C. Cicero, J.L. Dunn, A.W. Kratter, I.J. Lovette, P.C.
Rasmussen, J.V. Remsen, Jr., J.D. Rising, D.F. Stotz, and K. Winker. 2016. Fiftyseventh
supplement to the American Ornithologists’ Union Check-list of North
American birds. Auk 133: 544-560.

 

[TicoTyler]

They made that change in their 2016 update, and previous to that they had a separate Apodiformes. They did explain why they did it back in 2016, but those "Updates and Corrections" documents don't stay online for very long.

Fortunately I'm a sort of historian so I have a copy of it. Here's what they said:


References:

Fantastic, thanks!