Next 10 WP splits (1 Viewer)

[gusasp]

I love hypothetical guessing games. Inspired by this old thread, what are the next 10 splits in the West Palearctic?

Let's take IOC as a baseline. Here's my take at it (ignoring extralimitals):

* Heuglin's Gull
* Seebohm's Wheatear
* Maghreb Wheatear
* Atlas Tawny Owl
* Arabian and African Green Bee-eater
* Great Grey Shrike splits into Iberian, Desert and Great.
* penicillata Horned Lark
* saharae Streaked Scrub Warbler
* melanoleuca Black-eared Wheatear
* japonicus Buff-bellied Pipit

Plus these lumps:
* Steppe Grey Shrike merged into Great Grey
* All the redpolls lumped in one species

 

[Nutcracker]

Ditto to penicillata Horned Lark, and flava and atlas ditto, all split from N American alpestris.
And ditto Seebohm's Wheatear.
Common Gull / Mew Gull.
Greenland Whitefront / Eurasian Whitefront.
Eurasian grisegena / N American holbollii Red-necked Grebes.
Atlantic ('British') / Mediterranean Storm Petrel.
Eurasian / Hudsonian Whimbrel.
Long shot - European / Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits.
Eurasian / American Black Tern.
Eurasian rustica / N American erythrogaster Barn Swallows.
European rufula / C Asian daurica Red-rumped Swallows.

That's 11, so I'll have to have a lump prediction to get back down to ten new birds:
Scottish Crossbill.

Edit - yeah, also lump Barbary Falcon into Peregrine Falcon

 

[Xenospiza]

I'll come up with a few more, but delete the Dutch splits and add the lumps and I am at 10 I believe...

Already split by the Dutch:
1 Seebohm's Wheatear
2 Maghreb Wheatear
3 Eastern Black-eared Wheatear
4 Iberian Grey Shrike
5 Desert Grey Shrike
6 bonus >> Boreal Shrike (American or Siberian)
7 Atlantic ('British') / Mediterranean Storm Petrel
8 Hudsonian Whimbrel
9 bonus >> African Crimson-winged Finch

In favour:
10 atlas Horned Lark (plumage, DNA)
11 penicillata Horned Lark (plumage, DNA)
12 Mew Gull
13 Eurasian / American Black Tern
14 European rufula / C Asian daurica Red-rumped Swallows.
15 japonicus Buff-bellied Pipit (don't understand why it's still lumped)

Possible
16 Greenland Whitefront / Eurasian Whitefront (may be a bit weak when American subspecies are considered as well)
17 Atlas Tawny Owl
18 bonus >> Cyprus Scops Owl
The Sound Approach book is published in March next year: I bet Arnoud wants to split like mad!
19 Eurasian rustica / N American erythrogaster Barn Swallows (plumage says yes, DNA says no: split is somewhere in eastern Asia)
20 bonus >> Egyptian and Middle Eastern Little Green Bee-eater
21 bonus >> Great-billed Reed Bunting

Not in favour
-- flava Horned Lark (plumage fits in with alpestris group, DNA very close as well)
-- saharae Streaked Scrub Warbler
-- Heuglin's Gull (I prefer to see it as an eastern LBBG)
-- Arabian and African Green Bee-eater (not as distinct as the Little Greens)
-- Eurasian grisegena / N American holbollii Red-necked Grebes (reasons for splitting were rebutted quite well some years ago)
-- European / Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits.

Lumps

Possible:
-- Steppe Grey Shrike (split as lahtora Asian Grey Shrike by DBA, but this is based on a rather small difference in DNA)
-- All the redpolls lumped in one species (I'd like to see better work on the Mealy/Arctic boundary)

In favour:
-1 Scottish Crossbill
-2 Barbary Falcon into Peregrine Falcon (sadly)

 

[Nutcracker]

Not WP, but the tropical southeast Asian subspecies currently included in Grey-headed Woodpecker (P. c. dedemi, etc.) really need to be split out.

 

[lewis20126]

Lumping Scottish Crossbill would be very sensible. Its separation makes no sense in a global context, but don't expect any action from Britain on this. It would be fun if all other global authorities lumped it first!

Cheers, alan

 

[Nutcracker]

And maybe split Red Grouse?

The so-called 'intermediates' on the Norwegian coast are hybrids resulting from deliberate introduction of Red Grouse there, some time before they were described as a subspecies.

 

[kuzeycem]

Here are top my split & lumps:

Splits:
Brant Goose - "Black Brant"
Goosander - "Common Merganser" (don't know if it has been recorded in WP but might)
Willow Grouse - Red Grouse
Great Cormorant - them cormorants in Morocco
Great Egret - "Eastern" Great Egret (modestus)
Black Kite - Black-eared Kite
Purple Swamphen - Grey-headed Swamphen
Lesser Sand Plover - Mongolian Plover
Eurasian Whimbrel - Hudsonian Whimbrel
Common Gull - Common Gull ssp in Siberia and N America
Caspian Gull - Mongolian Gull
Yellow-legged Gull - Azores Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull - Steppe Gull
LBbG - Heuglin's Gull
Common Tern - longipennis Common Tern
Brown Fish Owl - Turkish Fish Owl
Little Green Bee-eater in Arabia and Egypt
Great Spotted Woodpecker - GSW in N Africa
White-backed Woodpecker - lifordi WbW
Horned Lark - Caucasian Horned Lark
Desert Lark ssp?
Red-rumped Swallow - RrS in Asia
Sibe Buff-bellied Pipit - Yank Buff-bellied Pipit
Water Pipit - Middle Eastern Water Pipit
Pied Wagtail - White Wagtail
Some forms of Yellow Wagtail
Citrine Wagtail - calcarata Citrine Wagtail
Black Redstart - Eastern Black Redstart
Northern Wheatear- Seebhom's Wheatear
Mourning Wheatear - Basalt Wheatear
Ring Ouzel - Ring Ouzel in SE Europe
Scrub Warblers in Arabia and Africa
Orphean Warblers
Common Chifchaff - Siberian Chiffchaff
Coal Tit - Cyprus & N African Coal Tits
Long-tailed Tits
Great Grey Shrike - Boreal Shrike

Only lump I can think of is Parrot&Common Crossbills

 

[Nutcracker]

Here are top my split & lumps:

Interesting set (but far more than the permitted ten :-O), a few annotations . . . :t:

Brant Goose - "Black Brant" - disagree; the Brent subspecies mix freely on the wintering grounds; as first-winter geese pair up on the wintering grounds, this means they can, and do, hybridise easily: they don't regard each other as 'different'. This is in contrast to e.g. Whitefronts, where Greenland & Eurasian birds in a single large goose flock stay unmixed in discrete subgroups: they do regard each other as different.
Goosander - "Common Merganser" (don't know if it has been recorded in WP but might) agree
Willow Grouse - Red Grouse agree
Great Cormorant - them cormorants in Morocco - agree
Great Egret - "Eastern" Great Egret (modestus) disagree - IOC did split, but reversed it a year later with new evidence
Black Kite - Black-eared Kite disagree - minimal DNA difference
Common Gull - Common Gull ssp in Siberia and N America yes for Mew Gull; no for the Asian sspp, which intergrade over large areas
Brown Fish Owl - Turkish Fish Owl agree
Pied Wagtail - White Wagtail - disagree
Some forms of Yellow Wagtail - dubious
Black Redstart - Eastern Black Redstart - agree
Ring Ouzel - Ring Ouzel in SE Europe - alpestris, or amicorum, or both?
Common Chifchaff - Siberian Chiffchaff - dubious
Long-tailed Tits - dubious; lots of intergradation
Great Grey Shrike - Boreal Shrike - agree

Only lump I can think of is Parrot & Common Crossbills - disagree; just lump Scottish

 

[kuzeycem]

Interesting set (but far more than the permitted ten :-O), a few annotations . . . :t:
Only lump I can think of is Parrot & Common Crossbills - disagree; just lump Scottish

Sorry about that, I actually did mean Scottish Crossbill.
Siberian Chiffchaff is apparently being evaluated by IOC right now.

 

[Maffong]

I don't know too much about taxonomy yet, but I don't think we should just split every bird population that differs a little from the other. Why even bother to have subspecies then?
I think Lesser and Common Redpoll should be lumped again and wouldn't mind if Scottish Crossbill gets lumped with Common too. I wouldn't like the split of Hudsonian/Eurasian Whimbrel: I read that DNA is pretty close and that would be the only wader that wouldn't be identifiable through call.
IMO species should only be split if DNA, calls, looks and behaviour really differ and not just because we like splitting... (of course everything just on a certain degree. I wouldn't want Mute Swans to be -hypothetically spoken- split based on calls, nor would I rely on differences in neotropical tapaculos' looks)

Just my personal thoughts.

 

[Nutcracker]

I think Lesser and Common Redpoll should be lumped again

If you do, you also have to lump Arctic; the difference between Lesser and Common is no smaller than the difference between Arctic and Common :t:

Having just one species of Redpoll worldwide is a very reasonable viewpoint though. It's having two species that doesn't hold water.

 

[lewis20126]

I agree with the Barbary falcon lump. Although in Arabia, Barbary falcon seems distinctive, the Moroccan and Canaries situation seems highly problematic.

Cheers,a

 

[lewis20126]

Interested in why everyone is up for Turkish fish owl. Are vocals of brown fish owl well known across its range? I'm sure AVB and the sound approach team are keen.

Cheers, a

 

[chris butterworth]

Some that haven't been mentioned are :-

Northern Fulmar to Atlantic and Pacific
Long-legged Buzzard to African and Asian / Eastern
Eur. Kestrel to Eur. , Neglected and Alexander's. The two Cape Verde taxa are very different.
Blue Rock Thrush. Split the extralimital philippensis group.
Thekla Lark needs looking at as there is a very distinct population in the Maghreb, and the extralimital Ethiopian birds should be possibly split.

 

[Nutcracker]

For North America:

Lump Northwestern Crow into American Crow.

 

[Nutcracker]

Eur. Kestrel to Eur. , Neglected and Alexander's. The two Cape Verde taxa are very different.

Also:

Split Cape Verde from Western Palearctic, and lump with Afrotropical :king:

 

[chris butterworth]

Also:

Split Cape Verde from Western Palearctic, and lump with Afrotropical :king:

:eek!: I'm not taking Razo Lark off my WP list. :C:C:C

 

[Valéry Schollaert]

I agree with the Barbary falcon lump. Although in Arabia, Barbary falcon seems distinctive, the Moroccan and Canaries situation seems highly problematic.

Cheers,a

Hi there,

There is a mess with Peregrine Falcons in Morocco, with 2 or 3 taxa interbreeding in the South West (brookei, minor and "atlantis" which can be only brookei/minor hybrids), but Barbary F. is well separated from them. Problematic yes, but in no case Barbary should be lumped with Peregrine. I think in opposite, madens should be learned better and probably split from Peregrine (I don't know madens enough); on my side, I suggest Barbary to be removed from Falco [peregrinus] superspecies.

It is possible IOC will lump Barbary, but this is based or wrong information and not reflecting the reality in the field.

Cheers

V.

 

[Valéry Schollaert]

Some that haven't been mentioned are :-

Northern Fulmar to Atlantic and Pacific
Long-legged Buzzard to African and Asian / Eastern
Eur. Kestrel to Eur. , Neglected and Alexander's. The two Cape Verde taxa are very different.
Blue Rock Thrush. Split the extralimital philippensis group.
Thekla Lark needs looking at as there is a very distinct population in the Maghreb, and the extralimital Ethiopian birds should be possibly split.

IMO, Cirtensis should be either split as a good species, or lumped with Common Buzzard.

 

[Sangahyando]

Blue Rock Thrush. Split the extralimital philippensis group..

Pardon my ignorance, but would that group include the other two eastern sspp., or just philippensis?