• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Turdus merula (1 Viewer)

njlarsen

njlarsen

Gallery Moderator
Opus Editor
Supporter
Barbados
A recent Danish language paper (a somewhat popular one) mentioned strong indications that the Eurasian Blackbird should be split into several species, with black plumage in males having appeared independently maybe four times. Is this based on published information or on personal communications to the author? I cannot remember having seen it mentioned before.

Cheers
Niels
 
Turdus maximus Tibetan Blackbird (incl 'buddae') and T simillimus Indian Blackbird (incl nigropileus, 'spencei', bourdilloni, kinnisii) are split from T merula by Rasmussen & Anderton 2005 (Birds of S Asia), Collar 2005 (HBW10) and IOC.
[And R&A 2005 and Collar 2005 comment that T s kinnisii (Sri Lanka Blackbird) is also probably better treated as a distinct species.]

T mandarinus Chinese/Eastern Blackbird (incl intermedius, sowerbyi) is split by R&A 2005 and Robson 2008 (Birds of SE Asia), and noted as a possible species by Collar 2005.

T merula mauritanicus Moroccan Blackbird (incl 'algirus') is suggested as a possible candidate for species status by Small 2006 (More Moroccan birds. Birding World 19(6): 254-262).

Richard
 
Last edited:
Also interesting in this article is the position of Turdus (poliocephalus) niveiceps. I'd also like to know what an alternative generic name for mupinensis would be.
I would not want to draw any conclusions on mandarinus yet.
 
Hall & Moreau (1970) (An atlas of speciation in African Passerine Birds) considered that T. mupensis, T. philomelos and Psophocichla litsipsirupa formed a superspecies. SO maybe the alternative generic name for mupinensis would be Psophocichla???
 
Partial migrants

Fudickar & Partecke 2012. The flight apparatus of migratory and sedentary individuals of a partially migratory songbird species. PLOS ONE 7(12): e51920: 1–5. [article] [pdf]
 
Richard Klim said:
Fudickar & Partecke 2012. The flight apparatus of migratory and sedentary individuals of a partially migratory songbird species. PLOS ONE 7(12): e51920: 1–5. [article] [pdf]
Click to expand...

Have Fudickar & Parteke overlooked a simpler hypothesis, that migrant Blackbirds might proceed to their wintering grounds in relatively short hops, and so evolutionary pressures for 'long-distance' wings wouldn't exist...?:eek!:
MJB
 
TiF

Xenospiza said:
JOHAN A. A. NYLANDER, URBAN OLSSON, PER ALSTRÖM, ISABEL SANMARTÍN, 2008. Accounting for Phylogenetic Uncertainty in Biogeography: A Bayesian Approach to Dispersal-Vicariance Analysis of the Thrushes (Aves: Turdus). Syst. Biol. 57(2), 257–268. http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/57/2/257.pdf
Click to expand...
John Boyd (TiF):
www.jboyd.net/Taxo/changes.html (1 Mar 2013)
www.jboyd.net/Taxo/List26.html#turdidae

PS. I'd previously missed the fact that Nylander et al 2008 groups intermedius with merula rather than mandarinus, contra Collar 2005 (HBW 10).
 
Last edited:
HBW Special Volume 2013

Box 5, p. 141: The Common Blackbird (J. Fjeldså)

...some of these populations have different songs, and molecular studies have now confirmed that they are genetically very different and do not even belong near each other in the global phylogeny of Turdus thrushes. The western blackbirds (subspecies merula to intermedius in 10: 645) represent one of the oldest lineages in the Turdus phylogeny. The eastern Chinese mandarinus is another deep branch, most closely related to some African thrushes. The four taxa making up the Indian Blackbird (Turdus simillimus 10: 646), until very recently treated as races of the Common Blackbird, form part of an oriental group with the Grey-winged Blackbird (Turdus boulboul 10 : 646-647) and the Japanese (Turdus cardis 10: 642), Grey-backed (Turdus hortulorum 10: 654-655), Tickell's (Turdus unicolor 10: 654) and Black-breasted Thrushes (Turdus dissimilis (10: 655); and the Tibetan form maximus, already treated as a full species in HBW (10: 646), is related to the White-backed Thrush (Turdus kessleri 10: 649) and various Siberian thrushes (Nylander et al. 2008). ...
 
Xenospiza said:
This is the source:
JOHAN A. A. NYLANDER, URBAN OLSSON, PER ALSTRÖM, ISABEL SANMARTÍN, 2008. Accounting for Phylogenetic Uncertainty in Biogeography: A Bayesian Approach
to Dispersal-Vicariance Analysis of the Thrushes (Aves: Turdus). Syst. Biol. 57(2), 257–268.
http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/57/2/257.pdf
Click to expand...

TiF update April 18
Following IOC, the Groundscraper Thrush (Psophocichla) has been moved into Turdus.

"Finally, if Nylander et al. (2008) are correct, the Groundscrapper Thrush is more likely sister to the Chinese Thrush than to all of Turdus. In any event, the Groundscrapper Thrush is similar to the Turdus thrushes and I follow IOC in merging Psophocichla into Turdus."
 
Turdus mandarinus

Peter Kovalik said:
IOC Update Diary:
Mar 30 Accept Chinese Blackbird
Click to expand...
www.worldbirdnames.org/updates/proposed-splits/
AS 5.2 – Chinese Blackbird – Turdus mandarinus – Chinese Blackbird incl intermedius, sowerbyi recognized by Rasmussen & Anderton 2005, Collar 2005, Robson 2008, Nylander et al 2008, H&M4
Click to expand...
www.jboyd.net/Taxo/List26.html#turdidae
Based on Nylander et al. (2008), the Chinese Blackbird, Turdus mandarinus, including the subspecies sowerbyi, but not intermedius, has been split from the Eurasian Blackbird, Turdus merula...
Click to expand...
H&M4 also excludes intermedius (citing Nylander et al 2008), contra Collar 2005.

PS. Inclusion of intermedius now tbc ("?")...
www.worldbirdnames.org/updates/species-updates/
www.worldbirdnames.org/updates/proposed-splits/
 
Last edited:
Warning! This thread is more than 7 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

J
Birding Asia Taxonomy
2
Replies
29
Views
3K
Andy Adcock
Andy Adcock
J
Messy Taxonomy
Replies
15
Views
3K
James Lowther
J
SueO
Six Day Texas Trip
Replies
2
Views
601
wolfbirder
wolfbirder
Björn Bergenholtz
Waterstradt's Racquet-tail (Parrot)
Replies
7
Views
1K
Björn Bergenholtz
Björn Bergenholtz
wolfbirder
GRAN CANARIA - 2- 6th February 2024
2
Replies
34
Views
2K
Mike Crawley
Mike Crawley

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top