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Latest IOC Diary Updates (20 Viewers)

mb1848 said:
I think the decision to lump is part of making freinds among the competing bird-lists trying to come up with one global bird list. Sometimes science needs to take a back seat to politics.
https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=111980 .
Genetic connectivity among osprey populations and consequences for conservation: philopatry versus dispersal as key factors - Conservation Genetics .
Working Group Avian Checklists | International Ornithologists' Union .
Click to expand...
I disagree science is taking a back seat to politics in this instance. The outlying branch seems to be the American population, not the Eastern Osprey, at least according to:

Monti F, Duriez O, Arnal V, Dominici JM, Sforzi A, Fusani L, Gremillet D, Montgelard C (2015) Being cosmopolitan: evolutionary history and phylogeography of a specialized raptor, the osprey Pandion haliaetus. BMC Evol Biol 15:255

Another option would be to split Osprey into three species. Monti et al states that it "appeared to be genetically split in three main groups: Australasia, America and Palearctic between which gene flow is almost non-existent.” However, the initial radiation is rather young, 1,2 MYA. I’d say a lump is a wise choice for now.
 
gusasp said:
Another option would be to split Osprey into three species. Monti et al states that it "appeared to be genetically split in three main groups: Australasia, America and Palearctic between which gene flow is almost non-existent.” However, the initial radiation is rather young, 1,2 MYA. I’d say a lump is a wise choice for now.
Click to expand...

Four mtDNA haplogroups have been identified, corresponding to populations of America, Australasia, eastern Asia, and the rest of Eurasia+Africa (early studies found only three, but had no data from eastern Asia):
...but 2 of these 4 haplogroups (eastern Asia, the rest of Eurasia+Africa) were subsequently found not to differ from one another in microsatellites (while the others did):
The relationships between these groups are not satisfactorily resolved -- possibly in part because the different splits happened shortly ofter each other, quite likely also in part due to no closely-related outgroup being available for the analyses. I do not read Monti et al. 2015 as providing any clear evidence that one of the group is "the outlying branch". (See their Fig. 2b, where the Australian group is basal. Note also their explicit warning: "Because of the uncertainty with regard to the relative branching order of these clades (see Results), patterns of colonization phases should be considered as tentative.") I agree it should be one or three, not two.


(The recent history of the treatment of this group is actually fraught with misquotations of a couple of initial works, where a 3+-way split had been suggested :
  • 2004: Wink & Sauer-Gürth wrote that "it would be possible to treat the New World, Eurasian and Australian Ospreys as distinct species."; Wink et al (despite their study did not actually include any ridgwayi sample) wrote that their results "support the suggestion, that the geographically defined subspecies may be recognised as distinct species: P. haliaetus, P. carolinensis, P. ridgwayi, P. cristatus".
  • 2008: Christidis & Boles accepted a three-way split, which they attributed to Wink & Sauer-Gürth 2004 (who may be read as having suggested such a split) and Wink et al 2004 (who had suggested turning all the 4 subspecies into full species). Consistent with this, in their work (which was about Australian birds only), Christidis & Boles treated the Australian taxon explicitly as "Pandion cristatus (Eastern Osprey)". ("This, combined with small, but consistent, differences in plumage and morphology, led Wink et al. (2004a) and Wink and Sauer-Gürth (2004) to suggest that three species of Pandion could be recognised. Acceptance of this recommendation means that Australian birds become Pandion cristatus (Eastern Osprey).")
  • 2009: IOC v2.0 accepted a two-way split (not clearly based on any actual evidence), citing Wink et al 2004 (who had suggested turning all the 4 subspecies into full species) and Christidis & Boles 2008 (who had accepted a three-way split).
  • 2013: Dickinson & Remsen (H&M4-1) cited Wink et al 2004 (who had suggested turning all the 4 subspecies into full species) and Christidis & Boles 2008 (who had accepted a three-way split), as having treated cristatus as a separate species; they were silent about the treatments as separate species that had been suggested by the same authors for other subspecies.
  • 2014: del Hoyo & Collar (HBW/BLI illustrated check-list) wrote: "Proposal that races represent three species (on basis of morphological and genetic differences) ¹⁹⁴⁵ requires further study. Recent trend to separate shorter-winged, whiter-headed and streakier-breasted race cristatus as a full species ²⁹⁸, largely on genetic grounds ¹⁹⁴⁵, requires fuller review of evidence." -- where ref. ¹⁹⁴⁵ was Wink et al 2004 and ref. ²⁹⁸ was Christidis & Boles 2008. IOW, they cited Wink et al 2004 (who had suggested turning all the 4 subspecies into full species) as having suggested a three-way split, and Christidis & Boles 2008 (who had accepted a three-way split) as having started a "trend" to accept a two-way split (which was actually started by IOC). They did not split the species, but nevertheless proposed a two-way division (not clearly based on any actual evidence) into an "Eastern Osprey" group and a "Western Osprey" group, without any additional explanation.
)
 
Last edited:
June 7 Move Brazilian Ruby from Clytolaema to Heliodoxa with the merger of the genera.

June 7 Accept lump of Caqueta Seedeater with Wing-barred Seedeater.
MJB
 
June 14 Accept lump of Eastern and Western Ospreys. Restore English name to simply "Osprey".

June 14 Accept split of Tagula Manucode from Glossy-mantled Manucode.

June 14 Accept lump of Abbott's Sunbird with Souimanga Sunbird.

June 14 Accept lump of Pere David's Owl with Ural Owl.

June 14 Accept split of Kangean Tit-babbler from Grey-cheeked Tit-babbler.
 
opisska said:
And there is a thread already quoting a paper arguing to split it back :)
Click to expand...
If this is a reference to the Costa Rican article, I should note that is a case where the authors literally state than an argument for 1 species is just as valid as 4. They don't actually favor a 2-way split however. So not sure I would say its being argued :p
 
Interestingly (?), a facebook group I am part of is already terming this update to be the "Great Lump of 2022", although so far it has nothing on the big AOU lump in the 70's.
 
Mysticete said:
If this is a reference to the Costa Rican article, I should note that is a case where the authors literally state than an argument for 1 species is just as valid as 4. They don't actually favor a 2-way split however. So not sure I would say its being argued :p
Click to expand...
And I suppose the species limits are different on the Costa Rican source? Old vs New World instead of Australia vs everywhere else?
 

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