Treecreeper question (1 Viewer)

[MLoyko]

Hello,

I'm sitting here in the museum that I help out at and I'm on a specimen that is onfusing me. It is a Treecreeper but the information on the card has me confused.

It reads:

Common name: California Creeper
Old Genus: Certhia Old Species: familiaris Old Sub: zelotes
Collected: Salem, Ore.
Date: 9/14/24

Now I typed the latin name into the database and it came up Eurasian Treecreeper. So I preceeded to look that up in the European guide and it matched as Treecreeper (same Latin name). In the book however, somebody wrote in pen, an arrow pointing from tree creeper to hand written Brown Creeper with a side note saying "No different species (at present)"

Because of location collected I should go with Brown Creeper right? Although the Latin name is not correct on the card?

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Birdingcraft]

In pencil on the card, I would write Brown Creeper with its scientific name. At the time the bird was collected, both taxa may have been viewed as conspecific.

 

[MLoyko]

Thatnks Patrick,

The professor from across the hall (Dr. Daniel Klem) just stopped by to check on me and I asked him about it. He told me because of the location (Oregon) that I should write it in as Brown Creeper but write a side note that the latin name is of Eurasin Creeper.

I'm here alone this time because the guy I help out had to leave for an emergency so I'm trying to do the best I can with my little experience here.

Thank you for your help,
Matt

 

[bitterntwisted]

In pencil on the card, I would write Brown Creeper with its scientific name. At the time the bird was collected, both taxa may have been viewed as conspecific.

I tried to google my way to finding that out but failed. I don't know when americana was described or elevated to species level but it could well have been after 1924. You could try asking in the taxonomy and nomenclature subforum. Those chaps have access to all the nomenclatural history.

Graham

 

[MLoyko]

I tried to google my way to finding that out but failed. I don't know when americana was described or elevated to species level but it could well have been after 1924. You could try asking in the taxonomy and nomenclature subforum. Those chaps have access to all the nomenclatural history.

Graham

Thanks for the tip Graham, I will try to do that as soon as I find the time.

 

[Richard Klim]

Americana was once regarded as a subspecies of Certhia familiaris - eg, AOU 1957 (Check-list 5th Edition) and Voous 1977 (List of Recent Holarctic Bird Species).

But it had been elevated to a full species by the time of the AOU Check-list 6th Edition (1983) - don't know exactly when.

Ref. The History of North American Bird Names in the American Ornithologists' Union Checklists 1886 - 2000:
http://darwiniana.org/zoo/AOUmenu.htm

Richard

 

[MLoyko]

Thanks Delia for moving this thread to this forum :t:

 

[prattw]

As recently as 1980 (Peterson's Eastern Fieldguide, 4th ed.) American creepers were treated as sspp. of C. familiaris. The ssp zelotes is found in the Cascades, Sierras and south into the Transverse and (I think) the Peninsular ranges. So your bird would today be Certhia americanus zelotes but then was properly Certhia familiaris zelotes.

Will

 

[MLoyko]

Thanks Will,

So I was right in writing down Brown Creeper..... Thanks for everyone's help.

 

[mb1848]

Stolen from http://worldbirdinfo.net .

Certhia americana Bonaparte, 1838, A geographical and comparative list of the birds of Europe and North America, p.11. (Eastern & northern parts of North America. New name for Certhia familiaris Audubon, 1838. Note: Certhia americana was generally treated as conspecific with Certhia familiaris. But Thielcke,1962, Journal für Ornithologie, 103, pp.266-71 and Baptista & Johnson,1982, Journal für Ornithologie, 123, pp.131-44 showed that americana was specifically distinct. The split was accepted in American Ornithologist’s Union, 1983, Checklist of North American Birds, 6th edn, p.520.)

Certhia familiaris zelotes Osgood, 1901, Auk, 18,p.182. (Battle Creek,Tehoma County,California.)

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v018n02/p0179-p0185.pdf

 

[joannec]

Thatnks Patrick,

The professor from across the hall (Dr. Daniel Klem) just stopped by to check on me and I asked him about it. He told me because of the location (Oregon) that I should write it in as Brown Creeper but write a side note that the latin name is of Eurasin Creeper.

I'm here alone this time because the guy I help out had to leave for an emergency so I'm trying to do the best I can with my little experience here.

Thank you for your help,
Matt

It sounds like interesting and useful work you're doing Matt, nice to hear about a young guy like you getting so involved. :t: Which museum is it? Perhaps you could tell us sometime more of what you're doing, maybe a diary thread.

 

[MLoyko]

Thanks Joanne, I'm glad to do it. It's actually the Acopian Center for Ornithology located at Muhlenberg College in Allentown PA, USA. Here is the website http://www.muhlenberg.edu/depts/biology/faculty/klem/ACO/aco.htm you can read all about it.

That threads sounds like a good idea.

 

[Mysticete]

on a related note, there was a poster at the AOU meetings a few years back which suggested the Brown Creeper be split into 4 species, Eastern, an Arizona/Mexico species, Rocky Mountains, and Pacific Coast

 

[Daniel Philippe]

on a related note, there was a poster at the AOU meetings a few years back which suggested the Brown Creeper be split into 4 species, Eastern, an Arizona/Mexico species, Rocky Mountains, and Pacific Coast

This ?

Speciation in North American Certhiid(s): is the Brown Creeper a single morphologically diverse species?

GARTH M. SPELLMAN, Biol. Dept., Black Hills State Univ., Spearfish, SD, and JOHN KLICKA, Barrick Mus. Nat. Hist., Univ. Nevada, Las Vegas, NV.

Cryptic plumage coloration due to adaptation to their microhabitat has confounded the study of species limits in the family Certhiidae. In fact, the sole North American representative of the family, the
Brown Creeper (Certhia americana) was only recently elevated to species status based on vocalization differences between it and its closest Old World relatives, C. familiaris and C. brachydactyla (Thielcke 1962, J. Orn. 103:266-271; Baptista & Johnson 1982, J. Orn. 123:131-144.). These same studies remarked that although there exists evidence of considerable vocal variation within North America, geographic sampling across subspecies boundaries was inadequate to address taxonomic questions within the species. Recently, it has been demonstrated that molecular phylogenies closely track vocal variation and species limits in Old World Certhiids (Tietze et al. 2006, Ibis 148:477-488). In this study, we apply a multi-locus phylogeographic analysis of genetic variation within the Brown Creeper to infer its evolutionary history and address questions of species limits in North America. Phylogenetic analyses identify 4 reciprocally monophyletic clades that correspond geographically with the regional North American coniferous forests. The observed deep phylogenetic structure indicates the existence of more than one species of Brown Creeper in North America. This hypothesis could be tested through a thorough study of vocal variation within and between populations in the divergent clades.

One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Stated Meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union
9 - 11 August 2007
At The University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY

 

[Mysticete]

That would be it.

 

[Richard Klim]

Interesting. I guess that Spellman & Klickas' clades would give something like:

• Certhia (americana) occidentalis 'Pacific Brown Creeper' (including alascensis, stewarti, zelotes, phillipsi)
• Certhia (americana) montana 'Mountain Brown Creeper' (including leucosticta)
• Certhia (americana) americana 'Eastern Brown Creeper' (including nigrescens)
• Certhia (americana) albescens 'Mexican Brown Creeper' (including alticola, pernigra, extima)

Sibley 2000 and Alderfer 2006 (Complete Birds of North America) suggest three groupings (western, eastern, Mexican); while Harrap 2008 (HBW13) and Harrap & Quinn 1996 (Tits, Nuthatches & Treecreepers) note a marked difference between northern and Mexican birds.

Incidentally, although americana was previously lumped within C familiaris, it has long been suggested and recently verified that its closest relative is actually C brachydactyla:

Tietze, Martens & Sun 2006. Molecular phylogeny of treecreepers (Certhia) detects hidden diversity. Ibis.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118619804/abstract​

Richard

 

[Mysticete]

sounds about right

Treecreepers seem to exhibit the same or similar phylogenetic patterns as quite a few NA birds, including White-breasted Nuthatch, Mountain Chickadee, and Steller's Jay. Who knows what sort of splits we might have in the future as people start analyzing these in more detail.

 

[mb1848]

Klicka & Spellman et al did another poster:
Cryptic genetic variation in a coniferous forest management indicator species (Aves, Certhiidae: Certhia americana).
Garth M. Spellman, Raeann Mettler, Shane Sarver, and John Klicka
at UCLA in May 2007.
http://www.ioe.ucla.edu/ctr/symposium/posters.html .
Garth M. Spellman1,2, Raeann Mettler1,2, Shane Sarver1,2 and John Klicka3. Cryptic genetic variation in
a coniferous forest management indicator species (Aves, Certhiidae: Certhia americana). 1Center
for the Conservation of Biological Resources, Black Hills State University, USA; 2Western South Dakota
Core DNA Lab, Biology Department, Black Hills State University, USA; 3Marjorie Barrick Museum of
Natural History, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.
Contemporary forest management practice incorporates the use of indicator species, taxa sensitive to
deforestation, to assess forest health following timber harvests and forest regeneration. Owing to its
widespread distribution and need for primary or late secondary growth forest, the Brown Creeper (Certhia
Americana) is a common indicator species used in the management of North American coniferous forests.
However, little is known concerning the biology, especially the evolutionary biology, of this species. A lack
of knowledge concerning the evolutionary history of the Brown Creeper could lead to a misinterpretation of
the life history and relative abundance data used to guide management decisions. In this study, we
employ a multi-locus phylogeographic analysis of genetic variation of the Brown Creeper throughout its
range to infer its evolutionary history. Phylogenetic analysis of combined mitochondrial and nuclear DNA
sequence datasets identifies four reciprocally monophyletic clades. These clades correspond
geographically with the regional North American coniferous forests (Eastern North America, Rocky
Mountains and Great Basin Ranges, Sierra Nevada and Cascades Mountains, and the Mountain ranges of
Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras). The phylogeographic structure of the Brown Creeper in these
regional forests should be accounted for in its continued use as an indicator species.

 

[Farnboro John]

From the fun Europeans had with treecreeper calls (mixed singers, individual birds copying the wrong adults and learning entirely the wrong song etc) I would be a bit dubious of any American taxonomic work on Treecreepers adducing songs and calls as evidence for splits.

John

 

[Mysticete]

No...if you really wanted to test one versus multiple species, you would really have to look into what degree of hybridization occurs in areas where the different subspecies meet. Much more time intensive, but worth doing.