Guest post today by Walter Szeliga, who is starting to turn his audio recorder on some very interesting problems of identification and taxonomy. [Read more]
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Guest post today by Walter Szeliga, who is starting to turn his audio recorder on some very interesting problems of identification and taxonomy. [Read more] In 1989, the American Ornithologists’ Union split the Western Flycatcher into two species: Pacific-slope Flycatcher and Cordilleran Flycatcher. The conventional wisdom is that they are impossible to identify by plumage or structure, even in the hand. Voice is the only field mark. However, the situation with their vocalizations is quite messy, and worthy of an in-depth examination. [Read more] Many people think that what we call “Northern Pygmy-Owl” may contain somewhere between two and four species, based on regional differences in vocalizations. Nobody knows exactly where the changes between these songtypes occur, or how abrupt they are, because we just don’t have enough data. Now, my friend Arch McCallum is setting out to get to the bottom of this tricky situation — and you can help. [Read more] Recently, on a trip to Costa Rica, I was able to record the song of nominate Buffy Tuftedcheek. I was completely unprepared for how different it sounded from Pacific Tuftedcheek. I’ve posted a few cuts I got in Costa Rica on xeno-canto, and written a feature comparing them. [Read more] The AOU’s North American Checklist Committee has posted a set of proposals currently under consideration. The biggest surprise is a proposed split of Mountain Chickadee into two new species, partly on the basis of vocalizations — but I’m rather skeptical of the reported differences. [Read more] The AOU checklist committee recently rejected a proposal to split the Curve-billed Thrasher into two species: the “Palmer’s” Thrasher (palmeri group) in Arizona and West Mexico, and the nominate or “Eastern” Curve-billed Thrasher (curvirostre group) in the rest of the bird’s range. [Read more] I’ll admit I was crushed when Nathan wrote a feature for xeno-canto before I did. I have no one to blame but myself; it was pure laziness on my part that kept me from doing one. After I got over the bruised ego from him being first I got my act in gear and wrote one of my own. [Read more] Recently I explored some of the recent AOU species splits by comparing birdsongs. Today I want to look at a genus that the AOU dramatically chopped and reshuffled: the sparrow genus Aimophila. [Read more] It’s July, and that means it’s time for the annual update to the American Ornithologists’ Union Checklist. Besides the high-profile splits of Winter Wren, Whip-poor-will, and Black Scoter, the checklist committee also did some major rearranging of scientific names, splitting a number of genera and reassigning several species to a new genus. We’ll take a quick survey of what’s changed and how audio was involved. [Read more] Andrew’s recent post on Spruce Grouse sounds made this YouTube video into a particularly nice find. Shot by birding guide Khanh Tran in Washington state, it documents the double wing-clap display of the “Franklin’s” subspecies of the Spruce Grouse. Very little information on the display of Franklin’s Grouse is easily available; Khanh Tran’s video appears to be the only one of its kind online. [Read more] |
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