{"id":2259,"date":"2010-07-26T23:34:38","date_gmt":"2010-07-27T05:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/?p=2259"},"modified":"2010-09-15T13:30:43","modified_gmt":"2010-09-15T19:30:43","slug":"the-changes-are-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/archives\/2259","title":{"rendered":"The Changes Are In"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s July, and that means it’s time for the annual update to the American Ornithologists’ Union Checklist.\u00a0 That means the splits I blogged about recently<\/a> are now official.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 They do this whenever scientific studies (usually DNA studies these days) make it clear that birds currently classified in the same genus are not, in fact, each other’s closest relatives.\u00a0 Although most such splits this time around were based on DNA evidence, vocalizations also support most splits.\u00a0 Below we’ll take a quick survey of what’s changed and how audio was involved.<\/p>\n

Species split<\/h3>\n
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  1. Winter Wren is split into three species: Pacific Wren (Troglodytes pacificus<\/em>)<\/strong> in northwestern North America; Winter Wren (Troglodytes hiemalis<\/em>)<\/strong> in eastern North America; and Eurasian Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes<\/em>)<\/strong> in the Old World.\u00a0 Vocal differences were important in this split; see my older posts on how to separate Pacific from Winter Wrens by song<\/a> and call<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  2. Whip-poor-will is split into Mexican Whip-poor-will (Caprimulgus arizonae<\/em>)<\/strong> and Eastern Whip-poor-will (Caprimulgus vociferus<\/em>)<\/strong>. Vocal differences were important here as well; see my earlier post<\/a> on this topic.<\/li>\n
  3. Black Scoter is split into Black Scoter (Melanitta americana<\/em>)<\/strong> in the New World and Common Scoter (Melanitta nigra<\/em>)<\/strong> in the Old World.\u00a0 Once again vocal differences were key, and once again you can hear them in an earlier post<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    A couple of Latin American trogon species, the Greater Antillean Oriole, and the Elepaio of the Hawaiian islands were also split.<\/p>\n

    Changes in Genus<\/h3>\n

    “Brown” Towhees Move to Melozone<\/em><\/h4>\n

    Abert’s, Canyon, California, and White-throated Towhees will move from the genus Pipilo <\/em>to Melozone<\/em>, where they will join the Rusty-crowned, White-eared, and Prevost’s Ground-Sparrows. This genus split makes sense when you listen to the songs: the “brown” towhees sing with unmusical high-pitched trills and squeals that are very different from the rich, musical series of the “true” towhees.<\/p>\n

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