Aves—A Taxonomy in Flux

Archives of ‘What's New’ Items

The updates for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019-2022 have been archived separately.

2023-4 Additions and Subtractions

Based on scientific names.

2024 Splits (11)

1. Brown Andean Tinamou, Nothoprocta oustaleti
2. Great Eared-Nightjar, Lyncornis cerviniceps
3. Sulawesi Eared-Nightjar, Lyncornis macropterus
4. Franklin's Nightjar, Caprimulgus monticolus
5. Chirruping Nightjar, Caprimulgus griseatus
6. African Striated Heron, Butorides atricapilla
7. Arabian Striated Heron, Butorides brevipes
8. Asian Striated Heron, Butorides javanica
9. Australasian Striated Heron, Butorides macrorhyncha
10. Great White Heron, Ardea occidentalis
11. Magellanic Snipe, Gallinago magellanica

2023 Splits (8)

1. Hispaniolan Nightjar, Antrostomus ekmani
2. Hudsonian Whimbrel, Numenius hudsonicus
3. Foveaux Shag, Leucocarbo stewarti
4. Velvety Manakin, Lepidothrix velutina
5. Maupiti Monarch Monarcha maupitiensis
6. Cuban Palm-Crow, Corvus minutus
7. Puerto Rican Euphonia, Cyanophonia sclateri
8. Lesser Antillean Euphonia, Cyanophonia flavifrons

2024 Lumps (2)

1. Vaurie's Nightjar, Caprimulgus centralasicus, has been merged into the European Nightjar, Caprimulgus europaeus
2. The Ruwenzori Nightjar, Caprimulgus ruwenzorii, is now considered a subspecies of the Montane Nightjar, Caprimulgus poliocephalus

2023 Lumps (3)

1. The Kerguelen Shag, Leucocarbo verrucosus, has been merged into the Subantarctic Shag, Leucocarbo purpurascens.
2. The Macquarie Shag, Leucocarbo purpurascens, has also been merged into the Subantarctic Shag, Leucocarbo purpurascens.
3. The Chatham Shag, Leucocarbo onslowi is now included in the Otago Shag, Leucocarbo chalconotus

2023 New English Name (1)

1. Philippine Eared-Nightjar, Lyncornis macrotis instead of Great Eared-Nightjar

IOC English Names

Although I started with the Howard-Moore list, I am now using the IOC list as a baseline. Every species gets an IOC-style name. That doesn't mean its the only name, or that it exactly matches the IOC name. Four percent of the species have two names. This usually happens because of differences between the IOC name and the AOU name (NACC or SACC). In such cases, I usually give the IOC name second, even in cases where I think the AOU name is stupid (E.g., redstarts for the Myioborus whitestarts). A few other non-IOC names have also been retained.

Some IOC-style names don't exactly match the true IOC name due to differences in taxonomy. For example, the IOC recognizes two species of Laniisoma—Brazilian Laniisoma and Andean Laniisoma. In this case, I currently follow SACC taxonomy which has only one Laniisoma. However, their English name is entirely different (Shrike-like Cotinga). Keeping in mind that the species has been known as the Elegant Mourner, I added the IOC-ish English name Elegant Laniisoma.

The IOC-style names have been fully Americanized (gray, not grey; AOU-style hyphenation). I'm also a little more aggressive than AOU in adding hyphens to break up two-part names that don't scan well. I also favor hyphens when it makes the “last name” of the bird clear. Hyphens greatly improve the results when sorting bird names by last name. I know some people fight flame wars about it, but to me, bird names that differ only in hyphenation and/or American vs. British spelling, such as Grey Pileated Finch and Gray Pileated-Finch, are essentially identical (and are the IOC name).

Spreadsheets

Stephen Nawrocki has updated his enhanced excel spreadsheet of the TIF world list to Version 2.79. Numbering now matches the csv files.

AOS petition opposing the decision to remove eponymous bird names

Those who are opposed in part or in full to the AOS decision to remove eponymous bird names (or at least those referring to people) may be interested in signing the petition on change.org.

The change.org website includes some comments. I'd like to highlight a comment that Steve Howell linked to in his own comment. I found particularly good: this one,

April 2024

April 5

Bird Orders I'm adopting the new Stiller et al. (2024) phylogeny of the bird orders. I had been planning to switch to Kuhl et al. (2021), but changed my mind after Stiller et al. appeared. Both seem to have broken though the polytomy that had left the modern avian tree of life in a state of confusion. Mirarab et al. (2024) explains that the problem wasn't just incomplete lineage sorting.

There are some differences between the two trees, but at at ordinal level, most of those involve branches where the support is a little soft (i.e., less than 100%). I think these papers (and the companion piece Mirarab et al.) have taken a big step forward. I don't have much reason to prefer one over the other, but I had choose one, and figured I'd rather bet on Stiller et al.

I've kept the same 47 orders that represent most of the avian lineages that became separate by the very early Eocene. (Yes, I know I left out the Odontopterygiformes.) In fact, most of these lineages were already distinct in the Paleocene, and a few, perhaps only 3, survived the rock that crashed into the Yucatan near Chicxulub about 66.8 million years ago, killing the dinosaurs (except a few bird lineages) and many other organisms.

It will take a while to put in all the changes into effect, especially those below the ordinal level. As a teaser, I give you two pdfs, both for Stiller and Kuhl, à la TiF.

• Click here for the Stiller tree
• Click here for the Kuhl tree.

Both phylogenies use TiF orders (unlike the papers). The red stars on the Stiller tree indicate places where the two trees differ and the numbers are the number of species in each order.

February 2024

February 25

Tinamous: The new arrangement of the Tinamidae follows Figure 2 of Musher et al. (2024). The current species tree marks the species with new DNA data using bright red asterisks. Only one species was not sampled, the Slaty-breasted Tinamou, Tinamus boucardi. Its placement reflects hybridization in Honduras with the Thicket Tinamou, Tinamus cinnamomeus (Monroe, 1968).

Besides reordering the tinamous, the Musher et al. tree suggests that the Andean Tinamou, Nothoprocta pentlandii, represents two non-sister species. In Birds of the High Andes, Fjeldså and Krabbe (1990) noted that the Andean Tinamou consists of a brownish group of subspecies and a grayish group. Accordingly, I've split the Andean Tinamou, Nothoprocta pentlandii, into two species:

• Brown Andean Tinamou, Nothoprocta oustaleti, containing subspecies fulvescens, oustaleti, niethammeri, and ambiguua and
• Gray Andean Tinamou, Nothoprocta pentlandii, containing the remaining subspecies: pentlandii, patriciae, doeringi, and mendozae.

[Tinamiformes, Palaeognathae: Ratites and Tinamous, 3.04]

February 20

South American Snipe: I needed to make an adjustment to the TiF list because of my trip to Tierra del Fuego in late January. Specifically, I recognized the SACC split of South American Snipe, Gallinago paraguaiae into Pantanal Snipe, Gallinago paraguaiae and Magellanic Snipe, Gallinago magellanica (which I saw). See Miller et al. (2019) and SACC Proposal #843.
[Scolopacidae, Charadriiformes, Gruae II, 3.07]

January 2024

January 20

Agami Heron: The Agami Heron, Agamia agami, is once again placed in its own subfamily, Agamiinae. See Hruska et al. (2023). The name Unfortunately, Kushlan and Hancock did not provide a description of Agamiinae when they proposed it in 2005. Sangster et al. (2023) recently did so, and it is now Agamiinae Sangster, Kushlan, Gregory, and Dickinson, 2023.
[Ardeiformes, Ardeae II, 3.10]

Forest Bittern: Hruska et al. (2023) found that the Forest Bittern, Zonerodius heliosylus, is most likely sister to Ardeola.
[Ardeiformes, Ardeae II, 3.10]

Stripe-backed Bittern: The Stripe-backed Bittern, Ixobrychus involucris, has been moved to the genus Botaurus. See Päckert et al. (2014), Huang et al. (2016) and Hruska et al. (2023). Not sure why it took me so long to notice. The Stripe-backed Bittern had been ambiguously placed in some analyses.
[Ardeiformes, Ardeae II, 3.10]

Striated Herons: I've split the Striated Heron, Butorides striata into five taxa:

• American Striated Heron, Butorides striata
• African Striated Heron, Butorides atricapilla
• Arabian Striated Heron, Butorides brevipes
• Asian Striated Heron, Butorides javanica
• Australasian Striated Heron, Butorides macrorhyncha.

[Ardeiformes, Ardeae II, 3.10]

Casmerodius expanded: Casmerodius has been expanded to include Mesophoyx and the White-necked Heron, formerly Ardea pacifica.
[Ardeiformes, Ardeae II, 3.10]

Great White Heron: I've split the Great White Heron, Ardea occidentalis, from the Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias. I had been on the fence about splitting them for some time. One thing that bothered me was how the two taxa could remain separate in spite of breeding in close proximity. I didn't appreciate that they used the method used by a number of seabirds. They don't breed at the same time of the year. This helps keep them separate, and has pushed me off the fence.
[Ardeiformes, Ardeae II, 3.10]

Approximate Species Tree: I've provided an approximate species tree for the herons, egrets, and bitterns. There are still some taxa that are uncertainly placed, but I think we know enough to make constructing the tree a useful exercise. I've reordered the species list to match it.
[Ardeiformes, Ardeae II, 3.10]

January 12

Nightjars: Families Because of both the age of certain nightjar genera and biogeographic considerations, I've split Caprimulgidae into 4 families: Eurostopodidae, Lyncornithidae, Gactornithidae, and a restricted Caprimulgidae. The first three each include only a single genus.

The now restricted Caprimulgidae includes many genera which fall into 4 subfamilies: Neotropical nighthawks and nightjars (Nyctidrominae), an American subfamily containing the poorwills and paruaques (Antrostominae), the nighthawks (Chordeilinae), and a complex group of Old World nightjars (Caprimulginae). [Caprimulgiformes, Strisores I, 3.04]

Eurostopodidae: I've reordered the Eurostopodidae based on a partial phylogeny combined with geography.
[Eurostopodidae, Strisores I, 3.04]

Lyncornithidae: Sangster et al. (2022) argued that the Great Eared-Nightjar, Lyncornis macrotis, should be split into 4 species. I'm not convinced by one of those splits due to the similarity of the sonograms, but have accepted the other two. This means that the Great Eared Nightjar is split into three species:

• Great Eared-Nightjar, Lyncornis cerviniceps
• Philippine Eared-Nightjar, Lyncornis macrotis
• Sulawesi Eared-Nightjar, Lyncornis macropterus

[Lyncornithidae, Strisores I, 3.04]

Nightjars: Splits and Lumps Schweizer et al. (2020) showed that Vaurie's Nightjar, Caprimulgus centralasicus, is a form of the European Nightjar, Caprimulgus europaeus, likely of subspecies plumipes.

The Ruwenzori Nightjar, Caprimulgus ruwenzorii, has been merged into the Montane Nightjar, Caprimulgus poliocephalus. See Jackson (2014).

Based on Sangster et al. (2021c), both Franklin's Nightjar, Caprimulgus monticolus (including amoyensis and stictomus) Chirruping Nightjar, Caprimulgus griseatus (including mindanensis), are split from Savanna Nightjar, Caprimulgus affinis (including propinquus and timorensis).
[Caprimulgidae, Strisores I, 3.04]

Caprimulgus: I've reordered the narrow genus Caprimulgus based on a partial phylogeny combined with geography.
[Caprimulgidae, Strisores I, 3.04]

Rufous Potoo: The Rufous Potoo is rather divergent from the other potoos. As a result it gets its own new genus, Phyllaemulor. The genus was established by Costa et al. (2018).
[Nyctibiidae, Strisores I, 3.04]

Short-tailed Frogmouth: I changed the English name of Batrachostomus poliolophus, which previously split from Bornean Frogmouth, Batrachostomus mixtus. It is now Sumatran Frogmouth, not Short-tailed Frogmouth.
[Podargidae, Strisores I, 3.04]

Owlet-nightjars: I've elevated the owlet-nightjars to their own order, Aegotheliformes, as on the IOC list. This means that Apodiformes is now restricted to the treeswifts, swifts, and hummingbirds.
[Aegotheliformes, Strisores I, 3.04]

New Zealand Owlet-nightjar: I've included the extinct New Zealand Owlet-nightjar, Aegotheles novaezealandiae. See Holdaway et al. (2002) for more about this species. Dumbacher et al. (2003) were able to obtain DNA, hence the position on the tree.
[Aegothelidae, Strisores I, 3.04]

December 2023

December 31

Great and Japanese Cormorants: I had previously split the Great Cormorant into several species on the grounds that it included the Japanese Cormorant, Phalacrocorax capillatus. Recently, Sangster and Luksenburg (2023) showed that the samples in Hondo et al. (2022) actually came from a Great Cormorant. I suspect the same is true of those used by Rawlence et al. (2022) and Kennedy et al. (2023). As a result I have undone the split, leaving only the Great Cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo and White-breasted Cormorant, Phalacrocorax lucidus, as in version 14.1 of the IOC list.
[Phalacrocoracidae, Aequornithes II, 3.09]

December 13

Lithornithiformes: Recent work (e.g., Worthy et al., 2017; Yonezawa et al., 2017). suggests that the Lithornithiformes are sister to rest of the known Paleognaths, rather than being sister to the Tinamiformes. Whether this is correct remains uncertain. A mesozoic Lithornithidae fossil would resolve the question quickly, but there aren't any. See also Nesbitt and Clarke (2016) and Widrig and Field (2022) for more on the Lithornithiformes.
[Palaeognathae: Ratites and Tinamous, 3.04]

Rheas: After the Ostriches, the Paleognaths split into three groups, the (1) rheas, (2) tinamous (and the recently extinct moas), and (3) cassowaries, emus, and kiwis. These groups all separated over a short time period near the beginning of the Paleogene. The next question is which of the three groups separated first? Previously, I went with a coalescent tree rather than a concatenated tree, on the grounds they they are coalescent tree more reliable. That showed the Rheas grouping with group (3), sister to group (2). Further analysis has shown that for once, the coalescent method got it wrong, with incomplete lineage sorting playing a role. The rheas separated first, with groups (2) and (3) sister to each other.
[Rheas?, Palaeognathae: Ratites and Tinamous, 3.04]

Kiwis: I've added a tree for the Kiwis.
[Apterygiformes, Palaeognathae: Ratites and Tinamous, 3.04]

Tinamous, type of Tinamus: The big change is that I now strictly follow the ICZN Code for Tinamus. This means the type is soui, not major. As a result, the new Tinamus contains most of the species previously included in Crypturellus, but none that previously in Tinamus. The old Tinamus is now Cryptura. For the present, this will unfortunately cause some confusion when comparing with other lists.

I've added a species level phylogenetic tree for the Tinamous. Among other changes, I have followed Figure S5 (corrected, not S4) for the taxa that have available DNA, and have added the taxa without DNA based on the trees including morphological data — Figure 2 and Figures S6-S9. E.g., berlepschi is placed sister to cinereus as the genus Crypturus. These are the two former Crypturellus species that did not move to Tinamus. The only species that was not placed this way was the Gray-legged Tinamou, Tinamus duidae, where I had to make an educated guess to place it.
[Tinamiformes, Palaeognathae: Ratites and Tinamous, 3.04]

Maupiti Monarch: Historically, Pomarea pomarea has been used for both birds from Tahiti and Maupiti. Dickinson et al. (2019) argued that the Maupiti Monarch, Monarcha pomareus, Lesson and Garnot, 1828, should be restricted to the Tahitian birds, and that Monarcha maupitiensis, Garnot, 1829, should be used for the Maupiti birds. Finally, the Muscicapa nigra Sparrman, 1785 has priority over Muscicapa pomarea so the Tahitian birds are called Monarcha niger.
[Monarchidae, Corvida III (Corvoidea), 3.05a]

September 2023

September 12

Higher Phylogeny: The current TiF higher phylogeny attempts to avoid grouping orders that don't belong together. A number of relevant papers have appeared since I last revisited it. Sad to say, most have not really indicated solid improvements over the current TiF phylogeny. One that seemed promising to me was Kuhl et al. (2021), but after spending a lot of time studying it, I just wasn't convinced by some of their higher-level groupings. In other words, the Hoatzin problem is still a problem!

Pluvialidae: I've changed the attribution of Pluvialidae from MacGillivray 1852 to Wood 1836.
[Pluvialidae, Charadriiformes, 3.06b]

Sulidae: I've also changed the attribution of Sulidae to Wood 1836.
[Sulidae, Aequornithes II, 3.08]

Indo-Atlantic Shag Phylogeny, Yet Again! Although I'd thought I'd been backed into an unpleasant position, that turned out to not be so. First, Keith Bennett explained to me that my conclusions about the glacial maxima and cormorant survival were just wrong.

That shifted my big problem to the condition of the estimated phylogeny from Rawlence et al. (2022). Almost all of it had insufficient posterior support, which made many nodes essentially meaningless. However, in their supplementary information, I noticed Figure S1.1.F. The key information is in the phylogeny below.

Indo-Atlantic Blue-eyed Shags, by Island
Excerpted and abstracted from Figure S1.1.F, Rawlence et al. (2022), supplementary material.

Although they use 10 genes in their full analysis, 5 nuclear and 5 mitochondrial, the nuclear genes introduce a lot of noise while adding little insight. We can see that in the poor posterior probabilities. In contrast, the mitochondrial tree (Fig. S1.1.F) is pretty clean. Most nodes have posterior probabilities of 98% and above. It's almost the same tree as in their article. The biggest discrepancy is the position of the Crozet melanognis sample. See the abstracted tree in the cormorant account. Even though the position is odd, its support, though weak, is much stronger here. Other than improved posterior probabilities, The New Zealand portion is unaffected.

Dividing the Indo-Atlantic clade into species and subspecies as before, I ended up with

• Falkland Cormorant, L. albiventer
• Imperial Cormorant, L. atriceps
• South Georgia Shag, L. georgianus, with a possible unnamed subspecies in the South Orkneys
• Crozet Shag, L. melanogenis
• Antarctic Shag, L. bransfieldensis, including a and a possible subspecies of melanogenis on Marion and Prince Edward Islands
• Subantarctic Shag, L. purpurascens including nivalis and verrucosus

This was a lot of complication to get a phylogeny that's pretty similar to the Aug. 6 update! However, I'm now much more confident about the basic phylogeny (except for the Crozet Shag). I've also put some material in the text to explain better why I lumped onslowi into L. chalconotus.

[Phalacrocoracidae, Aequornithes II, 3.08]

August 2023

August 24

I've made some changes based on the 64th supplement to the AOS checklist, plus made a couple of housekeeping changes.

Antrostomus Nightjars: Following the AOS 64th supplement, I've split the Greater Antillean Nightjar, Antrostomus cubanensis, into Cuban Nightjar, Antrostomus cubanensis and Hispaniolan Nightjar, Antrostomus ekmani. This split is based on better information concerning vocalizations.
[Caprimulgidae, Strisores I, 3.03]

Lepidothrix Manakins: Based on Moncrieff et al. (2022), Harvey et al. (2020), SACC, and AOS Supplement 64. I've split the Blue-crowned Manakin, Lepidothrix coronata into Velvety Manakin, Lepidothrix velutina, and Blue-capped Manakin , Lepidothrix coronata. I've also reordered the Lepidothrix manakins based on Moncrieff et al. (2022).
[Pipridae, Tyrannida I, Pipridae, 3.01]

Western Flycatcher, Empidonax difficilis: I need to consider futher before endorsing the lump of Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Empidonax difficilis and Cordilleran Flycatcher, Empidonax occidentalis as Western Flycatcher, Empidonax difficilis. I don't have anything concrete, but it kind of reminds me of the Northern Oriole lump, perhaps because most of the breeding range is clearly either Cordilleran or Pacific-slope territory.

Palm Crows: Following the AOS 64th supplement, I've split the Palm Crow, Corvus palmarum, into Cuban Palm-Crow, Corvus minutus and Hispaniolan Palm-Crow, Corvus palmarum. This split is primarily based on new information concerning vocalizations.
[Corvidae, Corvida III, Corvoidea, 3.05]

Finches: Euphonias: Due mainly to plumage differences between the subspecies, the Antillean Euphonia, Cyanophonia musica, has been split into Hispaniolan Euphonia, Cyanophonia musica, Puerto Rican Euphonia, Cyanophonia sclateri), and Lesser Antillean Euphonia, Cyanophonia flavifrons, following the 64th AOS Supplement.

Finches: Haemorhous: The genus name Erythrospiza Bonaparte 1830, type purpurea (Purple Finch) has priority over Haemorhous Swainson 1837.

Finches: Redpoll: I had previously called the unified redpolls the Holarctic Redpoll to emphasize their unification. I had meant to change that to Redpoll later, but forgot. Well, now the only redpoll species recognized by TiF is called the Redpoll, Acanthis flammea.

[Fringillidae, Core Passeroidea II, 3.07]

August 9

New Genus Name (Burhinidae): Černý, van Els, Natale, and Gregory (2023) proposed a new genus name for one of the thick-knees (Burhinidae). The name is Hesperoburhinus and the type is bistriatus. I had previously called these "Burhinus" for lack of a proper name.
> [Burhinidae, Charadriiformes, 3.06a]

Numenius: The whimbrels and curlews have been rearranged based on Tan et al. (2023). Also, I have split the Whimbrel, Numenius phaeopus, into Eurasian Whimbrel, Numenius phaeopus, and Hudsonian Whimbrel, Numenius hudsonicus, based on Tan et al. (2019).
[Scolopacidae, Charadriiformes, 3.06a]

Genetic Data: There are a lot of species where Černý and Natale (2022) could not find usable DNA. The TiF shorebird species trees now mark all species where Černý and Natale (2022) did have DNA with a trailing red star. Black stars indicate DNA from other sources I consulted. Most Numenius have red stars. All have black stars due to Tan et al. (2023).

Cormorants: Genus Updates I decided to follow the suggestion from Jim LeNomenclatoriste on BirdForum to add two more genera for two cormorants that are on relatively long branches and are sufficiently different from the other birds they shared a genus with to get their own genus. Thus

• Little Pied Cormorant, Microcarbo melanoleucos, moves to the monotypic genus Melanocarbo (Bernstein, 1883).
• Brandt's Cormorant, Urile penicillatus, moves to the monotypic genus Compsohalieus (Baird, Brewer, & Ridgway, 1884).

Indo-Atlantic Shag Phylogeny (Again): In the end, I decided that this part of the Rawlence et al. (2022) phylogeny was just too unreliable. The Bayesian posterior probabilities are way too low to put any credence in it. Since all of these taxa are quite new, since the last glacial maximum, I decided to treat them as subspecies. There's no trustworthy data for them, and I just distributed them one way they used to be. Thus

• The taxa georgianus, bransfieldensis, and nivalis are treated as subspecies of the Imperial Cormorant, Leucocarbo atriceps.
• The taxa melanogenis, verrucosus and purpurascens are treated as subspecies of the Falkland Cormorant, Leucocarbo albiventer.

[Phalacrocoracidae, Aequornithes II, 3.07a]

August 6

Cormorants: Genus Updates This took longer than expected to write up, partly because writing it up convinced me to take a closer look at certain issues. The key papers are Kennedy et al. (2023) and Rawlence et al. (2022). We start with the genus changes:

• The Long-tailed Cormorant / Reed Cormorant, Afrocarbo africanus Crowned Cormorant, Afrocarbo coronatus are transferred to genus Afrocarbo (Kennedy et al., 2023), type coronatus.
• The extinct Spectacled or Pallas's Cormorant, Phalacrocorax perspicillatus is transferred to the monotypic genus Pallasicarbo (Coues, 1899).
• Brandt's Cormorant, Phalacrocorax penicillatus, Pelagic Cormorant, Phalacrocorax pelagicus, and Red-faced Cormorant, Phalacrocorax urile are transferred to genus Urile (Bonaparte, 1855), type urile.
• The European Shag, Gulosus aristotelis, is transferred to the monotypic genus Gulosus (Montagu, 1813).
• The Flightless Cormorant, Phalacrocorax harrisi, Neotropic Cormorant, Phalacrocorax brasilianus, and Double-crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus are transferred to genus Nannopterum (Sharpe, 1899), type harrisi.
• Finally, the remainder of the cormorants, consisting of the Magellan Cormorant or Rock Shag, Phalacrocorax magellanicus through the Macquarie Shag, Phalacrocorax purpurascens are transferred to genus Leucocarbo (Bonaparte, 1857), type bougainvillii.

The next order of business is to correct the specific epithet of the Guanay Cormorant, Leucocarbo bougainvillii to bougainvilliorum. See Elliot (2020).

Cormorants: Splits and Lumps

I've split the Great Cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo, into 4 species:

1. North Atlantic Cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo
2. Moroccan Cormorant, Phalacrocorax maroccanus
3. Australasian Cormorant, Phalacrocorax novaehollandiae
4. Eurasian Cormornat, Phalacrocorax sinensis, including hanedae

The Great Cormorant complex also includes the Japanese Cormorant, Phalacrocorax capillatus, and the previously split White-breasted Cormorant, Phalacrocorax lucidus.

There are several changes in Leucocarbo. First, I've split the Foveaux Shag, Leucocarbo stewarti from Leucocarbo chalconotus. Finally, there are also 4 lumps:

1. The Chatham Shag, Leucocarbo onslowi is now included in the Otago Shag, Leucocarbo chalconotus
2. The Antarctic Shag, Leucocarbo bransfieldensis, and the Crozet Shag, Leucocarbo melanogenis, have been merged as Antarctic Shag, Leucocarbo melanogenis.
3. The Kerguelen Shag, Leucocarbo verrucosus, Heard Island Shag, Leucocarbo nivalis, and Macquarie Shag, Leucocarbo purpurascens have been merged as Subantarctic Shag, Leucocarbo purpurascens.

One last comment is that I can't see how the phylogeny of the South American and Indo-Atlantic shags can be reconciled with the subantarctic islands being uninhabitable by shags as recently as the previous glacial maximum, which ended about 20k years ago. Something must be wrong here, but I'm not sure what it could be.

[Phalacrocoracidae, Aequornithes II, 3.07]

July 2023

July 25

Loons: There's only one relevant work on Loons, Sprengelmeyer's (2014) MA thesis. He provided a complete phylogeny, and also found that the split between the Red-throated Loon and the others occurred over 20 million years ago. Obviously, subfamilies are needed. I've moved the Red-throated Loon to genus Eudytes (Illiger, 1811) and subfamily Eudytinae.

[Gaviidae, Aequornithes I, 3.07]

Update, July 29: Unfortunately, Eudytes doesn't work. I had thought that the type had been established by Ogilvie-Grant (1898), but Reichenbach (1853) got there first, and established the type as articus (Arctic Loon). This means there is no available name for a genus consisting solely of the Red-throated Loon. As a result, I'm using "Gavia", which is not to be confused with Gavia.

[Gaviidae, Aequornithes I, 3.07a]

July 22

Anhingas and Darters: Based on Kennedy et al. (2019), I've placed the darters in the genus Notoplotus (Matthews, 1920), type novaehollandiae, and also split the family into two subfamilies in view of the long separation between the Anhinga and the Darters. The arrangement of species is based on Kennedy et al.

[Anhingidae, Aequornithes II, 3.06b]

Onychospina, not "Miliaria": As often happens, corrections breed further corrections. People on BirdForum were quick to point out that Onychospina (Gray 1855) is available for "Miliaria" fucata. I've updated the list accordingly.

[Emberizidae, Core Passeroidea III, 3.07a]

July 20

Retirement. I'm retiring from teaching at the end of the summer, which should give me time to update the TiF list. The big thing on my todo list is a group of corrections to the last update of Emberizidae.

Emberizidae — Old World Buntings, Revisited: When I last changed this, some of the genus names were incorrect as pointed out on BirdForum. This left it in an unsettled state. I start by correcting the genus names. Since this was last updated, two relevent papers have appeared. The first is Cai et al. (2021) which has prompted me to rearranged the subfamilies and move the Brown-rumped Bunting to incertae sedis status. Finally, the paper by Li et al. forced me to take another look at Godlewski's and Sharpes Buntings.

1. We start with the genus name updates:
   • The correct type of Polymitra is capensis, making it a junior synonym of Fringillaria. As a result the 3 species previously listed as genus Polymitra have moved to genus Cosmospina (Wolters 1972, type flaviventris).
   • The types of Orospina Kaup 1829 and Spina Kaup 1829 appear to be unidentifiable. This makes the names invalid. As a result, Orospina is replaced by Ocyris (Hodgson 1845, type pusillus), affecting 9 species.
   • The type of Spina (Kaup 1829) also seems unidentifiable, making the name invalid. Spina is replaced by "Miliaria", which Barker et al. (2015) place (distantly) sister to Miliaria (affects 1 species).
2. Based on Cai et al. (2021) I've made some changes to the branching order. This better reflects the amount of support for the branches and incorporates the new information from Cai et al. The subfamily "Fringillariinae" is remains the basal branch, but "Melophinae" is now sister to "Schoeniclinae" rather than Emberizinae; Emberizinae is sister to both.
3. Cai et al. did not have sufficient reliable DNA to accurately place the Brown-rumped Bunting.
   • Although various sequences have been analyzed as if they belong to this species, it seems that only the cytochrome-b actually does. It was used by separately by Laurent Raty (BirdForum) and Päckert et al. (2020b), with conflicting results.
   • It is certainly an Emberizid, and most likely is near Fringillaria. As a result, I'm now calling the Brown-rumped Bunting "Fringillaria" affinis.
4. Li et al. (2023) took a closer look at the Godlewski's, Sharpe's and Rock Bunting (godlewski, yunnanensis, and cia) situation, sampling a number of birds from each group. Oddly enough, although they identified the same groups, they got a different phylogeny than Päckert et al. (2015). I follow the Li et al. analysis, and include both khamensis and styani in yunnansis. I also place the Rock Bunting closer to Sharpe's than to Godlewski's (the opposite of Päckert et al.).

[Emberizidae, Core Passeroidea III, 3.07]