I have just returned from a family holiday in Southern Africa (mostly South
Africa) where I saw just over 300 species of birds. It was good birding
(and animalling) and I found the South Africans to be very friendly and
helpful people.
I used Sinclair's "Birds of Southern Africa", First (?) Edition, 1993,
which was the only guide in Andrew Isles' bookshop at the time. I resisted
the temptation to buy the Newman's Green Edition while in SA in order to
save weight. I am now trying to enter my sightings into BirdBase for
Windows data base and am having the usual troubles since Sinclair uses
Sibley and Ahlquist/Monroe (1990) while BirdBase uses Clements'
classification. I would much appreciate some help on the following
problems from either our South African members or others with SA knowledge.
Black Kite/Yellow-billed Kite: HANZAB Volume 2 suggests to me that the
Yellow-billed Kite is M. migrans parasitus, a subspecies of the Black Kite.
Is this the case?
Forest/Steppe/Common Buzzard: Sinclair has a Forest Buzzard, Buteo
tachardus, and a Steppe Buzzard, B. buteo which must be the local
subspecies of the Common Buzzard. Is the Forest Buzzard a full species?
Mossie/Cape Sparrow: BirdBase calls Passer melanurus the Mossie and P.
diffusus the Cape Sparrow. Sinclair has P. melanurus as the Cape Sparrow
and no P. diffusus. What is the correct common name?
Regards,
Gil Langfield
Melbourne, Australia
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