birding-aus

[OB] "Eastern" Cattle Egret, Bubulcus coromandus

To: Jeff Davies <>
Subject: [OB] "Eastern" Cattle Egret, Bubulcus coromandus
From: Kumar Ghorpade <>
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2011 11:46:43 +0530 (IST)
Thanks Jeff.  Do please note in addition . . .
1)  The RIPLEY GUIDE (Vol. 2: 58) suggests that B. ibis "Could also occur in NW 
of region."
2)  Whistler's (posthumous) fine regional, 5-part faunistic paper on 
Afghanistan (see JBNHS 45: 462-485) makes NO mention of a Cattle Egret record 
from that country so that's that. Krys' best (very inclusive, if not critical 
like Pamela's) maps (2000: Plate 5) can be viewed for B. coromandus (as "ibis" 
!) recorded range.  I include Baluchistan and Afghanistan in my recognised 
Oriental region, also most of the Tibetan Plateau, and Burma at least west of 
the Irrawaddy river.  No regional monograph has been as inclusive and have 
omitted Burma and Afghanistan following previous authors and ignored 
biogeographical findings.  Like New Guinea and nearby islands are accepted as 
Oriental and NOT Australian in affinity.
3)   I have cautioned against a lackadaisical attitude to "mobility" and the 
power of flight of birds.  Recent findings have also given support to my own 
belief that migratory species do NOT have any chance of interbreeding in their 
winter haunts and remain reproductively isolated.  Many Motacilla flava 
"subspecies" I believe are good species !
4)  There is a wonderful paper on speciation in birds written by Salim Ali's 
"Guru" Erwin Stresemann and J. Arnold (1949; JBNHS 48: 428-443) which should 
clear all doubts of amateurs and confused professionals (there are several !!) 
about this quandary.  READ IT please.
5)  The Baluch-Afghan desert corridor is a little known geographical barrier 
and I am now analysing species identities of our Afrotropical source species 
(and races) for their true identities in our subcontinent.  Ticehurst 
highlighted what he called the "Great Palaearctic Desert" extending from the 
western Sahara to Mongolia and one of my favourite, classic, paper is of the 
great Allan Hume on the “Birds of Sindh” in his Stray Feathers (1: 44-49. 
91-289, map) that I think is a model for serious bird-watchers to try and 
emulate and prepare more accurate regional faunas like the dream, hope, of the 
legendary Gilbert White of England !  
     Small is beautiful, friends, and large countries or geographical areas are 
amenable, possible only to a  GENERAL documentation, even if attempted by a 
group of collaborators.  Amen. 



Dr Kumar Ghorpade (B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.), Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellow 
(1982-83)
Postal address: P.O. Box 221, K.C. Park Post Office, Dharwar 580 008, INDIA 

Currently: Post-Graduate Teacher & Research Associate in Systematic Entomology, 
University of Agricultural Sciences, Krishi Nagar, Dharwar 580 005, Karnataka, 
INDIA 
Editor : HUMEA, Field Ornithology (1993-), PERDICULA (Monthly Notes on 
Dravidian Ornithology 1999-)
Life member--Bombay Natural History Society, Madras Naturalists' Society, 
Birdwatchers Society of Andhra Pradesh, etc.

--- On Fri, 2/9/11, Jeff Davies <> wrote:


From: Jeff Davies <>
Subject: RE: [Birding-Aus] [OB] "Eastern" Cattle Egret, Bubulcus coromandus
To: "'Kumar Ghorpade'" <>, 
  
 
Date: Friday, 2 September, 2011, 9:25 AM


Thanks for that Kumar,

A search on the net for images of breeding birds easily confirms the separation 
point of the two taxa as Afganistan, it's very clear cut without a cline.
Looking at photos on the Net, nom. ibis can be traced all the way to northern 
Iran but a short distance away (by Cattle Egret standards) in Pakistan the 
birds are decidedly coromandus. I have looked for evidence of obvious hybrids 
and couldn't find it, but the missing piece in the jigsaw is Afghanistan, can't 
find any digital images from there, I wonder why that would be. If any birds do 
get either way across Afghanistan they aren't having any impact on the 
distribution of breeding plumage on head for either of the recipient 
populations which is very surprising considering their mobility and pioneering 
tendencies elsewhere. The DNA indicates two subspecies of a single species 
according to published data but something is preventing cline from one to the 
other of what is otherwise a very mobile taxon. Maybe it's a genetic standoff 
where neither ssp can invade the other with big enough numbers to effect a 
visual difference but when invading a Cattle Egret
 free zone like Australia or America for the first time you only need a handful 
of birds in theory to establish a new population. 
Are Cattle Egrets breeding anywhere in Afghanistan? they definitely occur 
there, this could be where the answer is to be found.
The above is decidedly unscientific in approach but does easily confirm the 
scenario as described by yourself. An interesting and perplexing subject and I 
look forward to the forthcoming paper in Dutch Birding by Bharat Jethva.

Cheers Jeff.




-----Original Message-----
From:  
 On Behalf Of Kumar Ghorpade
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2011 9:48 PM
To: ; ; 
; 
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] [OB] "Eastern" Cattle Egret, Bubulcus coromandus

Since I am currently working on a "Working Handlist of Indian Ornithology" 
(update of Ripley’s 1982 New Synopsis)  and preparing keys to polytypic species 
recorded in our subregion, may I offer some scientific FACTS on this question ?
NOTE :
1.  The Cattle Egret is better placed in the genus Bubulcus (non-aquatic, etc.) 
than in Ardea or Ardeola (aquatic, etc.), which latter genera are probably 
polyphyletic as currently used.
2.  B. coromandus and B. ibis are currently recognized to be separate species 
and also are allopatric as natural populations.
3.  Dickinson (2003: 87) gives B. ibis range as "Spain to Iran, N and C Africa 
to Mascarene and Seychelles Is.; E Nth. America, C and N Sth. America"  And 
that of B. coromandus as "India and Pakistan to S Japan, Philippines, 
Indonesia,” [further matter missing, lapsus ?]   
4.  The Australian populations are B. coromandus as per figures in Pizzey & 
Knight (2003: 112-113).  These authors state that colonization of the Northern 
Territory happened  “probably from Indonesia in 1940s as part of worldwide 
expansion.”  They curiously end with the word “cosmopolitan” which certainly is 
not quite correct!  Usual irresponsibility and carelessness of field-guiders! 
5.  Breeding birds are quite diagnostic in the two species, as reference to 
Sinclair et al. (2002: 62-63) will reveal from the breeding adult painting in 
that field guide to birds of southern Africa.
6.  Our latest and most carefully prepared reference guide (Rasmussen & 
Anderton, 2005) has data which will substantiate recognition of TWO, and not 
one, “cosmopolitan(!)” Cattle Egret species. The scientifically drafted text 
volume (Vol. 2, p. 58) by a well trained and experienced ornithologist states 
that “Consistent differences between Bubulcus ibis and B. coromandus in 
breeding plumage, proportions and vocalizations indicate they are better 
treated as two species.”  They write that B. coromandus was “self-introduced 
Australasia” and “once collected Chagos (Bourne 1971)” where it evidently 
occurred as a vagrant. In their field guide (Vol. 1, Plate 7 & 9) they 
characterize B. ibis as being “similar but stockier,  in breeding plumage with 
orange-buff mainly on crown, breast and mantle” ONLY and not more extensively 
as in B. coromandus.  In Vol. 1 they write that B. ibis “was introduced in 1955 
from Seychelles to Chagos, where
now well established.”    
    Being a trained systematic entomologist and a bird-watcher in India from 
1955, I believe our current species identities, mainly in guides prepared for a 
commercial amateur market, are doubtful and not correctly diagnosed. I have 
made my point in a recent paper (2011) in Current Science (100(7): 981-983).  
    Taxonomic research over the past 300 years or so has shown, to people who 
can understand and accept, that speciation occurs over time principally by 
geographic isolation, carried out either by active dispersal or by passive 
vicariance.  Being highly mobile (like e.g., large birds of prey) does NOT mean 
that every species can migrate (or emigrate, like B. ibis into the Americas) 
“coolly” and expand ranges, as has been indicated, and cautioned, in research 
articles way back in the 19th Century. Diagnostic characters can also be very 
“minor” (for binocular/camera-enabled humans, without “bird-in-the-hand”) but 
they do exist between sibling and allopatric species which have unfortunately 
been “downgraded” as RACES by lazy/confused/tired persons from the “Rothschild 
Gang” (E. Hartert, K. Jordan) flooded with copious exotic material, and COPIED 
by subsequent authors to this day without proper taxonomic reviews being done 
or even
attempted.  Edward Dickinson and others are working on this in their 
“Systematic Notes on Asian Birds” being published in the Netherlands from 2000, 
but even these are nowhere near adequate as a working taxonomist like me should 
know and analyse!
    Dickinson’s (2003) World Checklist is a close to accurate, holistic work 
giving ALL so-called races currently worth a trinomial name, and not oblivion 
in synonymy.  For India and adjacent countries I am now engaged in finding out, 
with my expertise in insects, which of our “subspecies” are really good species 
and which others are just variants and within a cline, without population 
breaks into genetically distinct species. Even good photographs of diagnostic 
characters can help separate some of which are currently believed to be poorly 
differentiated races.  There is a lot of work in the field for amateur 
bird-watchers, but careful, honest, objective documentation is a prime 
requirement as also collaboration with experienced museum specialists with 
adequate databases (specimens, literature, etc.) at hand.  Cheers,              
              



Dr Kumar Ghorpade (B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.), Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellow 
(1982-83)
Postal address: P.O. Box 221, K.C. Park Post Office, Dharwar 580 008, INDIA 

Currently: Post-Graduate Teacher & Research Associate in Systematic Entomology, 
University of Agricultural Sciences, Krishi Nagar, Dharwar 580 005, Karnataka, 
INDIA 
Editor : HUMEA, Field Ornithology (1993-), PERDICULA (Monthly Notes on 
Dravidian Ornithology 1999-)
Life member--Bombay Natural History Society, Madras Naturalists' Society, 
Birdwatchers Society of Andhra Pradesh, etc.

--- On Tue, 30/8/11, Bharat Jethva <> wrote:


From: Bharat Jethva <>
Subject: Re: [OB] Eastern Cattle Egret
To:  "John Penhallurick" 
<>
Cc: "'Birding-aus'" <>
Date: Tuesday, 30 August, 2011, 1:17 PM


  




Dear Dr John Penhallurick,
I agree with you, I also don't think that it could be a separate species ! I 
hope they have done detailed research when they accept it !

Best wishesDr. Bharat Jethva

--- On Tue, 30/8/11, John Penhallurick <> wrote:

From: John Penhallurick <>
Subject: [OB] Eastern Cattle Egret
To: 
Cc: "'Birding-aus'" <>
Date: Tuesday, 30 August, 2011, 12:39 PM



Hi friends,

I have been surprised to see that some authorities, including

worldbirdnames, have accepted the split of the Eastern Cattle Egret from the

taxon found in the rest of the world. Given the way that Cattle Egrets have

spread so widely around the world in such a relatively short time, I find it

hard to believe that gene flow could have been interrupted long enoguh for a

new species to emerge.

I would welcome any thoughts.

Dr John Penhallurick

86 Bingley Cres

Fraser A.C.T. 2615

Australia

email:

Phone: Home (612) 62585428

Mobile:0408585426

sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt Aeneid Book 1,line 462 "The

world is a world of tears, and the burdens of mortality touch the heart."

Magna est veritas et praevilabit Vulgate, Book of Edras

Si vis pacem para bellum Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publius_Flavius_Vegetius_Renatus> 's De Re

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Re_Militari> Militari, book 3

Please visit my website:http://www.worldbirdinfo.net

Please also visit my blog at

http://jpenhall.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/proof-that-there-is-not-a-scrap-of-

evidence-in-favour-of-the-ipccs-attack-on-carbon-dioxide/

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


__._,_.___

Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic 
Messages in this topic (2) 
Recent Activity: 

New Members 3 
Visit Your Group 
This group is run in association with the Oriental Bird Club. To find out more 
about the Club and its conservation work, and to become a member, please visit 
www.orientalbirdclub.org 

MARKETPLACE

A bad score is 579. A good idea is checking yours at freecreditscore.com. 

Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use


. 

__,_._,___



===============================

To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 

http://birding-aus.org
===============================

===============================

To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 

http://birding-aus.org
===============================
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU