birding-aus Re: RFI some Australian subspecies

[(Mike Tarburton)]

Daniel Philippe wrote:

>Australian Swiflet in Daintree. Is it Collocalia spodiogygius terraereginae
>or terraereginae chillagoensis?


In Daintree you can be pretty sure you were seeing Aerodramus spodiopygius
terraereginae.  If you were inland near Chillagoe or further north around
the Mitchell-Palmer cave Districts where I do much of my research then you
would be seeing A.s. chillagoensis.

This is the stance taken by HANZAB.  Those swiftlets that can echolocate
were placed in Aerodramus by Brooke in 1972 and the new DNA work (and
Parasite studies) done by Dale and colleagues from Oxford, verify this as a
good distinction.  Many people have not grasped this distinction and still
place all swiftlets in Collocalia - which is where esculenta belongs for it
cannot echolocate.

Happy birding

Mike T.


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