G'day,
Browsing through the birding-aus archives, as I do, I noticed the recent
correspondence about Koel names. I've been meaning to seek advice for some
time now (and have bent Tom Tarrant's ear on occasions) and Tom's recent
email has inspired me to put finger to keyboard. Incidentally, the email
address this is sent from is a 'send-only' address. Please send any replies
that are not to the list, on this and any subsequent queries about Buckley's
Hole, to This is not a personal address so
please don't send unrelated topics to it - thanks.
I am in the process of producing an anotated checklist for the birds of
Buckley's Hole, Bribie Island, SE Queensland. More on that later. And I
find it so frustrating to have to use (if you are conforming to the Birds
Australia guidelines) nomenclature and taxonomy that seems inconsistent with
much of the civilised world. I have many visitors from the UK and the USA
and I feel embarrassed to tell them, for instance, that we still think we
have Richard's Pipit in Australia. The Birds Australia Draft List, issued
14/2/03, contains the latest proposed albatross taxonomy, not accepted by
many authorities, but does not take onboard decisions made in the
international arena 10-15 years ago.
I want to take the current Australian approach and have used this BA
nomenclature and taxonomy in my checklist. I have, however, included an
additional section as an appendix (see below). If anyone out there can tell
me if Birds Australia intends to update its way of thinking to be consistent
with the line taken by the international birding community, please let me
know. Note that there are several other proposed splits but these are the
ones that are relevant to Buckley's Hole.
"Alternative taxonomic proposals have been made that conflict with the
species list recently issued by Birds Australia. It is not within the scope
of this booklet to elaborate further, but it does seem that the taxonomy
adopted by Birds Australia is somewhat dated and lacks credibility in some
instances, although some of the proposed splits are not yet widely accepted
and established. A few of the proposed changes follow.
Australian Darter (Anhinga novaehollandiae) replaces Darter (A.
melanogaster).
Black-backed Bittern (Ixobrychus novaezelandiae) replaces Little Bittern (I.
minutus).
White-headed Stilt (Himantopus leucocephalus) replaces Black-winged Stilt
(H. himantopus).
Australian Koel (Eudynamys cyanocephala) replaces Common Koel (E.
scolopacea).
Eastern (Crested) Shrike-tit (Falcunculus frontatus) replaces Crested
Shrike-tit (F. frontatus), which has been split to form three species.
Little Cuckoo-shrike (Coracina robusta) replaces White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike
(C. papuensis).
Australian Pipit (Anthus australis) replaces Australasian Pipit (A.
novaeseelandiae), formerly Richard's Pipit (A. novaeseelandiae) - now (A.
richardi).
Australian Reed-warbler (Acrocephalus australis) replaces Clamorous
Reed-warbler (A. stentoreus)."
I note that the new Slater field guide contains Australian Reed-warbler and
Australian Pipit (I didn't check everything). Does he know something that I
don't know? Incidentally, when a new edition of a field guide is released,
it's gratifying to see previous errors corrected, especially glaring ones.
So I turned to see if Black Currawong had lost its white wing-bar. Alas,
no. Or is it evolving to conform to the illustration?
Cheers - Trevor.
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