Hi Greg,
The world listers are mostly Americans and they use Clements as the
default. The new edition is disappointing as they have missed so much
recent work and seem to have largely halted in 2002, and the names
are a nightmare as the Americans have renamed loads of Australasian
and African birds so they are different to the standard regional
field guides- cultural imperialism lives! Still, updates are promised
every 6 months or so, and the first one is going to be huge if they
stick to it.
it's also worth looking at Howard and Moore, which was the original
checklist that had all the subspecies, though the 2003 edition opts
to be conservative with the taxonomy and there have been no updates
since.
Nothing is perfect, and the default is sorry to say Clements, though
he does have a lot of the new Oz splits this time round, (as does H &
M where Dick Schodde did this region). You can use either to record
your sightings. Essentially you then have to update each as and
when, but the on-line updates promised for Clements used to work well
in the past. Clements gives you 203 families in the new edition (204
in the 5th), H& M give 194, and this is significant for world listers
and collectors of families.
]Hope this helps.
Cheers
Phil
On 06/09/2007, at 10:32 AM, Gregory Little wrote:
Phil
You mention the world classification/taxonomy texts by "Clements" and
"Howard and Moore" plus "Schodde and Mason" for Australia. I am
looking
at getting one of the world classification texts ie the recently
published Clements. As far as I know there are three or four that are
commonly used. It appears that you have these or have access to and
know
something of them. Could you please advice which would be the best to
get and why. I suppose different people have their favourites.
Greg Little
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Sue & Phil
Gregory
Sent: Thursday, 6 September 2007 9:23 AM
To: Dave Sargeant
Cc: Birding Aus
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Grey Whistlers
hi Dave,
Just came in the tail end of this- essentially Clements new edition
is in error (again!), he has a peninsulae taxon listed under both
this and Grey-headed Whistler, in the 5th edition simplex was
monotypic and called Gray Whistler ( 'cos it's brown with no grey in
the plumage of course!). Howard and Moore combine them all.
The birds in PNG and New Guinea are often called Grey-headed
Whistler if split, and the Directory of Australian Birds has a good
discussion on the merits of splitting the group- unfortunately they
put them all in simplex, which is where the 6th Clements P. simplex
peninsulae derives from.
Only two forms are non-flavenoid, simplex in the NT and dubia in East
New Guinea, separated by flavenoid forms (put in Grey-headed Whistler
if split). Birds on the Kai Is (rufipennis) seem somewhat
intermediate and Schodde and Mason lump them all.
This may be premature and the vocal data ought to be investigated, it
seems to me that the NT birds sound quite different, and DNA stuff
would also help I'm sure.
Regards
Phil Gregory
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