The IOC still treats Southern Boobook (Australian mainland) and Morepork (New
Zeakand, Tasmania and formerly Norfolk) as 2 different species. It was recently
discussed whether or not to split the Tasmanian form leucopsis from the NZ form
novaeseelandiae, and split the Wet Tropics form lurida from the mainland form
boobook. As a matter of process the IOC always places notices on the web site
indicating POTENTIAL splits, lumps, name changes to encourage discussion and
get feedback. In this case, the reason for the proposed split was to follow
Howard & Moore. It turns out that there is not much evidence for support,
so Frank Gill has decided to wait for further research that is underway by
Frank Reindt et al. This could be some time away. I think it is unlikely that
Reindt will recommend splitting lurida because the calls of lurida are
indistinguishable from boobook. Not sure what is position is regarding
leucopsis.
Anyway, this highlights that changes proposed on the IOC notifications pages
are not set in stone UNTIL they are incorporated in a quarterly update of the
checklist.
Cheers,
David James
Sydney
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