Just back from PNG, and apologies if this is old news- first, great to see BARC
being updated every 6 months, well done to David James and his team. Be
interested to see what BAERC will do with the new BirdLife version, see below:
On to more controversial matters- I just downloaded the BirdLife species
updates for their newly published non-passerines checklist, which is as
expected full of novelties. I picked up on 4 that affect us here, 3 of them no
great surprise but the split of Spinifex Pigeon was a shock i must admit.
Sadly many novel English names have been coined too, largely ignoring the work
that the IOC has been engaged upon for the past few years, time will tell how
tell all this will be received; I have to confess I still feel the cart has
been put before the horse and that the commentary process should have been
embarked upon much earlier rather than essentially doing a fait accomplit, and
then inviting comments. I also still think the Tobias morphology scoring system
(upon which the BirdLife scheme is so heavily predicated) does not work for
cryptic species like swiftets and meliphagas where the true picture is highly
complex and still being unravelled.
Anyway, welcome the 4 newcomers:
Black-shoudered Lapwing
Rufous-bellied Spinifex Pigeon
Australian Gull-billed Tern
Tasmanian Boobook
Just wait till you see the New Guinea picture, where Variable Dwarf Kingfisher
knock-offs alone leave this standing;
Good birding
Phil Gregory
Email:
Website 1: Http://www.sicklebillsafaris.com
Website 2: Http://www.cassowary-house.com.au
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