Agree re. Swan River Honeyeater John - that's why the name has been revised to
Gilbert's Honeyeater (by IOC and Clements at least). Western White-naped has
its own issues as I think it's genetically closer to Brown-headed than
White-naped
And you say "sometimes a geographical name is better than shorter one", but the
name you reject is also geographical.........I'd suggest more a case of looking
for an accurate and appropriate name!
J.
________________________________
From: Birding-Aus <> on behalf of
calyptorhynchus . <>
Sent: Sunday, 29 January 2017 10:40 AM
To:
Subject: names
This is a debate that's never going to end, but I would like to say that
sometimes a geographical name is better than shorter one. For example I
have in my records 'Western White-naped Honeyeater", reason, I refuse to
call it a Swan River Honeyeater, because it isn't found only on the Swan
River.
John Leonard
On 29 January 2017 at 13:36, Dave Torr <> wrote:
> As far as I know IOC does have an Aussie representative on their committee.
>
> I quite agree that BLA's names are weird and unlikely to be accepted. Why
> did they not just follow IOC or BLI rather than (badly) re-inventing a
> wheel.
>
> On 29 January 2017 at 11:32, Martin Cake <> wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> > I can understand the anger at having English names foisted on us from
> > overseas. But directing this anger at “the boffins” is rather
> misdirected.
> > Instead, take a look at the abysmal state of the processes we have (or
> > rather, don’t have) in Australia for naming birds when a new name is
> > required.
> >
> > If a species is split, one or the other half of the split needs a new
> > name, period. This occurs (mostly!) due to advances in taxonomic
> > understanding, not whims of scientific fancy. Moaning about this is like
> > shaking your fist at the incoming tide.
> >
> > But currently Birdlife Australia’s ‘English Name Committee’ subserviently
> > follows BirdLife International, which shows no sign of taking any notice
> of
> > their little Aussie cousin on either taxonomy or English names. Most
> field
> > guides on the other hand prefer to follow the IOC list, which generally
> > respects existing local usage and has some Australian input. But in
> either
> > case the English names will be decided overseas, without any official
> > mechanism for input from any sort of Australian ’names committee'.
> >
> > BLA could (and should) be proactive in forming local English names of
> > prospective splits before they occur. There is usually enough time
> between
> > scientific publication of evidence for a split, and its adoption by the
> > checklists, to provide some local advice on a new name. Instead BLA’s ENC
> > persists with the laughably absurd policy of giving every subspecies a
> > long-winded geographic name. For example Greg has recommended Satin Stork
> > for E. asiaticus australis to BLA’s ENC, but instead they currently have
> it
> > listed in the WLAB as “Torresian Black-necked Stork”. Just be thankful
> that
> > BirdLife International took no notice when splitting White-quilled
> > Honeyeater, ignoring WLAB’s recommended name of “Northern Blue-faced
> > Honeyeater”; Western Fieldwren (WLAB = “Western Wheatbelt Rufous
> > Fieldwren”); Paperbark Flycatcher (WLAB = “Northern Restless
> Flycatcher”);
> > or Kimberley Flyrobin (WLAB=“Western Lemon-bellied Flycatcher”).
> >
> > So instead of shaking your fist at the boffins, why not take a look at
> how
> > ineffectual BirdLife’s ENC is at actually naming Australian birds? We
> need
> > an Australian ENC that can respond quickly to the latest news in
> taxonomy,
> > and engage with the international checklist bodies like IOC and Clements.
> > And that is not likely to occur while BirdLife persists with the
> ridiculous
> > BirdLife/HBW/Tobias system of taxonomy, the root problem now and into the
> > future.
> >
> > Martin
> >
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--
John Leonard
Canberra
Australia
www.jleonard.net<http://www.jleonard.net>
I want to be with the 9,999 other things.
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