|
Bird Classification Changes
AOU Check-list Supplement (mailed to AOU members March,
1996)
The Auk 112(3):819-830, 1995
FORTIETH SUPPLEMENT TO THE AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS'UNION
CHECK-LIST OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS
This sixth supplement after the publication of the sixth
edition (1983) of the AOU Checklist of North American Birds
includes changes adopted by the Committee on Classification
and Nomenclature between 1 March 1993 and 15 March 1995.
Changes to the sixth edition fall into six categories:
(1) 6 species are added to the main list because of new
distributional information, including one transferred from
Appendix A and three from Appendix B (Anser erythropus,
Aerodramus vanikorensis = Collocalia bartschi, Machetornis
rixosus, Motacilla citreola, Emberiza leucocephalos, and
Carduelis spinus);
(2) 19 species are added to the main list because of the
splitting of species previously on the list (Leptotila
wellsi, Caprimulgus badius, Nyctibius jamaicensis,
Anthracothorax veraguensis, Chlorostilbon auriceps,
Chlorostilbon forficatus, Colaptes chrysoides, Contopus
pallidus, Contopus hispaniolensis, Aphelocoma californica,
Aphlecoma insularis, Catharus bicknelli, Saltator
striatipectus, Pipilo maculatus, Ammodramus nelsoni, Icterus
bullockii, Icterus abeillei, Hemignathus kauaiensis, and
Hemignathus chloris);
(3) 3 species are changed by being split from an
extralimital form (Pterodroma feae, Collocalia bartschii,
and Piculus callopterus);
(4) 5 scientific names are changed because of generic
reallocation (Ardea alba, Meleagris ocellata, Collocalia
bartschii, Progne tapera, and Saltator grossus);
(5) a corrected spelling is provided for one specific
name (Pluvialis dominicus); and
(6) 13 English names are changed, 10 of them to conform
to the English names used in the sixth edition of the
Checklist of Birds of Britain and Ireland (British
Ornithologists' Union [BOU] 1992) for primarily Old World
species that occur only accidentally or casually in North
America.
Note that one species, formerly A erodramus vanikorensis
now recognized as Collocalia bartschii, is affected by
generic reallocation, a split from an extralimital species,
moving from Appendix B to the main list, and a change in the
English name. No distributional information except as it
affects the status of a species on the list is included. The
25 additions to the list bring the number of species
recognized as occurring within the Check-list area (main
list) to 1,993.
Literature that provides the basis for the Committee's
decisions is cited at the end of the Supplement. Literature
that is necessarily included in the revised species accounts
is cited in full within the account, in accord with the
format of the sixth edition.
Links
- Overview
of systems for encoding bird names
|