Category: Uncategorized
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Should the Red Grouse be split from Willow Ptarmigan?
There’s some part of me that couldn’t help but get a bit patriotic when the IOC announced that the Red Grouse (Lagopus (lagopus) scotica) would be split from the Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus). On face value, it seemed an obvious choice, with large moult and plumage differences between the two putative species. The sources used…
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A comprehensive guide to learning field identification, songs and calls prior to arrival at a new birding destination
DISCLAIMER: I AM MIGRATING MY WEBSITE AND DURING THE PROCESS, SOME IMAGES AND MEDIA HAVE BEEN LOST FROM MY POSTS, THE POSTS REMAIN ONLINE BUT BE AWARE THAT SOME CONTENT MAY BE MISSING. PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER, I WILL TRY TO UPDATE THE POSTS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE The way most of us learned the…
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In defence of splitters: ‘taxonomy gone crazy’ or exciting advances in scientific understanding?
After reading two papers providing compelling evidence for a three-way dunnock split, satisfied with the methods and conclusions reached, I sat down, downloaded the PDFs of each of the papers and got ready to annotate them, ready to draft a new post on the blog. However, a quick google search later, and I quickly became…
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Identification of the ‘Lesser Whitethroat’ species complex
The Lesser Whitethroat complex is, well, complex. Apart from althaea and perhaps the odd margelanica, identification of this group is a nightmare and is the key reason as to why the taxa will be lumped back into one species by the IOC in version 13.2. While large periods of time have separated certain races, phenotypic…
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Taxonomy of the Lesser Whitethroat complex: a review of the current literature
Desert Whitethroat (Curruca minula), Hume’s Whitethroat (C. althaea) and Lesser Whitethroat (C. curruca) have been lumped by the IOC just years after their initial split. What new research, if any, supports this decision? And what research justified their initial split in the first place? This time last year, a sleep deprived me found himself in…
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Mediterranean Shearwater lump: no more Yelkouan and Balearic?
As a kid studying my battered copy of Collins Bird Guide, shearwaters and petrels always confused me. The prospect of a pelagic or even a scope to use for seawatching seemed impossible to me, so my only choice was to read about them and compare plates instead of actually going out and seeking them. A…
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The Lesser Sand Plover split: a review of the supporting literature and identification of the resulting species.
UPDATE: I managed to get iframe embeds to work, so you no longer have to click quite as many links The IOC has recently accepted the proposed split of Lesser Sand Plover (Charadrius mongolus) into Siberian Sand Plover (C. mongolus) and Tibetan Sand Plover (C. atrifrons). Sand Plovers have always been notoriously hard to identify,…