|> From: dpaulson at ups.edu (Dennis Paulson)
|> Subject: jaeger relationships
|>
|> Any more info? I remember the response of some birders when we were writing
|> about phylogenetic species ("let's keep it to one red crossbill, ok?"), and
|> I wonder what birders think of such taxonomic machinations (or what will
|> Michael Price write about it?).

For listers (not all birders are listers), the only relevant "taxonomic
machinations" are those at the species level. Whether a Pomarine Jaeger is
really a skua is not important. Now if taxonomists decide that the South
Polar Skuas in Californian waters really belong to two species, that's
a much more interesting matter ...
[ It is a fallacy that listers always want more splits. That's a purely
articifial way of adding to your life list. However, listers don't like
it if species get split and cause insurmountable ID problems - like
having to identify Red Crossbills by chip note. Dowitchers,
migrant Western Flycatchers, and meadowlarks are bad enough.]

Otherwise, birders are often seriously interested in taxonomy, and I am
certainly following all of these discussions with much interest.

As to the phalaropes, I don't see much of a problem. There is no reason
to change the common name of Wilson's Ph - after all "plover" or "sandpiper"
also covers more than one genus. So if taxonomists decide to place
Wilson's Ph in the monotypic genus Paraphalaropus, that may be interesting,
but not something to have any feelings about. To birders, a Barn Owl is
an owl, never mind whether taxonomy says they're a distinct family.

|> I also have mixed feelings about changing names to reflect phylogeny, not
|> that I don't think it is basically a good protocol, but because we will
|> probably continue to revise our knowledge of phylogeny and, accordingly,
|> name changing will never end. Will it be Diademed Sandpiper, Diademed
|> Plover, or Diademed Sandpiper-Plover? Tune in next year....

Agree completely. And not only because of uncertain (and therefore
constantly changing) relationships. If we do this renaming consistently,
we will soon be talking about TS's overhead instead of TV's.

Daan Sandee sandee at cmns.think.com
100 View St, Suite 101
Mountain View, CA 94041 (415) 254-5757