Subject: [Tweeters] [BIRDWG01] Grey-bellied Brant is now named! (fwd)
Date: Dec 9 14:28:38 2013
From: Ian Paulsen - birdbooker at zipcon.net


HI ALL:
Saw this on another lsitserver. Here's the info from BONA website:

B. b. orientalis Tugarinov, 1941, the Black Brant. Includes B. torquata
(Blakiston and Pryer, 1878), and B. b. orientalis Tugarinov, 1941. Breeds
from low Arctic of w. North America to high Arctic of e. Russia [type
locality = e. Siberia]; winters along the Pacific Coast, from se. Alaska
to central Baja California (Bellrose 1980, Subcommittee on Pacific Brant
1992, Sedinger et al. 1993). Broadly similar to B. b. bernicla, but belly
blackish (contrasting little with breast and extending past legs), white
fringes on flanks broad but restricted to rear flanks to form a distinct
white patch, dorsum fuscous (i.e., blacker brown), and necklace wider and
typically complete.

B. b. nigricans (Lawrence, 1846), the Gray-bellied or Lawrences Brant.
Includes B. torquata (Blakiston and Pryer, 1878). Breeds on the Parry
Islands (Melville, Prince Patrick, and Borden) in the high Arctic of w.
Canada and winters chiefly on Puget Sound (Boyd and Maltby 1979, Reed et
al. 1989a), although a few winter records are from the Atlantic Coast
(Delcour and Zimmer 1952, Buckley and Mitra 2002) [type locality = Egg
Harbor, New Jersey]. Similar to B. b. orientalis, but belly dark gray
(contrasting more with black breast) and less extensive (terminating at
legs), upper breast and flanks scaly (like on B. b. hrota), and white
fringes on flanks broad and more extensive, and necklace wider and
typically complete.

sincerely
--

Ian Paulsen
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
Visit my BIRDBOOKER REPORT blog here:
http://birdbookerreport.blogspot.com/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2013 12:22:18 -0800
From: Alvaro Jaramillo <chucao at COASTSIDE.NET>
To: BIRDWG01 at LISTSERV.KSU.EDU
Subject: [BIRDWG01] Grey-bellied Brant is now named!


Hi folks

?

? I just noticed that in the updated Birds of North America Online
(http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/337/articles/systematics), not
sure if you can view that without being a subscriber, that the subspecific
systematics of the brant has been changed. Now Black Brant is subspecies
orientalis, based on a Siberian type locality. The Grey-bellied Brant which
has been this unnamed form that winters in the Puget Sound area, now takes
the name nigricans previously used for the Black Brant. The type for this
subspecies is in New Jersey! So finally the Grey-bellied Brant has some
taxonomic rank. I don?t know if the type actually is a Grey-bellied Brant,
that is another issue, but it certainly was not a Black Brant. Note that
subspecific taxonomy is not governed by any group within North America, the
AOU does not do it, and therefore BNA is about as official as you can get.

?

Discussion on some of the issues relating to the names here:

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=2883642#post2883642

?

regards,

?

Alvaro

?

Alvaro Jaramillo

alvaro at alvarosadventures.com

www.alvarosadventures.com

?

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