Goodbye northwestern crow, hello Mexican duck
Updates to the official list of North and Central American bird species


Date:
June 30, 2020
Source:
American Ornithological Society Publications Office
Summary:
The latest supplement to the American Ornithological Society's
Checklist of North and Middle American Birds includes several
major updates to the organization of the continent's bird species,
including the addition of the Mexican Duck and the removal of
the Northwestern Crow. The official authority on the names and
classification of the region's birds, the checklist is consulted
by birdwatchers and professional scientists alike and has been
published since 1886.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The latest supplement to the American Ornithological Society's Checklist
of North and Middle American Birds, published in The Auk: Ornithological Advances, includes several major updates to the organization of the
continent's bird species, including the addition of the Mexican Duck and
the removal of the Northwestern Crow. The official authority on the names
and classification of the region's birds, the checklist is consulted by birdwatchers and professional scientists alike and has been published
since 1886.


==========================================================================
The Northwestern Crow has long been considered a close cousin of the
more familiar and widespread American Crow, with a range limited to
the Pacific Northwest. However, a recent study on the genetics of the
two species prompted AOS's North American Classification Committee to
conclude that the two species are actually one and the same. "People
have speculated that the Northwestern Crow and the American Crow should
be lumped for a long time, so this won't be a surprise to a lot of
people," says the U.S. Geological Survey's Terry Chesser, chair of the committee. "Northwestern Crows were originally described based on size,
being smaller than the American Crow, and behavior, but over the years
the people who've looked at specimens or observed birds in the field have mostly come to the conclusion that the differences are inconsistent. Now
the genomic data have indicated that this is really variation within
a species, rather than two distinct species." However, birdwatchers disappointed to lose the Northwestern Crow from their life lists can
take solace in the addition of a new species to the official checklist:
the Mexican Duck. "The checklist recognized Mexican Duck until 1973,
when it was lumped with Mallard," says Chesser. "But the Mexican Duck
is part of a whole complex of Mallard-like species, including Mottled
Duck, American Black Duck, and Hawaiian Duck, and all of those are
considered distinct species except for, until recently, the Mexican
Duck. Now genomic data have been published on the complex and on the
Mexican Duck and Mallard in particular, and they show that gene flow
between them is limited, which was enough to convince the committee
to vote for the split." Additional changes introduced in this year's
checklist supplement include a massive reorganization of a group of
Central American hummingbirds known as the emeralds -- adding nine genera, deleting six others, and transferring seven additional species between already-recognized genera -- as well as an update to the criteria for
adding introduced, non-native species to the list that raises the bar
for introduced species to officially be considered established.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by American_Ornithological_Society_Publications_Office.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Kevin Winker, Douglas F Stotz, J V Remsen, Jr., Pamela C Rasmussen,
Nicholas A Mason, Irby J Lovette, Andrew W Kratter, Jon L
Dunn, Carla Cicero, Kevin J Burns, Shawn M Billerman, R Terry
Chesser. Sixty-first Supplement to the American Ornithological
Society's Check-list of North American Birds. The Auk, 2020; DOI:
10.1093/auk/ukaa030 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200630072051.htm

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