Hello Mexican Duck! Good-bye Northwestern Crow!
Written by Andy McCormick
Andy McCormick, Volunteer and Former Board President of Eastside Audubon
The annual supplement to the American Ornithological Society’s Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of North and Middle American Birds (NCAA) is published every August. This year’s supplement has two big changes for North American Birds.
NORTHWESTERN CROW
Many of us have traveled to Neah Bay or southern British Columbia to tic Northwestern Crow for our life lists. This location was considered solid for finding this unique crow with a more hoarse and lower pitched call than American Crow. This trek is no longer necessary as the NCAA has lumped Northwestern Crow with American Crow. Some birders might not miss this species, because they never considered it a species to begin with. However, I thought of it as a PNW oddity that attracted people to the search for it. Now the Northwestern Crow is considered a “geographic trend” and not a species or even a subspecies. It is tough to be downgraded like this. It reminds me of when Pluto lost its planet status and became a dwarf planet. What’s wrong with being small?
MEXICAN DUCK
Mexican Duck photo by Bryant Olson
The Mexican Duck (Anas diazi) was considered its own species prior to 1983 when it was lumped with the Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos). However, new genetic evidence was presented to the NCAA, which has agreed that the Mexican Duck should have full species status again. Nevertheless, identification of the Mexican Duck will remain a problem. Along with the American Black Duck and Mottled Duck, the Mexican Duck is a dark brown Mallard-like duck. The adult looks like a dark female Mallard with an all-yellow bill, i.e., there is no black saddle on the bill.
WARBING AND SWINHOE’S WHTE-EYES
Warbing White-Eye photo by Penelope Kipps
Anyone birding in Hawaii was assured of finding the ubiquitous introduced Japanese White-Eye, a small green warbler-like bird with a bright white eye ring. A split in the white-eyes became necessary when genetics showed that the Chinese population, now Swinhoe’s White-Eye, is more closely related to the north African white-eye, now Abyssinian White-Eye, than it was to the Japanese population, now Warbling White-Eye. The white-eye of Hawaii is now the Warbling White-Eye. To add to the confusion a population of white-eyes is expanding its range in Southern California. Identification of this population has not been exactly determined, but Michael Retter of the American Birding Association thinks observations point to it being Swinhoe’s White-Eye. A future AOS Supplement will make a final determination.
Now, you might ask, who is Swinhoe and why is this bird named after him? Robert Swinhoe (1836-1877) was an English diplomat and naturalist whose main job was as a consul for the British government in several parts of China. In his spare time, he collected 3,700 specimens, many of which were new to science, which he brought to England and they reside in the Liverpool Museum. Fifteen species of birds, four mammals, and four species of reptiles are named after him. Prior to his service as consul, he served as a translator in two British actions against the Chinese in North China in 1858 and 1860 during the Second Opium War (Wikipedia). The Chinese may not approve of using his name for this bird, and there is also a movement afoot to end eponyms as names for birds in the United States. It would not surprise me if renaming of Swinhoe’s White-Eye was proposed to the NCAA in the near future. For more on this topic, please see Changing Honorific Bird Names in the August issue of The Corvid Crier.
OTHER NCAA CHANGES
The Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus) has been split with the name being maintained in the North American species, and the West African species named West African Crested Tern (Thalasseus albididorsalis). The Bumblebee Hummingbird (Selasphorus heloisa) and Wine-throated Hummingbird (Selasphorus ellioti) have been added to the genus Selasphorus. Their former genus Atthis has been closed. This follows Howell and Webb’s Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America (1995). There are other changes affecting Central American birds. For a good rundown of these changes, from which much of this information was gleaned, see The 2020 AOS Supplement is out! by Michael Retter on the American Birding Association website.
Photo credit Mick Thompson, Bryant Olson and Penelope Kipps. References available upon request from amccormick@eastsideaudubon.org.