Taxonomic recommendations for British birds^†

Abstract

These recommendations of the Taxonomic Sub-committee of the BOU Records Committee will take effect immediately for the purposes of the British List. A paper outlining the approach of the Sub-committee to species-level decisions has recently been published (Helbig et al . 2002. Guidelines for assigning species rank. Ibis 144 : 518-525). The position of Anseriformes and GalliformesA review has been undertaken of 26 phylogenetic studies of the basal clades of birds. This review indicates that the basal subdivisions of living birds are well resolved, and that each of the five hypotheses below is well supported and that these hypotheses are much better supported than any alternative hypothesis.The best supported alternative hypothesis, supported by four mtDNA sequence studies, suggests that Passeriformes is the sister-group to all other living birds. Jackknife analyses of mitochondrial DNA sequences of all orders of living birds have shown that this finding may be an artefactual result of longbranch attraction due to insufficient taxon sampling.The following hypotheses are accepted: • The most basal subdivision of living birds is that between Palaeognathae and Neognathae; • Ratitae and Tinamiformes are sister taxa; • Galloanserae and Neoaves are sister taxa; • Anseriformes and Galliformes are sister taxa; • Neoaves is monophyletic.Galloanserae will therefore be placed at the start of the British List. Within Galloanserae, Anseriformes will precede Galliformes. The sequence within the families remains unchanged for now. A paper on this proposal has been completed and will appear elsewhere. cauta , T. chrysostoma and T. melanophris ), and the sooty albatrosses ( Phoebetria , comprising P. fusca and P. palpebrata ). The same studies indicate that the sooty albatrosses are the sister-group of the mollymawks rather than the sister-group to all remaining albatrosses and that the genus Diomedea , as traditionally defined, is not monophyletic. We recommend the recognition of the genera Phoebastria and Thalassarche because this underscores the existence of four major groups of albatrosses and eliminates paraphyly of the traditional genus Diomedea . Black-browed Albatross Diomedea melanophrisBlack-browed Albatross becomes Thalassarche melanophris. A paper on the generic status of albatrosses has been completed and will appear elsewhere. Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus ruberGreater Flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber roseus , Caribbean Flamingo P. r. ruber and Chilean Flamingo P. r. chilensis are well-marked taxa that show consistent *Corresponding author. Email: a.g.knox@abdn.ac.uk †This paper is an official document of the British Ornithologists' Union.

A review of the recent advances in the systematics of the avian superfamily Sylvioidea

“…P. subaffinis and P. humei, has been debated over the years, but has been settled due to recent studies of vocalizations and/or DNA Irwin et al, 2001b). In the case of the P. trochiloides-P. plumbeitarsus-P. nitidus complex, the debate is still ongoing due to different interpretations of the available data (Irwin, 2000;Irwin et al, 2001bIrwin et al, , 2005Irwin et al, , 2008Knox et al, 2002;Dickinson, 2003;Gill and Donsker, 2013). One species, P. xanthoschistos, has been transferred from Seicercus to Phylloscopus (Olsson et al, 2005;Päckert et al, 2009), and one subspecies from one species to another, P. fuscatus weigoldi to P. fuligiventer weigoldi (Martens et al, 2008).…”

Patterns of genetic diversity and population structure of the threatened Houbara and Macqueen’s bustards as revealed by microsatellite markers

“…According to Sangster et al (1999), Knox et al (2002) and Lesobre et al (2010), the Chlamydotis genus consists of two species C. undulata and C. macqueenii with C. undulata comprising two subspecies (Cuu and Cuf). Other authors, however, posit that the genus is monotypic and made up of three well-differentiated subpopulations [Cramp and Simmons, 1980;Pitra et al, 2002Pitra et al, , 2004Idaghdour et al, 2004;IUCN, 2010;Birdlife International (2010) taxonomic group].…”

Assessing habitat and resource availability for an endangered desert bird species in eastern Morocco: the Houbara Bustard

“…In the last decades Houbara populations suffered a dramatic decline throughout all their range due to excessive hunting, poaching and habitat degradation (Lavee 1985(Lavee , 1988Combreau et al 2001;Tourenq et al 2005). Based on recent studies on the bird biology, behaviour and genetic (Gaucher et al 1996;D¢Aloia 2000D¢Aloia , 2001Chbel et al 2002;Broders et al 2003;Idaghdour et al 2004;Pitra et al 2004), two species are currently recognized (Knox et al 2002): the Asian Houbara (Chlamydotis macqueenii, from Sinai to Mongolia) and the African Houbara (Chlamydotis undulata, from the Canary Islands to Egypt). The African Houbara is subdivided in two sub-species, the North African Houbara (Ch.…”