As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Sunday 12 July 2015

Organization of North America's bird species: List updated


Date: July 2, 2015

Source: Central Ornithology Publication Office

Summary: Biologists have made several major updates to the organization of the North America's bird species. The updated work groups birds into genera, families, and orders based on their evolutionary relationships, and some of the most significant changes in this year's work involve the tanagers, family Thraupidae.

The latest Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds was published this week inThe Auk: Ornithological Advances, and includes several major updates to the organization of the continent's bird species. More than just a list, the Check-list groups birds into genera, families, and orders based on their evolutionary relationships, and some of the most significant changes in this year's Supplement involve the tanagers, family Thraupidae.

"Recent genetic studies have overturned much of what we thought we knew about what constitutes a tanager," explains Terry Chesser, Chairman of the AOU Committee on Classification and Nomenclature for North and Middle America. As a result, this

Supplement sees 6 genera and 11 species, many of which are found only in the Caribbean, moved from the Thraupidae into a temporary category of their own as a result of genetic analysis showing they're not closely related to tanagers after all. 16 genera and 36 species, including seedeaters and finches, have been moved from their previous homes into the Thraupidae family for the opposite reason, and the Hawaiian honeycreepers (part of the Fringillidae family) have experienced a similar reorganization.

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