More Grasswren splits
By Birding-Aus, on August 29th, 2013
Hi Murray, Richard and Damien Baxter are currently heading for Grasswren country across northern Australia and asked what I knew about ‘oweni’ one of the four new species mentioned in your message. The first mentioned ‘modestus’ is clearly a split from Thick-billed Grasswren and ‘rowleyi’ and ‘whitei’ splits from Striated Grasswren. Because ‘oweni’ is placed between the latter two I assume it is also a split from that species but split from which ultrataxa and where does it occur? I cannot find a mention of ‘oweni’ in Schodde & Mason’s DAB nor in HANZAB. Mike Carter 30 Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza VIC 3930 Tel (03) 9787 7136 =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Good luck Mike. Jude —–Original Message—– Cc: birding-aus < birding-aus@vicnet.net.au> Sent: Thu, Aug 29, 2013 4:31 pm Thanks Murray, and thanks to all other respondents and especially to Nikolas Haass who sent a copy of the actual paper. Interesting stuff – but now I have to get off my ass and seek out three new ticks! Mike Carter 30 Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza VIC 3930 Tel (03) 9787 7136 —– Original Message —– From: Murray Lord To: Mike Carter Cc: < birding-aus@vicnet.net.au> ; Richard Baxter ; Jeff Davies ; David James ; Tony Palliser Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2013 2:10 PM Subject: Re: More Grasswren splits Mike, They have split Striated Grasswren into four species – Rowleyi (‘Rusty Grasswren’) from western Queensland; whitei (‘Pilbara Grasswren’); oweni (‘Sandhill Grasswren’) which is said to occur South Australia west of Port Augusta up through southern NT and the eastern side of WA; which leaves striatus as just occurring in the mallee country of south eastern SA, NSW and Vic. Interesting to note that whitei was treated as a species in the 1926 RAOU checklist, with the common name of Rufous Grasswren. We have finally got back to recognizing all of the Grasswrens species that were listed then! Murray =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org =============================== =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Thanks Murray, and thanks to all other respondents and especially to Nikolas Haass who sent a copy of the actual paper. Interesting stuff – but now I have to get off my ass and seek out three new ticks! Mike Carter 30 Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza VIC 3930 Tel (03) 9787 7136 —– Original Message —– From: Murray Lord To: Mike Carter Cc: < birding-aus@vicnet.net.au> ; Richard Baxter ; Jeff Davies ; David James ; Tony Palliser Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2013 2:10 PM Subject: Re: More Grasswren splits Mike, They have split Striated Grasswren into four species – Rowleyi (‘Rusty Grasswren’) from western Queensland; whitei (‘Pilbara Grasswren’); oweni (‘Sandhill Grasswren’) which is said to occur South Australia west of Port Augusta up through southern NT and the eastern side of WA; which leaves striatus as just occurring in the mallee country of south eastern SA, NSW and Vic. Interesting to note that whitei was treated as a species in the 1926 RAOU checklist, with the common name of Rufous Grasswren. We have finally got back to recognizing all of the Grasswrens species that were listed then! Murray =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Mike, They have split Striated Grasswren into four species – Rowleyi (‘Rusty Grasswren’) from western Queensland; whitei (‘Pilbara Grasswren’); oweni (‘Sandhill Grasswren’) which is said to occur South Australia west of Port Augusta up through southern NT and the eastern side of WA; which leaves striatus as just occurring in the mallee country of south eastern SA, NSW and Vic. Interesting to note that whitei was treated as a species in the 1926 RAOU checklist, with the common name of Rufous Grasswren. We have finally got back to recognizing all of the Grasswrens species that were listed then! Murray =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================
A. oweni (as the Sandhill Grasswren) is now the most widespread of all the grasswrens, taking in the inland of WA, SA and NT basically in that part of the range formerly mapped for Striated Grasswren. “Striated Grasswren” is quite a range-restricted species under this study. Mick On 29/08/2013, at 12:14, Paul Taylor < birder@ozemail.com.au> wrote: =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Joshua Bergmark posted the following summary of the 2013 paper on the Feathers and Photos forum: Put simply: A. barbatus Grey Grasswren (two subspecies) A. woodwardi White-throated Grasswren A. dorotheae Carpentarian Grasswren A. striatus Striated Grasswren – Mallee birds including those in NSW, Vic and SA at Gluepot, etc A. whitei Pilbara Grasswren (split from Striated) – Isolated Pilbara birds A. oweni Sandhill Grasswren (split from Striated) – Central Australia (eg: population at Uluru) A. rowleyi Rusty Grasswren (split from Striated) – Isolated central Qld population A. merrotsyi Short-tailed Grasswren (two subspecies) A. ballarae Kalkadoon Grasswren A. purnelli Dusky Grasswren A. goyderi Eyrean Grasswren A. housei Black Grasswren A. textilis Western Grasswren (needs more taxonomic assessment) A. modestus Thick-billed Grasswren (needs more taxonomic assessment) http://www.feathersandphotos.com.au/forum/showthread.php?644-Feathers-amp-Photos-Life-List-Totals-DISCUSSION/page29 — -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Paul Taylor Veni, vidi, tici – birder@ozemail.com.au I came, I saw, I ticked. =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Hi Mike, Oweni was at one time used for the western sandplain form of Striated Grasswren. I don’t know it’s range limits for certain off the top of my head but it is the form that occurs in the Great Victoria Desert, abuts whitei in the west. I *think* closest to striatus This is what Martin Cake wrote on our blog a while back discussing Striated Grasswren in WA: “Nominate striatus grades very broadly between two forms, a browner south-eastern mallee form and a rufous (but still white-bellied) central sandplain form approaching whitei in colour but not size, actually grading smaller towards the northwest. A large genetic study of grasswrens [8] found that the rufous inland form of striatus is surprisingly genetically distinct given the broad ecophenotypic gradient, enough to justify its reinstatement as subspecies oweni. Rather annoyingly, molecular studies to date have not included whitei, which for the moment remains a tantalisingly likely future split.” “[8] Christidis L et al. (2010). Plumage patterns are good indicators of taxonomic diversity, but not of phylogenetic affinities, in Australian grasswrens. Amytornis (Aves: Maluridae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 57: 868-877” Cheers, John =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org ===============================