I have just updated my bird sightings software, which is based on the latest Clements list. I have been checking the listings and discovered in the species entries there are holes where Scarlet Honeyeater Myzomela sanguinolenta should be. It seems I now have to call it Scarlet Myzomela. I referred to the Clements site at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and their overview of updates and corrections they mention that they have updated their data for Australia, Based on Birds Australia’s checklist, with a link to it. In the BA checklist M. sanguinolenta is still given the common name of Scarlet Honeyeater.
Can anyone throw some light on what name we should actually use?
Cheers,
Carl Clifford ===============================
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Peter,
Tell me about it. I am finishing off the “irregularities” that popped up when I transferred my sightings from Bento, in which I had used the IOC list and C&B and proper English spellings, into Birdbrain, which is Clements based. Oh what fun I have had! Not only are there the examples you cite, but others such as Pacific Reef Heron ( I thought being in the genus Egretta might have given them a clue there) and one that particularly gets up my nose, Pink Bl***y Cockatoo for Major Mitchell Cockatoo. This I find a gross insult, not only to the memory of Major Mitchell but to the people of Australia. This is apparently accepted by BA.
In the overview to the latest updates to Clements on the Cornell Lab website, it is mentioned that as they have finished with the North and South American and Australian checklists, they will be looking at other regions including Asia. That should be interesting.
I think I will have to lash out and buy a copy of FileMaker and make my own database using my own preferred nomenclature and bugger the rest.
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
P.S. Anyone want a hardly used copy of Clements? Only a few tear stains on it.
Hi Carl, There’s lots of this sort of stuff with Clements – for starters, all Grey birds are Gray. Then there’s the Rufous Night-heron, Black- breasted Kite (not Buzzard), Australian (not Black-shouldered) Kite, Thick-knees not Stone-curlews, Red-headed and Scarlet Myzomela (not Honeyeater) and probably more. As you well know there’s pros and cons with each global checklist, but Clements appears to remain the most widely used list despite some of its peculiarities. One of the main criticisms of Clements has long been that they seem to have paid undue respect to nomenclature / taxonomy changes in checklists put forward by regional authorities (such as BA), and it seems that they’ve now finally taken this on board, which should be applauded. We can only hope that future updates continue this trend. Nevertheless, note that they state on their website ‘where necessary the final decisions on taxonomy and nomenclature are made by the Clements Checklist team’.
cheers Peter
Hi Carl, There’s lots of this sort of stuff with Clements – for starters, all Grey birds are Gray. Then there’s the Rufous Night-heron, Black-breasted Kite (not Buzzard), Australian (not Black-shouldered) Kite, Thick-knees not Stone-curlews, Red-headed and Scarlet Myzomela (not Honeyeater) and probably more. As you well know there’s pros and cons with each global checklist, but Clements appears to remain the most widely used list despite some of its peculiarities. One of the main criticisms of Clements has long been that they seem to have paid undue respect to nomenclature / taxonomy changes in checklists put forward by regional authorities (such as BA), and it seems that they’ve now finally taken this on board, which should be applauded. We can only hope that future updates continue this trend. Nevertheless, note that they state on their website ‘where necessary the final decisions on taxonomy and nomenclature are made by the Clements Checklist team’.
cheers Peter