I went back to Schodde and Mason to refresh myself as to why the Spotted Pardalote isn’t spilt from the Yellow-rumped.
Their two reasons were:
1. Spotted is found in the SW, and from South Australia around to Qld , always within 200-300km of the coast. Yellow-rumped is found in the Mallee inland of these disjunct populations. S & M seem to be saying there should either be three species (SW, SE and Mallee) or one, not two. The three spp solution is complicated by the N Qld ssp, which has characteristics of both Spotted and Yellow-rumped.
2. There is a wide zone of intergradation at both ends of the mallee belt from Yellow-rumped back into Spotted.
I’m not particularly worried by the intergradation zone argument as both Yellow-rumped and Spotted clearly have preferences for very distinct habitat, and the size of the intergradation zone in northern Victoria and the Riverina (and maybe in the SW) may be a recent product of vegetation clearances.
As to the first argument, let’s have a four spp solution!
