[Maine-birds] Re: Maine Bird Records Committee 12th report

> On Apr 17, 2023, at 4:38 PM, Louis Bevier <lrbevier@colby.edu> wrote:
>
> Western Marsh Harrier (aka Eastern Marsh-Harrier). The harrier account is of interest (see page 120).

Magill Weber pointed out my error in the last post. The Western Marsh Harrier is also known as "Eurasian Marsh-Harrier" under the Clements/eBird nomenclature. There is indeed an Eastern Marsh Harrier (C. spilonotus), as I wrote, but that is a different species. For those interested, read on.

Western Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus) has been the published name used by the AOU (now AOS) since it was added to the North American checklist in 2000. That is the name used by the International Ornithological Committee and the American Ornithologists' Society, among other entities. The eBird name obviously needs mention but is problematic given C. aeruginosus is not pan-Eurasian and truly is the western counterpart of Eastern Marsh Harrier. The paper looking at the contact zone between aeruginosus and spilonotus used the English names Eastern Marsh Harrier and Western Marsh Harrier, no hyphens (see Fefelov, I.V. 2001. Comparative breeding ecology and hybridization of Eastern and Western Marsh Harriers Circus spilonotus and C. aeruginosus in the Baikal region of eastern Siberia. Ibis 143[4]:587–592.)

Use of the name Marsh Harrier before the split is old, and I think it is a carry-over that has not been shed as a group name (e.g., marsh-harrier). Our Northern Harrier in Maine was formerly known as Marsh Hawk, for example. Most species of Circus harriers are found around marshes! The group term "marsh-harrier" is perhaps not enlightening and is used inconsistently in the eBird taxonomy. But no need to go into that here.

Not many species on our Maine list differ in nomenclature from eBird, but this one does. I hope that makes understanding this subject less imperfect.

Louis Bevier
Fairfield

--
Maine birds mailing list
maine-birds@googlegroups.com
http://groups.google.com/group/maine-birds
https://sites.google.com/site/birding207
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maine birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to maine-birds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/maine-birds/0B597CE3-2179-44C7-8BD3-3354D906B360%40colby.edu.