Meadowlark split on checklist changes in 2022

Ninety-two years ago, in 1930, ornithologists reported that the meadowlarks of the southwestern United States were quite different from the widespread Eastern and Western Meadowlarks. The birds, with a darker yellow breast, paler upperparts, shorter bill, and other differences from their cousins, are classified as a subspecies of the Eastern Meadowlark — Starling magna lilianae. The subspecies is known as Lilian’s Meadowlark.

Four years later, the subspecies The St. auropectoral is described from central Mexico. It is similar to lilianae but has darker upperparts and shorter wings, and it nests in a region south of to lilianae range.

Birders have speculated for decades that the Lilian may be a distinct species, and now, after the better part of a century, the two populations are recognized as distinct from the Eastern Meadowlark. The North American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society announced that it had split lilianae and auropectoral in a species that can be identified as Chihuahuan Meadowlark (starling lilianae). The news appears in a new paper about the official checklist published on August 3 in the journal Ornithology.

The bird’s breeding range extends from northern Arizona, northern New Mexico, and western Texas (and possibly southeastern Colorado) to northern Sonora and northern Chihuahua in Mexico. And separately, the subspecies auropectoral breed in Mexico, in southern Sinaloa and Durango south along the coast to Nayarit and in the interior of Michoacán and México. The Chihuahuan Meadowlark winters from central Arizona and southern New Mexico through the remainder of its breeding range, and it has been recorded wintering west to the Colorado River in Arizona and east to Kinney and Val Verde Counties in Texas (which border of the Rio Grande west of San Antonio).

In February, Johanna Beam, a Ph.D. student in biology at Penn State University, submitted an eight-page proposal to the classification committee arguing for a split species. Beam’s undergraduate honors thesis focused on speciation in Eastern, Western, and Lilian’s Meadowlarks, and he was lead author on a 2021 paper who found “Eastern, Western, and Lilian’s meadowlarks have moderate but equal amounts of divergence from each other, indicating that Lilian’s Meadowlarks are an entire species.”

The committee’s decision to name the bird the Chihuahuan Meadowlark reflects the fact that the lilianae subspecies are found in the Chihuahuan Desert.

For birders who maintain live lists but don’t travel outside the US or Canada, the meadowlark split is the most noticeable official change. Check-list of North American Birds announced by the AOS in its 63rd supplement to the list. The committee, however, made several other changes to the birds of Central America and the Caribbean. So if you’ve been birding in Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica, or some other Latin American country, your life list total may increase because of the new splits. The various moves brought the total number of recognized North American species to 2,178. Here’s a summary of the other changes.

Splits

Two subspecies of Antillean Mango from the Caribbean islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico are recognized as distinct species. Their new names reflect their own islands: Hispaniolan Mango (anthracothorax dominicus) and Puerto Rico Mango (Anthracothorax aurulentus).

Broad-billed Hummingbird are divided into three types. Birds that breed in southwestern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northern and central Mexico will retain the name Broad-billed Hummingbird and Cynanthus latirostris as the scientific name. The newly recognized species are Three Marias Hummingbirds (C. lawrencei), from the Tres Marías Islands, off the west coast of Mexico, and Turquoise-crowned Hummingbird (C. doubledayi), from the Pacific lowlands of southern Guerrero, southern Oaxaca, and western Chiapas states of Mexico.

On the island of Jamaica, Black-billed Streamertail (A small spoon) is split from Red-billed Streamertail (T. polytmus), the national bird of the country.

In Cuba, Cuban Kite (Chondrohierax wilsonii) is split from Hook-billed Kite (C. uncinatus). The AOS says the Cuban Kite was once widespread, but is now restricted to extreme eastern Cuba. It added: “Critically endangered or possibly extinct, with very few sightings in recent decades despite focused surveys.”

Some of the checklist updates include birds of Mexico or Central America with closely related species or subspecies found only in South America. For example, White-collared Kite (Leptodon forbesi) is split from the Grey-headed Kite (L. cayanensis). The gray head is widespread from southern Mexico to central South America. The white-collared is endangered and only found in eastern Brazil.

rusty-winged Antwren (Brother Herpsilochmus) of Panama and South America split from the Rufous-margined Antwren (H. rufimarginatus), also of South America.

Magdalena Antbird (Sipia palliata) of Colombia and Venezuela is now split from the Dull-mantled Antbird (S. laemosticta) of Costa Rica and Panama.

Pacific Tuftedcheek (Pseudocolaptes johnsoni) of Colombia and Ecuador was separated from Buffy Tuftedcheek (P. lawrencei) of Costa Rica and western Panama.

Ecuadorian Thrush (Spotted thrush) of Ecuador is now divided into the Spectacled Thrush (T. nudigenes), found in South America and some Caribbean islands.

Cinnamon-bellied Saltator (A good dancer) of Mexico and Central America split from the Blue-gray Saltator (S. coerulescens) and Olivaceous Saltator (S. olivascens) of South America.

From the other end of the geographic jurisdiction of the AOS North American committee comes a division of stonechat species. Asian Stonechat (Saxicola Moor, also known as the Siberian Stonechat, or simply Stonechat) is considered a separate species from the African Stonechat (St. Torquatus) and European Stonechat (S. rubicola). Mostly a Eurasian bird, the Asian Stonechat is considered casual in western Alaska, and has also been reported elsewhere in Alaska, as well as in California and New Brunswick.

lump

A bump in the new update involves the Mexican hummingbird species. Long-tailed Sabrewing (Pampa is good) are compiled Curve-winged Sabrewing (Pampa curvipennis) and is now considered a subspecies of Curve-winged.

More changes

The committee makes changes to the genera or scientific names of some birds. For example, it read the wren family Troglodytidae, changing the evolutionary order of 17 genera.

The committee appoints Lesser Kiskadeefound from Panama to central South America, in its own genus: Philohydor. It used to be in the same genus as Great Kiskadee (Pitangus), and although the species look similar, their DNA indicates that they are distant enough relatives to be placed in separate genera. The result is the new scientific name of Lesser Kiskadee is Philohydor the policeman.

Violet-crowned and Green-fronted Hummingbirds was assigned to a new genus. rather than leucolia, they are coming in now Ramosomyia.

Like this, Spotted and Black-and-white Owls are assigned to the genus Strix and moved out of Cicaba.

Zeledon’s Antbirdfound from Costa Rica to Ecuador, is now in the genus Hafferia rather than Myrmeciza.

And Yellow Pipitwhich occurs from Panama to Argentina, has a new scientific name: What is Anthus? rather than Anthus lutescens.

New to the checklist

The following species have been added to the checklist due to confirmed sightings in North America:

Hooded Crane of Asia was added because of sightings over the past decade in Alaska, Nebraska, Indiana, and Tennessee.

Northern Giant-Petrela Southern Ocean species, was added to the list due to a record off the coast of Ocean Park, Washington, in 2019.

Elaenia is small of South America is on the list because of sightings in northern Illinois in 2012 and 2021 and in eastern Quebec in 2021.

Naumann’s thrush of Eurasia is also on the list now because of a 2015 sighting at Gambell, in St. Lawrence Island of Alaska, and previous sighting reports on the Alaskan islands.

Rejected proposals

Finally, the committee considered but rejected several other proposals, including divisions involving Spruce Grouse, Band-tailed Pigeon, Squirrel Cuckoo, White-throated Mountain-gem, Wedge-tailed Sabrewing, Green-fronted Hummingbird , Whimbrel, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Barn Owl, Elegant Trogon, Resplendent Quetzal, House Wren, Carolina Wren, and American Robin, among others.

The proposed North American Black Oystercatcher and South American Blackish Oystercatcher were rejected, as were pitches to combine the Cassia Crossbill with the Red Crossbill and restore the Northwestern Crow as a distinct species.

The post was updated on August 5 to correct the genus name of meadowlarks in the third paragraph.

Proposals considered for 2022 update

Read previous stories about checklist changes

Changes to the North American bird list in 2021

McCown’s Longspur renamed Thick-billed Longspur

How the list of North American birds changes in 2020

How the North American bird checklist changes in 2019

The checklist committee changed the name of Gray Jay to Canada Jay