Comments on: Unlikely Relatives

By: Kate St. John

Kate St. John — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:15:54 +0000

The ABA Checklist of North American Birds follows the American Ornithological Union's check-list of names. The AOU Check-list is in taxonomic order which means it "roughly reflects the evolutionary relationships among the taxa" (per Wikipedia). So, at this point DNA testing has convinced ornithologists that the black-bellied whistling ducks evolved first and loons evolved later. And yes, every time they figure out new relationships, the birds are tossed in the air again. Here is the latest (I think it's the latest) AOU Check-list Supplement describing why they've made the changes: http://www.aou.org/auk/content/129/3/0573-0588.pdf

By: Dawn Puliafico

Dawn Puliafico — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 14:32:15 +0000

What made the Black-Bellied Whistling Duck the first bird on the ABA list? I’m not sure I understand what moves bird positions on the list. Thanks.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 14:07:56 +0000

What determines the (sequential) order of the birds in the ABA checklist? I thought it was “least evolved” to “most evolved”, whatever that means. Maybe that was just my preferred field guide’s order at the time (old Golden guide, really liked it).

Having learned the order years ago by virtue of paging through my field guide all the time while birding, one of the hardest parts of doing my Lawrence County reports for PA Birds was putting the narrative in the latest taxonomic order, as requested by the style guide. The latest order never felt right to me, and I had lists and papers all over to help me get it right, and it often took a couple revisions. It was kind of comical…