Original description: Emberiza leucophrys Forster 1772 eBird range map Taxonomic history at Avibase Taxonomic history in AOU/AOS Check-list AOU 1 (1886): White-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys; Intermediate Sparrow, Zonotrichia intermedia; Gambel’s Sparrow, Zonotrichia gambeli AOU 2 (1895): White-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys; Intermediate Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys intermedia; Gambel’s Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii AOU 3 (1910): White-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys leucophrys; Gambel’s Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys gambeli; Nuttall’s Sparrow, Zonotrichia …
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Original description: Emberiza atricapilla Gmelin 1789 eBird range map Taxonomic history at Avibase Taxonomic history in AOU/AOS Check-list AOU 1 (1886): Golden-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia coronata AOU 2 (1895): Golden-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia coronata AOU 3 (1910): Golden-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia coronata AOU 4 (1957): Golden-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia coronata AOU 5 (1957): Golden-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia atricapilla AOU 6 (1983): Golden-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia atricapilla AOU 7 (1998): Golden-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia …
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A new proposal before the AOS NACC (I like that almost as much as the test we had to take in junior high, the PSAT NMSQT) would alter the English names of North American birds named for people by removing the “possessive” -s from the designation of the eponym: thus, for example, we would once …
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Click on the species names below for additional information. Note that this online supplement does not repeat the bibliographic attributions given in the printed book. Buy the book here. Errata Striped Sparrow Song Sparrow Swamp Sparrow Lincoln Sparrow Sierra Madre Sparrow Baird Sparrow Henslow Sparrow Large-billed Sparrow Belding Sparrow San Benito Sparrow Savannah Sparrow Ipswich Sparrow …
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The would-be type of Audubon’s Smith bunting provides a troubling example of how specimen data can be corrupted in the chain of publication. We know from Audubon himself that he saw this species alive only once, in 1820, when he failed to secure a specimen. Not until 1843 did he handle specimens in the United …
Continue reading “A Longspur Postscript”