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Bird Taxonomy

Index of articles about bird taxonomy, new and potential species splits, and related subjects. The focus is on North African birds.

Horned Lark taxonomy: possible split into six species

Moroccan Horned Lark [Eremophila (alpestris) atlas], Atlas Mountains, Morocco, March 2014 (Ruben and Jorrit Vlot)

A recent study suggested splitting the Horned Lark into six different species: one in the Nearctic and five in the Palearctic including the Moroccan endemic taxon (atlas). The Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris) is a widely distributed passerine across North America and Eurasia, with two isolated populations in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and Colombia in […]

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Maghreb Wheatear should be split according to new research

Maghreb Wheatear / Traquet halophile (Oenanthe halophila), Rissani, Morocco, June 2012 (Leander Khil).

A new phylogenetic study of the Mourning Wheatear complex confirmed its split into three different species. Concerning the Maghreb Wheatear, which is already given species status by some authors, the new study hinted that it should be split too. The Mourning Wheatear (Oenanthe lugens) senso lato is distributed in North Africa, East Africa, the Levant, Iran and

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Streaked Scrub Warbler in Morocco: taxonomy, distribution and identification

Streaked Scrub Warbler Scotocerca inquieta sensu lato has a large distribution area that extends from Western Asia through the Arabian Peninsula and into the Atlantic coast of North Africa. There are eight subspecies including two in southern Morocco, S. i. saharae in the east and S. i. theresae in the southwest. In a recent paper

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African Crimson-winged Finch: a new endemic species

African Crimson-winged Finch / Roselin à ailes roses d'Afrique (Rhodopechys alienus), Oukaïmeden, High Atlas, Morocco (Mike Haley)

The Crimson-winged Finch sensu lato consists of two distinct taxa, alienus in Northwest Africa and sanguineus in the Middle East, Turkey, Caucasus, Central Asia and north-west China. The split of this taxon into two separate species, African Crimson-winged Finch (Rhodopechys alienus) and Asian Crimson-winged Finch (R. sanguineus), was first proposed by Kirwan et al. (2006).

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Barbary Falcon plumage variation in the Canary Islands

Adult male Barbary Falcon from Lanzarote, Canary Islands (Juan Sagardía).

An article about variation of plumage coloration of Barbary Falcons in the Canary Islands has been published recently in the Bulletin of British Ornithologists’ Club. This paper has implications for Moroccan and North African falcons as well, e.g. hybrids – both natural and those related to escaped falconry birds, the ‘atlantis’ form of the Peregrine

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