Anomalogonates I

The 44 Orders

Paleognaths

Galloanserae

Metaves

Pelecanae

Charadriae

Passerae

‘ANOMALOGONATAE’

Other than their ordering and placement in the ‘Anomalogonatae’, the treatment of much of the remaining non-passerine families is close to that of the Sibley-Monroe list. Changes over time have mostly involved whether to consider certain groups families or sub-families. One interesting case is the Cuckoo Roller. It was originally considered a cuckoo, some affinities with the rollers were noted, and it has more recently been considered its own family, Leptosomidae. It seems to be a relatively basal family in the ‘Anomalogonatae’ (which also puts it in its own order), although even Hackett et al. (2008) were unable to confidently determine where it fits. Mayr (2008) discusses some of the differences between the Cuckoo Roller and the rollers.

The owls, mousebirds, trogons are also placed in separate orders, as their affinities with the other ‘Anomalogonatae’ are relatively distant. The hornbills, which are split into Bucorvidae (ground-hornbills) and Bucerotidae (hornbills) form a grouping with the hoopoes and woodhoopoes. The bee-eaters, rollers, ground-rollers, todies, motmots, and kingfishers form the Coraciiformes. The last group is the the Piciformes, which I take to include the Galbuliformes. They will be considered on the next page.

COLIIFORMES

Coliidae: Mousebirds

2 genera, 6 species HBW-6

STRIGIFORMES

Tytonidae: Barn Owls

2 genera, 18 species HBW-5

The Eastern Barn Owl has been split as a separate species as in Christidis and Boles (2008). The use of javanica rather than delicatula as a specific name is justified by the results of Wink et al. (2004b). They found that the two group closely, along with sumbaensis. Since we are treating this clade as a species, javanica has priority. Some other Barn Owl splits may be needed. The American Barn Owls are more closely related to each other than to the European and African population, and vice-versa. Further, we don't know how the South Asian population relates to either the European/African or Eastern populations.

Strigidae: Typical Owls

29 genera, 197 species HBW-5

The overall organization is based on Wink et al. (2008) and Fuchs et al. (2008). The typical owls are divided into three subfamilies: Ninoxinae, Surniinae, and Striginae. These are further divided into tribes, although that is almost overkill as the tribes are barely larger than the main genus, if at all.

Within Ninoxinae, the position of Uroglaux and Sceloglaux is unresolved, although they are believed to be near Ninox on morphological grounds.

Strigidae tree There are four main clades in Surniinae, also ranked as tribes. There's no molecular evidence concerning Xenoglaux, but it is believed close to Micrathene, which seems to be basal in Surniinae. Heteroglaux is most likely sister to Athene, which it has sometimes been considered part of.

The treatment of the Glaucidium complex is a bit novel. The basic structure comes from Wink et. al. (2008). Although their taxon sampling is a bit sparse, it suggest five clades in the Glaucidium complex. I've applied the old name Smithiglaux (Bonaparte 1854) to the basal clade, which consists of two African species. The next clade gets the name Taenioglaux, which has recently been revived (e.g., König and Weick, 2008) for Taenioglaux plus Smithiglaux. Next comes the monotypic Surnia, then Glaucidium itself. Glaucidium consists of an Old World clade of owlets (Glaucidium proper) and a New World clade of pygmy-owls. The latter could take the name Phalaenopsis (Bonaparte 1854). For now, I am treating it as a subgenus to maintain consistency with AOU, although a separate genus would make the phylogeny more transparent.

The rest of the owls are in the subfamily Striginae. Otus has been split into the Old World Otini scops-owls and New World Megascopini based on genetic data (e.g., Wink and Heidrich, 1999; Wink et al., 2004b, 2008; Fuchs et al. 2008). Surprisingly, they are not sister groups. Otini consists of the Old World Otus and Pyrroglaux. It is not clear that the latter belongs here, but it seems more likely than the alternatives. The Giant Scops-Owl, Mimizuku gurneyi, is considered part of Otus (Miranda et al., 1997). I've rearranged Otus some based on Fuchs et al. (2008), Wink et al. (2008) and HBW-5 (del Hoyo et al., 1999), but a true species-level phylogeny is not available.

The Megascopini come after the Asionini. Gymnoglaux is probably close to Megascops. There has been resistance to separating the Flammulated Owl from Otus with Megascops, probably because it is too different from the screech-owls. Nonetheless, the genetic data group it with Megascops, albeit distantly. For that reason it gets its own genus Psiloscops (Coues 1899) as in König and Weick. I place it basally in Megascopini.

After Pulsatrigini, comes Strigini. Jubula is conventionally place here, although its exact affinities remain unclear. My treatment of Strix is a bit unusual. Wink et al. (2008) found two clades in Strix. One is a Holarctic/Old World clade, the other consists of New World species. Some of the New World species have sometimes been separated as Ciccaba, but it has often been objected that they are not distinct from other New World Strix. Here I put all of the New World Strix in an expanded Ciccaba. That leaves the holarctic Great Gray Owl as the only Strix present in the New World. Finally, the African Wood-Owl, Strix woodfordii, which has sometimes been considered close to Ciccaba in the narrow sense, belongs in the Old World clade.

The last clade is Bubonini. DNA is showing that the old generic limits don't work, and the tendency has been to merge everything into Bubo. I think this hides the phylogeny too much. An improvement would be to use two genera, Bubo as constituted here and Ketupa. However, given that some of these species (and even former genera) are mophologically distinct, I think a better solution is to break the clade sister to Bubo into three genera.

We then have 4 genera in Bubonini: Bubo, Nyctaetus (Le Maout 1853), Scotopelia and Ketupa. Ketupa has been expanded with some species that may be closely related (more data is needed). Scotopelia retains its traditional limits. Shelley's and Verreaux's Eagle-Owls are in their own clade, Nyctaetus. It's unclear which clade the Dusky and Akun Eagle-Owls belong in, so I've left them in Bubo for now. Although the Snowy Owl has been considered to be in its own genus, Nyctea, it is actually in Bubo proper, sister to the Great Horned Owl.

Northern Boobook, Ninox japonica, and Chocolate Boobook, Ninox randi, have been split from Brown Hawk-Owl, Ninox scutulata, following King (2002).

Ninoxinae: Hawk-owls

Surniinae: Owlets and Pygmy-Owls

Subgenus Phalaenopsis

Striginae

Otini: Scops-Owls

Asionini: Eared Owls

Megascopini: Screech-Owls

Pulsatrigini

Strigini: Wood-Owls

Bubonini: Eagle-Owls

LEPTOSOMIFORMES

Leptosomidae: Cuckoo Roller

1 genus, 1 species HBW-6

TROGONIFORMES

Trogonidae: Trogons

8 genera, 44 species HBW-6

Trogonidae tree The Trogons are ordered according to Moyle (2005) and DaCosta and Klicka (2008). For the New World Trogons, Euptilotis and Pharomachrus are the basal clade. The next branch is Priotelus. Then comes Trogon, which breaks into two clades: rufus through aurantiiventris, and clathratus through surrucura. The generic name Trogonurus could be applied to the first clade. The African and Asian trogons are sometimes placed in separate families. Moyle finds them to form a clade sister to Trogon itself, which rules out such a split. This list hedges slightly by putting them after Trogon.

The AOU's South American checklist committee had considered making some changes in Trogon species in 2003, partly due to the treatment in Ridgely and Greenfield (2001) and Hilty (2003). For more information, read the discussion for viridis, violaceus, and melanurus on the SACC site. They found that the relevant data, if it existed, was not collected together in a way that allowed them to judge it properly. The publication of DaCosta and Klicka (2008) has changed the balance of evidence here. Although the SACC has not acted on it, I changed generic limits accordingly.

The species and species groups affected are White-tailed Trogon (T. viridis), Violaceous Trogon (T. violaceus), Black-tailed Trogon (T. malanurus), and Collared/Orange-bellied Trogon (T. collaris and aurantiiventris). The table below summarizes the splits, including genera. The species affected are maked with an asterisk. The question marks on T. macroura (sometimes called Large-tailed Trogon) and T. melanopterus reflect the possibility of future splits.

The SACC is currently considering a new set of proposals concerning splitting mesurus from melanurus, chionurus from viridis, and caligatus from violaceus. I've updated the table with the English names they're considering.

Species Subspecies
Collared/Orange-bellied Trogon
*Collared Trogon, T. collaris extimus, hoethinus, virginalis,
subtropicalis, exoptatus,
collaris, casganeus
*Jalapa Trogon, T. puella puella, underwoodi,
aurantiiventris, flavidor
Black-tailed Trogon Complex
Lattice-tailed Trogon, T. clathratus clathratus
*Ecuadorian Trogon, T. mesurus mesurus
*Black-tailed Trogon, T. melanurus macroura?, eumorphus,
occidentalis, melanurus
Blue-tailed Trogon, T. comptus comptus
White-tailed Trogon Complex
Black-headed Trogon, T. melanocephalus melanocephalus
Citreoline Trogon, T. citreolus citreolus, sumichrasti
*Green-backed Trogon, T. viridis viridis, melanopterus?
*White-tailed Trogon, T. chionurus chionurus
Baird's Trogon, T. bairdii bairdii
Violaceous Trogon Complex
*Gartered Trogon, T. caligatus braccatus, concinnus,
caligatus
*Amazonian Trogon, T. ramonianus ramonianus, crissalis
Surucua Trogon, T. surrucura aurantius, surrucura
*Violaceous Trogon, T. violaceus violaceus
Blue-crowned Trogon, T. curucui peruvianus (bolivianus),
curucui, behni

All of these forms are apparently field-identifiable both by plumage and voice (see Hilty, 2003; Howell and Webb, 1995; Ridgely and Gwynne, 1989; Ridgely and Greenfield, 2001; Stiles and Skutch, 1989), although some of the differences have not been clearly documented.

These changes combine the Middle American Collared Trogons with Orange-bellied Trogon as Jalapa Trogon (used by Sibley and Monroe; 1990, 1993). The Collared Trogons of South America and Eastern Panama retain the name Collared Trogon. The Black-tailed Trogons west of the Andes in Ecuador and Peru become Ecuadorian Trogon. The White-tailed Trogon can be found from Panama to W Ecuador. The rest of the White-tailed Trogons are grouped as the Green-backed Trogon, even in Trinidad (the population in southeast Brazil may be split at some point). Gartered Trogon is present from Mexico into S. America west of the Andes, and in the north into western Venezuela. The Amazonian Trogon is in the Amazon Basin. Finally, the Violaceous Trogon is present in eastern Venezuela, the Guianas, Trinidade, and northeastern Brazil.

BUCEROTIFORMES

Upupidae: Hoopoe

1 genus, 3 species HBW-6

Phoeniculidae: Woodhoopoes

2 genera, 9 species HBW-6

Bucorvidae: Ground-Hornbills

2 genera, 2 species Not HBW Family

Bucerotidae: Hornbills

13 genera, 59 species HBW-6

The Red-billed Hornbills are split based on Kemp and Delport (2002) and Delport et al. (2004).

CORACIIFORMES

Click for Coraciiformes tree
Click for Coraciiformes tree

The genus-level tree of the Coraciiformes is based on Ericson et al. (2006), Hackett et al. (2008), Kirchman et al. (2001), Marks et al. (2007), and Moyle (2006).

Meropidae: Bee-eaters

3 genera, 26 species HBW-6

The bee-eaters follow Marks et al. (2007).

Brachypteraciidae: Ground-Rollers

4 genera, 5 species HBW-6

Kirchman et al. (2001) discuss the split of Geobiastes from Brachypteracias. However, they do not come to a definitive conclusion regarding how the Ground-Rollers are related.

Coraciidae: Rollers

2 genera, 12 species HBW-6

Todidae: Todies

1 genus, 5 species HBW-6

The tody sequence is based on Overton and Rhoads (2004). They also considered the todies and motmots sister families, as did Johansson and Ericson (2003). I follow Ericson et al. (2006a) and Hackett et al. (2008), which consider motmots and kingfishers sister families.

Momotidae: Motmots

6 genera, 15 species HBW-6

The motmot sequence is based on Witt (2004).

The Blue-crowned Motmot complex has been split based on Witt (2004) and Stiles (2009). Witt found that the Highland Motmot, Momotus aequatorialis (including chlorolaemus), is not truly part of the Blue-crowned complex, but is sister to the combined Blue-crowned complex plus the Russet-crowned Motmot, Momotus mexicanus.

The Blue-crowned complex proper is split into 6 species based on a combination of Witt (2004) and Stiles (2009). The races are allocated as follows, with approximate species ranges. Blue-crowned Motmot, Momotus coeruliceps (NE Mexico), is monotypic; Blue-diademed Motmot, Momotus lessonii (Middle America), includes goldmani, exiguus, and lessonii; Amazonian Motmot, Momotus momota (Amazon basin), includes microstephanus, momota, ignobilis, simplex, cametensis, paraensis, marcgravianus, nattereri, pilcomajensis; Silver-banded Motmot, Momotus argenticinctus (W Ecuador and NW Peru), is monotypic; Trinidad Motmot, Momotus bahamensis (Trinidad and Tobago), is monotypic; Whooping Motmot, Momotus subrufescens (E Panama and NW South America), includes subrufescens, spatha, osgoodi, and, if recognized, conexus, reconditus, olivaresi (there is a case for submerging the last three into subrufescens).

All but the Silver-banded Motmot are recognized by Stiles. However, Witt found it to be sister to the Trinidad/Whooping group, which is why I'm treating it as a separate species.

Alcedinidae: Kingfishers

19 genera, 92 species HBW-6

I've followed the taxonomic recommendations of Moyle et al. (2007) for the river kingfishers (Alcedininae). Two subspecies of the Malachite Kingfisher, Corythornis cristata, are sometimes considered full species. They are the Sao Tome Kingfisher (C. cristata thomensis) and the Principe Kingfisher (C. cristata nais). Recent work by Melo and Fuchs (2008) suggests they should continue to be considered subspecies.

Alcedininae: River Kingfishers

Cerylinae: Water Kingfishers

Halcyoninae: Tree Kingfishers

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