For anyone interested in American crows I highly recommend reading "The
Biosystematics of American Crows" by David Johnston (1961). It is a real
page turner. :)
We must have about four of them - one inherited from Al McGee when he
liquidated his bird book collection, and at last a couple were the *conditio
sine qua non* that Alan C. imposed on us in order to accept a surplus box
of ornithological literature. ;) Oh well, at least Johnston listed the
Northwestern Crow as a mere subspecies of the American Crow in this
ground-breaking tome..
Happy lumping
Oscar
On Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 6:58 PM Alan Contreras <acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hallelujah ! Now to split Yachats Crow….
Alan Contreras
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
Eugene, Oregon
www.alanlcontreras.com
On Mar 18, 2020, at 6:55 PM, Amy S <als466@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I didn’t see this reported on OBOL yet. Sorry if it’s already been posted.
From Nathan Swick in ABA.org:
“Treat Northwestern Crow *Corvus caurinus* as conspecific with American
Crow *C. brachyrhynchos*
Lumps have been out of fashion for some time, but this is one that many
birders have been expecting nonetheless. Northwestern Crow has been
controversial since it was described in the 19th Century. The crows of the
northwest coast differ slightly from American Crows in behavior and
vocalization, and the ABA Area birders have tied themselves in knots trying
to find a “pure” Northwestern Crow for decades. A recent study that looked
at the genetics of crows in northwestern Washington and southwestern
British Columbia makes clear what many birders have suspected, that
hybridization is extremely common among American Crows and “Northwestern”
Crows in moderns times. While the populations may have been diverging
thousands of years ago, they have been coming back together for some time
now. At least we don’t have to pretend anymore.”
Amy Summerfelt
Dallas, TX/Newport, OR
