REVISED NAMES SCHEDULE October 2016

To reduce the length of this report, background considerations and many of the arguments raised have been omitted. Each item has been given a reference number.

ENC 2016/01: ‘Australian Painted Snipe’ to ‘Australian Painted-snipe’.

The 1975 committee did not see a need for a hyphenated group name for ‘Painted Snipe’ as the Australian species was not then split from the ‘Greater’. Had it done so, given the principles it advocated, it would almost certainly have proposed ‘Painted-snipe’ as a group name, at the same time recognising the family as separate from the true snipes. The form ‘Painted-snipe’ is now in general international use including in the IOC and BLI lists. Those engaged in conservation of this threatened Australian species, see no objection to the proposed name.

By consensus, the committee recommends ‘Australian Painted-snipe’. If an English name is needed for the family (Rostratulidae) it should be ‘Painted-snipes’.

ENC 2016/02: the ‘Yellow Oriole’ issue.

The need to reconsider this name comes about because many of the increasing number of people that are concerned about English names record observations out of country, and refer to global lists. For many years ‘Yellow Oriole’ has been the name of a New World (Icteridae) species, Icterus nigrogularis. Consequently global lists (including BLI and IOC) will not use ‘Yellow Oriole’ for the Australian species, and generally use ‘Green Oriole’. Moreover, looking at the oriole group from an Old World perspective, the Australian species is one of the least yellow of the orioles. Within the committee, opinion was divided on the various possibilities:

Yellow (accepting the duplication ) Australian Yellow (less than accurate for the colour) Green (following global lists and Beehler for ) Citrine (novel, but probably the most accurate colour description) Torresian (again novel, but conveniently describes the range) The use of ‘Torresian’ as a useful adjective in bird names is further discussed in relation to ENC 2016/04 below.

The committee recommends ‘Green Oriole’ as a name already in use in global lists.

ENC 2016/03: at present ‘Black-winged ’

The present WLAB splits H leucocephalus from H himantopus, but inappropriately retains the English name ‘Black-winged Stilt’. A new English name is needed. The 1978 recommendations said: “If leucocephalus is treated as a separate species, the choice would lie between ‘White-headed’ and ‘Pied’”.

The ENC acknowledges arguments against each of the possibilities. ‘Australian Black-winged Stilt’ is cumbersome. It would probably need to be ‘Australasian’ as the range extends to , and even then would not take account of Indonesian populations.

‘White-headed’ has the serious disadvantage that of the Australian species the is the more clearly white-headed, and it has been suggested that for some observers this could lead to confusion of the two species. ‘Pied’ is used in New Zealand for H himantopus/leucocephalus, but it has been pointed out that it is a poor distinguishing name as all Himantopus , except the , are pied.

In an attempt to get away from unhelpful -related names ‘Yapping Stilt’ has been suggested. However a comparison of online recordings of in Europe, Asia, Africa on the one hand and /New Zealand on the other does not indicate a sufficiently clear difference to justify ‘Yapping’ for the Australian species.

The committee recommends ‘’ as having some basis in usage and as the choice that creates least difficulty.

ENC 2016/04: ‘Torresian Imperial-Pigeon’

The committee considered both elements of this name that now appears in WLAB 2.

‘Torresian’ has undergone a shift in meaning. It does not mean ‘Torres Strait’ as in the Gould name. It no longer refers to the biogeographical sub-region proposed by Baldwin Spencer in 1896. Rather, as used in WLAB, it has a similar meaning to ‘Australo-Papuan’, signifying occurrence of a species in both Australia and New Guinea (or the broader ‘Papuasia’). As such, it is a useful expression, and more appropriate in an English species name than ‘Australo-Papuan’. That use of the term should be made explicit in any explanation of revised English names..

‘Torresian Imperial-Pigeon’ raises a further issue that should be noted. As various conflicting rules now exist, Birdlife Australia should re-explain its position on the use of the hyphen in group names. The 1978 recommendations strongly advocated the use of hyphens, and followed the American Ornithologists’ Union in capitalising the first letter of the second component in species within or allied to the group, but not otherwise. Unfortunately that rule has not been universally accepted and some authorities expressly oppose it. In accordance with its own rule the IOC list (less keen on hyphens) now uses ‘Torresian Imperial Pigeon’ (no hyphen). The BLI/HBW list, in accordance with its own recently stated rule, uses ‘Torresian Imperial-pigeon’ (no capital ‘P’) - similarly with Black- cockatoo etc..

In the present circumstances the committee does not recommend any change to ‘Torresian Imperial-Pigeon’.

ENC 2016/05: English name for new subspecies Barnardius zonarius parkeri.

This new subspecies has a limited range which is appropriately indicated by ‘Innamincka’. Joe Forshaw, one of the authors of the subspecies, regards that name as suitable.

The committee recommends ‘Innamincka Ringneck’.

ENC 2016/06: Reintroduction of the English name ‘Adelaide Rosella’ by amending two subspecies names and recognising the intergradient population, as follows. u282c Fleurieu Adelaide Rosella P. e. fleurieuensis u282f Flinders Adelaide Rosella P. e. subadelaidae u282c/f Adelaide Rosella P .e. fleurieuensis x P. e. subadelaidae.

Some members have reservations about adopting English names for all subspecies, and from one viewpoint the application of ‘Adelaide Rosella’ to the hybrid form P .e. fleurieuensis x P. e. subadelaidae is justified only by what has been called ‘the human cultural dimension’. The proposal accepts the taxonomic approach followed in WLAB in this regard. Andrew Black has made a strong case for this recognition of ‘Adelaide Rosella’ which regardless of which English names are specified in WLAB will continue to be widely used in the Adelaide area.

The proposed change is recommended.

ENC 2016/06A:

The omission of ‘Ranges’in the previous recommendation led to consideration of shortening of related names. The committee has decided to recommend:

Flinders Short-tailed Grasswren Flinders Thick-billed Grasswren Flinders Chestnut-rumped Heathwren but the retention of ‘Island’ in - Flinders Island Superb Fairy-wren Flinders Island Black Currawong Flinders Island White-browed Scrubwren

The committee so recommends.

ENC 2016/07:

Endorsement of the name ‘Grey Noddy’ for the recently split Procelsterna albivitta, and adoption of ‘Tasman Grey Noddy’ for P. a. albivitta.

‘Grey Ternlet Procolsterna cerulea’ was changed to ‘Grey Noddy Procolsterna albivitta’ with the adoption of WLAB v.2 in June this year. The change follows BLI/HBW.

The change in English name is significant, as ‘Grey Ternlet’ has been in general use in Australia since the Condon list of 1975. The committee should consider whether there are reasonable grounds to endorse it, and if so should explain the change.

The English name change follows a taxonomic change (separating two Procolsterna species) but is not required by the taxonomic change. The has been unstable and ‘Grey Ternlet’ was regarded as suitable for Australian birds even if two species were accepted (Christidis & Boles 2008). ‘Grey Noddy’ was used by Gould and thereafter by Mathews and in the 1950 revision to the 1926 RAOU checklist. It was preferred in the 1969 CSIRO list, where ‘Grey Ternlet’ was not mentioned, and used by DL Seventy et al. in 1971. However ‘Grey Ternlet’ was given in the 1975 Condon list, and used earlier by Peter Fullagar in the 1970 Peter Slater field guide (departing from a general policy of using the CSIRO names).

The present issue arises against the background of a policy of not changing established names without strong reason. The bird-interested public dislikes unnecessary changes to English names. A possible strong reason here is the consensus in the global lists in favour of ‘Grey Noddy’. Another point is that New Zealand has recently accepted ‘Grey Noddy’ although that appears to be on the basis of the single species P. cerulea [online checklist of the Ornithological Society Of New Zealand Inc.]. Although WLAB 2 has not yet been widely publicised, some confusion is likely to follow from a reversion at this stage to ‘Grey Ternlet’.

The species breeds at Norfolk Island (a Commonwealth Territory) and Lord Howe (NSW), many being reported at Balls Pyramid on a recent survey. The attitude of the Lord Howe and Norfolk Island communities to this name change has not been investigated. As the ‘island names’ are given as ‘blue billie’, ‘patro’ and ‘Little Blue Petrel’ the name used in checklists and field guides might be of no great concern.

For the reasons given the ENC endorses the name change to ‘Grey Noddy’.

For the subspecies, ‘Tasman Grey Noddy’ is recommended as a shorter and more informative name than ‘Western Pacific Grey Noddy’.