Text extracted from Gill B.J.; Bell, B.D.; Chambers, G.K.; Medway, D.G.; Palma, R.L.; Scofield, R.P.; Tennyson, A.J.D.; Worthy, T.H. 2010. Checklist of the birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica. 4th edition. Wellington, Te Papa Press and Ornithological Society of New Zealand. Pages 169-171.

Order ACCIPITRIFORMES: Secretary-bird, Kites, Eagles, Hawks and Allies The diurnal birds-of-prey (Accipitridae, Sagittariidae, Falconidae and Cathartidae) were long grouped in a single order usually named Falconiformes (from Sharpe 1874, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. 1: ix, 1 – suborder Falcones; type Falco Linnaeus), e.g. Peters (1934), Wetmore (1960), Stresemann & Amadon (1979), del Hoyo et al. (1994). However, the strict monophyly of this group is strongly doubted, as revealed by the DNA-hybridisation studies (Sibley et al. 1988, Sibley & Ahlquist 1990) and karyological, pterylogical and morphological studies reviewed in Holdaway (1994a). This has resulted in the removal of Cathartidae, either to its own order or to within storks to which they are most closely related. Increasing evidence suggests that Falconidae and Accipitridae are not closely related (e.g. Fain & Houde 2004, Ericson et al. 2006). We follow Christidis & Boles (2008) in treating these two groups as separate orders. Within Accipitriformes as so defined, genera, as listed by, e.g. del Hoyo et al. (1994) and Dickinson (2003), are demonstrably non-monophyletic based on nuclear and mitochondrial genome data (Bunce et al. 2005, Helbig et al. 2005, Lerner & Mindell 2005, Griffiths et al. 2007). As a result of these and other phylogenetic studies concerning Aquila, Sangster et al. (2005) have transferred Hieraaetus pennatus Gmelin, 1788 to Aquila as Aquila pennata, thereby making Hieraaetus Kaup, 1844 a synonym of Aquila Brisson, 1760. As they restricted comment to Western Palaearctic species, it is not clear what the total advocated composition of Aquila is. However, in such a broadened definition of Aquila, Harpagornis, which was shown by Bunce et al. (2005) to be the sister taxon of Hieraaetus morphnoides and H. pennatus, is a derivative of the common ancestor of all “booted eagles”. Given this, we follow Sangster et al. (2005), Barthel & Helbig (2005), Mebs & Schmidt (2006) and Commission de l’Avifaune Française (2007) in recognising only one genus for the “booted eagles” of the subfamily Aquilinae (sensu Lerner & Mindell 2005).

None of the family-group names in Vieillot’s Analyse d’une nouvelle ornithologie élémentaire (1816) were based on Linnaean generic names (Bock 1994), so none are valid under ICZN (1999). Accipitrini Vieillot, 1816: 22, while designated as a family, does not provide the basis of a valid family-group name. ICZN (1999) does not rule on names above family-group level, so Vieillot names are available for such names. Accipitriformes Vieillot may be used for Accipitridae and Sagittariidae. Brodkorb (1964) provided detailed synonymies of all nomenclatorial groupings that have been proposed.

Family ACCIPITRIDAE Vigors: Kites, Eagles, Hawks and Allies Subfamily ACCIPITRINAE Vigors: Kites, Eagles, Hawks and Allies Accipitrina Vigors, 1824: Zoological Journal 1: 313 – Type genus Accipiter Brisson, 1760.

Within this subfamily we include: Milvinae Vigors, 1824; Aquilinae Vigors, 1824; and Circinae Bonaparte, 1838. The taxon Haliaeetus australis (Harrison & Walker, 1973) is deleted from the New Zealand list as it is considered to be based on bones of the Alaskan bald eagle H. leucocephalus mistakenly mixed with bones from the Chatham Islands after their collection by Forbes (Millener 1999, Worthy & Holdaway 2002).

Genus Circus Lacépède Circus Lacépède, 1799: Tableaux Method. Mamm. Oiseaux: 4 – Type species (by subsequent designation) Falco aeruginosus Linnaeus = Circus aeruginosus Linnaeus. Pygargus Koch, 1816: Syst. Baierischen Zool. 127: 32 – Type species (by tautonymy) Falco pygargus Linnaeus = Circus pygargus (Linnaeus). Strigiceps Bonaparte, 1838: Geogr. Comp. List. Birds: 5 – Type species Falco pygargus Linnaeus = Circus pygargus (Linnaeus). Glaucopteryx Kaup, 1844: Classfn Säugeth. Vög.: 113 – Type species (by monotypy) Falco cineraceus Temminck = Circus pygargus (Linnaeus). Junior homonym of Glaucopteryx Huebner, 1825. Spizacircus Kaup, 1845: Mus. Senckenb. Abh. 3: 258 – Type species (by monotypy) Circus macropterus Vieillot. Spilocircus Kaup, 1847: Isis von Oken, Heft 2: col. 89 – Type species (by monotypy) Circus jardinii Gould = Circus assimilis Jardine & Selby. Pterocircus Kaup, 1850: Arch. Naturgesch. 16(1): 32. Unnecessary nomen novum for Glaucopteryx Kaup, 1844.

Circus approximans Peale Swamp Harrier Circus assimilis; G.R. Gray 1845, in Richardson & J.E. Gray (eds), Zool. Voy. ‘Erebus’ & ‘Terror’, Birds 1(3): 2. Not Circus assimilis Jardine & Selby, 1828. Circus approximans Peale, 1848: U.S. Expl. Exped. 8: 64, 308 – Mathuata, Vanua Levu, Fiji Islands. Circus gouldi Bonaparte, 1850: Consp. Gen. Avium 1: 34 – New South Wales, Australia. Falco aurioculus Ellman, 1861: Zoologist 19: 7464 – New Zealand. Accipiter approximans (Peale); G.R. Gray 1862, Ibis 4: 215. Circus Gouldi Bonaparte; Hamilton 1909, Hand-list Birds New Zealand: 12. Circus approximans drummondi Mathews & Iredale, 1913: Ibis 1 (10th ser.): 419 – North Island. Circus approximans approximans Peale; Checklist Committee 1953, Checklist N.Z. Birds: 36. Circus approximans gouldi Bonaparte; Checklist Committee 1953, Checklist N.Z. Birds: 36. Circus approximans Peale; Checklist Committee 1990, Checklist Birds N.Z.: 109. Circus aeruginosus; Moore 1999, Notornis 46: 359. Not Falco aeruginosus Linnaeus, 1758.

South-east New Guinea, Australia (mainly north, east and south-west), Tasmania, New Zealand and offshore islands, Chatham Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Loyalty Islands, Fiji, Tonga and Wallis (Uvea) Island. A regular visitor to the Kermadec Islands, and Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands; a straggler to New Zealand subantarctic islands and Samoa. Introduced to the Society Islands. Following Baker-Gabb (1979) and Checklist Committee (1990), we do not recognise any subspecies. Widely distributed on the New Zealand mainland, its range having extended greatly with human settlement. Considered to have colonised New Zealand only after human settlement and the extinction of Circus teauteensis (Holdaway et al. 2001: 131, as C. eylesi; Worthy & Holdaway 2002). As it is a recent colonist to New Zealand we discard the former name “Australasian harrier” (Checklist Committee 1990) in favour of the Australian name, swamp harrier. A few very late Holocene fossils and numerous midden records from widely distributed sites in both North and South Islands and the Chathams.