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8 April 2021 Species limits and taxonomy in birds
Kevin Winker, Pamela C. Rasmussen
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Despite the acknowledged importance of defining avian species limits to scientific research, conservation, and management, in practice, they often remain contentious. This is true even among practitioners of a single species concept and is inevitable owing to the continuous nature of the speciation process, our incomplete and changing understanding of individual cases, and differing interpretations of available data. This issue of Ornithology brings together several papers on species limits, some more theoretical and general, and others case studies of specific taxa. These are viewed primarily through the lens of the biological species concept (BSC), by far the most widely adopted species concept in influential ornithological works. The more conceptual contributions focus on the importance of the integrative approach in species delimitation; the importance of considering selection with the increasing use of genomic data; examinations of the effectiveness of the Tobias et al. character-scoring species limits criteria; a review of thorny issues in species delimitation using examples from Australo-Papuan birds; and a review of the process of speciation that addresses how population divergence poses challenges. Case studies include population genomics of the American Kestrel (Falco sparverius); an integrative taxonomic analysis of Graceful Prinia (Prinia gracilis) that suggests two species are involved; and a reevaluation of species limits in Caribbean Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus) taxa.

LAY SUMMARY

  • We provide a brief overview of the science of biodiversity and how it is applied to categorize organisms, particularly at the species level.

  • Speciation is a divergence process with an outcome that might produce species but often does not.

  • This process is continuous, but our taxonomic categories are discrete, so it can be difficult to determine exactly where a divergent population fits in our categorization scheme.

  • Ongoing changes in knowledge, sampling, data, and interpretation are leading to many improvements in the delimitation of bird species limits.

  • A series of articles in this issue of Ornithology make it clear that progress (and changes) will continue to be made, especially when using approaches that integrate information from multiple datasets.

Copyright © American Ornithological Society 2021. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
Kevin Winker and Pamela C. Rasmussen "Species limits and taxonomy in birds," Ornithology 138(2), 1-5, (8 April 2021). https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukab017
Received: 18 January 2021; Accepted: 16 February 2021; Published: 8 April 2021
KEYWORDS
divergence
speciation
species
subspecies
taxonomy
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