The number of Hoary Redpoll reports (or possible Hoary Redpolls) continues to grow in Colorado, causing a buzz that is growing louder among Colorado birders.
First, I think it is great that so many in the Colorado birding community are open-minded enough to even look for Hoary Redpolls among the numerous flocks of redpolls in our state right now. Second, keep in mind that our collective concept (at least here in the southern part of the continent) of what a Hoary Redpoll looks like may actually be the palest of Hoary Redpolls. Bottom line is that the darkest and palest of the redpolls – the morphological extremes- seem to fall nicely into recognizeable taxa. Everything else should be regarded more generally as “Redpoll” or “Redpoll species” or “Redpoll sensu lato”. That means that not only should we demand several field marks to line up for Hoary, but also for Common too. Common is sufficiently rare in our state that we don’t really know what Colorado redpolls are. Are they pale Commons (there sure are a lot of pale redpolls out there)? OR are they dark Hoarys? Should we assume that Redpolls invading are simply Common Redpolls pushing the envelope on their normal winter range limits, or could they be from much further north? Maybe dark Common Redpolls are in their usual winter range north of Colorado, whereas Hoarys (albeit dark ones) are the true invaders. Just food for thought. I am not actually advocating this view, just pointing out what we don’t really know. Earlier I wrote “seem to fall nicely into recognizable taxa”. “Seem” is the key word here. If in fact there are populations out there in remote areas that fill in the spectrum of redpoll plumage variation, then the recognizeable taxa become one messy taxon – the Redpoll. The references I have consulted all allude to a weak distinction between these species, and many point out that intermediate redpolls may in fact be closer related to pale Hoary Redpoll than dark Common Redpoll, but misidentified in the field, in part due to a southern bias to label all Redpolls that are not extremely pale as “Common Redpolls”. This nomenclature snafu is equivalent to labeling any white-cheeked goose a Canada Goose, until proven otherwise. I wonder if there are any modern DNA-based studies that actually support species status for morphologically divergent redpoll populations. To answer that question, I did an internet search with the phrase “redpoll genetic studies”. The first item is a study published in 2008 that found evidence that Redpoll populations all over the northern hemisphere (currently classified as 3 species) should indeed be considered a single species: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18439841. So....while it is an interesting pursuit for sure, folks may be best served saving their time and energy trying to convince themselves and the CBRC that pale redpoll X is actually a Hoary Redpoll. To quote the birder in Shakespeare “To be a redpoll, or not to be a redpoll, that is the question.” Nick Komar Fort Collins CO -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
