Turner, Donald A.

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Wood-hoopoes: are Phoeniculus purpureus niloticus (Neumann 1903) and Phoeniculus damararensis granti (Neumann 1903) conspecific?The Green Wood-hoopoe Phoeniculus purpureus (Miller 1784) is represented in all savanna regions of Africa, and has long been the subject of debate (Turner 2014). In addition, birds referred to as the Violet Wood-hoopoe (damarensis and granti) and Black-billed Wood-hoopoe (somaliensis) appear very closely related to purpureus, and have been variably treated as either separate species or subspecies, while much needed DNA data remains scant. In East and northeastern Africa several forms are currently recognized: Phoeniculus purpureus marwitzi Reichenow 1906, Phoeniculus purpureus niloticus Neumann1903, Phoeniculus damarensis granti Neumann 1903, Phoeniculus somaliensis somaliensis Ogilvie-Grant 1901, Phoeniculus somaliensis abyssinicus Neumann 1903 and Phoeniculus somaliensis neglectus Neumann 1905 (Ligon 2001, Dickinson & Remsen 2013, del Hoyo & Collar 2014).All are slim, small-bodied birds with long, slender, graduated tails, broad rounded wings, narrow decurved bills and short tarsi. The plumage is largely iridescent black with green, violet or blue sheens, and individual forms differ only in the degree and colour of gloss. Bill colour is normally red or black, often varying with age. Sexes are alike in all forms.In all wood-hoopoes the degree of phenotypic divergence among currently rec-ognized taxa is poorly characterized, while mantle plumage varies among individ-ual wood-hoopoes and between age classes (Cooper et al. 2001). At the same time there appear to be only minor discernible vocal differences between any of the above named forms. In southern Africa, some authors treat the Violet Wood-hoopoe P. da-marensis as an endemic, but others believe that it might simply be a plumage variant and junior synonym of P. purpureus (Cooper et al., op. cit).In Kenya, P. purpureus marwitzi is largely blackish, glossed with green on the head, upperparts and breast, while P. p. niloticus has the head, mantle, breast and tail appearing more steel-blue than green, thus appearing very similar to the Violet Wood-hoopoe (P. damarensis granti) of eastern Kenya. The continuum between green and purple is well known to all who study iridescent plumage, with colours shifting from one to the other as the light source and angle vary. Thus, plumage colours in pur-pureus may appear to change from greenish to blue or violet to almost blue-black de-pending on whether the bird is seen in bright sunlight, deep shade or dappled light, often leading to identification difficulties. Perceived colour may also differ between early morning and late afternoon viewing conditions. The Black-billed Wood-hoo-poe Phoeniculus somaliensis, long considered a race of the Green Wood-hoopoe, was deemed worthy of separate species status by Davidson (1976) on the grounds that the largely all-black bill is typically more slender and decurved than in either purpureus or damarensis, and indeed that longer bill does serve to distinguish it from the other two (Turner 2014). Meanwhile, its status in northern Kenya border areas vis-à-vis any sympatry with either niloticus or granti remains unclear.Dowsett & Dowsett-Lemaire (2015) recently discussed in some detail birds they observed in the Omo Valley of southwestern Ethiopia, believed to be the Violet Wood-hoopoe Phoeniculus damaraensis. They commented on birds collected by Zaph-iro from the Zoula River, Uba, in July 1905, which were also considered to have been Short communications 31Phoeniculus damarensis granti. No mention was made, however, of the possibility that the Omo Valley birds may have represented what in northwestern Kenya border areas are referred to as P. purpureus niloticus, also known from the Gambela region of southwestern Ethiopia, South Sudan, and from Lake Stephanie (to the east of the Omo Delta). Neumann visited southern and southwestern Ethiopia in 1901–1902, later de-scribing in Ornithologische Monatsberichte (1903) the forms niloticus, abyssinicus and damararensis granti, with only very minor plumage differences separating them.P. damarensis granti is endemic to the palm-fringed river systems of eastern Kenya, with as yet no proven cases of intergrades with purpureus. Elsewhere in southern Kenya, birds reported as granti may be nothing more than individual purpureus with distinctive violet tail and mantle feathering appearing more prominent due to light conditions at the time. Records in arid country from Kapedo northwards probably refer to P. p. niloticus, a form largely impossible to separate from granti. Adult granti possess varying densities of green-, blue- or violet-glossed feathers, and in the field juveniles cannot safely be distinguished from juvenile purpureus. In addition, any ob-served differences in plumage colour between Green and Violet Wood-hoopoes may well be clinal or habitat-related, with perhaps a more pronounced violet colouration in birds in arid areas. Dowsett & Dowsett-Lemaire (2015) commented that the voice of their Omo Valley birds sounded drier that that of P. purpureus. Do niloticus-type birds in northwest Kenya sound similar, as they are often referred to as Violet Wood-hoo-poes?There is no disputing that niloticus and granti both tend to show more blue and violet on the mantle, breast and head than P. purpureus marwitzi, but one cannot rule out the possibility that all three may, in fact, be conspecific, with niloticus/granti repre-senting a dry country form of P. purpureus which extends from the palm-fringed river systems of eastern Kenya north through Samburu and Baringo districts to southern and southwestern Ethiopia. Both marwitzi and granti are reported to have been col-lected at Archer’s Post (Samburu District) on the same day (Oberholser 1945), which may underline the difficulty in distinguishing between these two. Comprehensive molecular analysis of all forms would now appear warranted, and the nomenclature of birds known as the Violet Wood-hoopoe may also require attention since both nil-oticus and granti were named and described in the same publication (Neumann 1903).Current known localities for niloticus and granti are:P. p. niloticus: Uganda: Moroto, Kitgum. Kenya: Kapedo, Upper Turkwell, Ndotos, Mathews Range, Lodwar, Lokichoggio.  Ethiopia: Lake Stephanie, Gambela.P. (d.) granti: Kenya: Kibwezi, the Tsavo, Galana, Northern Uaso Nyiro, Upper Tana and other river systems in the Tsavo NPs, Meru NP, Shaba and Samburu GRs. Ethiopia: Omo Valley, Zoula River.From the above it is clear that there is an almost contiguous range of granti and nil-oticus stretching from the eastern Kenya riverine areas northwest through the North-ern Uaso Nyiro to the Mathews Range, the Ndotos, the Upper Turkwell, Lodwar and Lokichoggio. Both forms then re-appear in Ethiopia, with niloticus in western border areas and the Gambela region, and with granti in the Omo Valley and along the Zoula River. In reality there may not even be a break in distribution from the Tsavo River Short communications32all the way to the Omo Valley and Gambela on the Ethiopia–South Sudan border. The type locality of niloticus was on the Nile in southern Sudan, while that of granti was in the Tsavo region of southeast Kenya. As these two forms cannot be irrefutably separ-ated, which name would take priority? Regarding possible intergradation, some has been suggested between niloticus and marwitzi (Friedmann 1936, Oberholser 1945), and the report of marwitzi and granti being collected on the same day at Archer’s Post, Samburu District, may also reflect the same. This would add to the case for suggesting that all are members of one species P. purpureus. Also, since granti has often been allied with southern African damarensis, this would question again the status of the latter with regard to P. purpureus. AcknowledgementsI wish to thank David Pearson for his comments and encouragement during the preparation of this note.ReferencesCooPer, m.i, CunninGHam, m. & CHerry, m.i. 2001. Taxonomic status of the Namibian Violet Woodhoopoe Phoeniculus damarensis as determined by mitochrondial DNA. Ibis 143: 572–579.davidson, n.C.1976. The evolution and systematics of the Phoeniculidae. Bulletin of the Nigerian Ornithological Society 12: 2–17.deL hoyo, J. & CoLLar, n.J. 2014. HBW and Birdlife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-Passerines. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions.DiCkinSon, e.C. & remSen, J.v. (eDS). 2013. The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. 4th Edition. Vol 1. Eastbourne, UK: Aves Press.DoWSett, r.J. & DoWSett-lemaire, F. 2015. New avian observations from southwestern Ethiopia, with a review of overlooked literature and altitudinal limits. Bulletin of the British Ornithol-ogists’ Club 135: 224–239.FrieDmann, H. 1930. Birds collected by the Childs Frick Expedition to Ethiopia and Kenya Col-ony. Part 1, Non-Passeres. United States National Museum Bulletin 153. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. Ligon, d. 2001. Family Phoeniculidae in del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Sagatal, J. (eds) Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 6. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions.neumann, o. 1903. Neue afrikanische Species und Subspecies. Ornithologische Monatsberichte 11: 180–186.oBerhoLser, h.C. 1945. Birds of the White-Fuller Expedition to Kenya, East Africa. Scientific Publications of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History 4(3): 43–122.turner. D.a. 2014. The genus Phoeniculus in eastern and northeastern Africa, with remarks concerning the Phoeniculus purpureus superspecies. Scopus 33: 77–79.Donald A. TurnerP.O. Box 1651, Naivasha 20117, KenyaScopus 37(1): 31–33, January 2017Received 18 July 2016Short communications 33

Wood-hoopoes: are Phoeniculus purpureus niloticus (Neumann 1903) and Phoeniculus damararensis granti (Neumann 1903) conspecific?

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Wood-hoopoes: are Phoeniculus purpureus niloticus (Neumann 1903) and Phoeniculus damararensis granti (Neumann 1903) conspecific?

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