[obol] WILSON'S SNIPE and taxonomy/nomenclature

[Brittany Cline]

Beautiful pictures of the recent Wilson's Snipe sighting at BSNWR! Thanks so much for posting a link to these photos on obol. I'm a graduate student at OSU, studying Wilson's Snipe habitat use and movement in the Willamette Valley -- across all seasons of the annual cycle. I have much interest in the historical context of the snipe nomenclature and taxonomy question, so I thought I'd add a few more details about the recent taxonomic split (AOU 2002) between Common Snipe (Eurasian distribution) and Wilson's Snipe (North American distribution). 



The taxonomic classification of the North American Wilson’s Snipe (Gallinago delicata) as a separate and distinct species from the Eurasian Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) is a recent amendment to the AOU checklist of North American birds (2002).  However, Lars is correct -- prior to 1945, the  North American snipe was also referred to as 'Wilson's' -- named after Alexander Wilson (often referred to as the 'Father of American Ornithology' in honor of his quest to inventory all of the birds in the Americas during the early 19th century).
     
   According to the AOU, Gallinago delicata was formerly considered a subspecies of a holarctic breeding species of snipe Gallinago gallinago, due to overall morphological similarities between these snipe taxa in North America and Eurasia . Between 1945 and 2002, the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) recognized the holarctic breeding taxa as a single species of Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) divided into two groups, one in North America (delicata, including one subspecies), and another across Eurasia (gallinago, including two subspecies) (Mueller 1999). Differences in morphology and display sounds between North American delicata and Eurasian gallinago groups suggested that these should be treated as separate species as they were until 1945 (Miller 1996). Chief among these morphological differences is the number, width, and pattern of the outer tail retrices; the delicata group has 16 retrices, which are narrower and more distinctly barred than the 14 outer retrices
 of the gallinago group. The two species are now separated on the basis of these fairly distinct morphological differences in number and shape of tail feathers (which, in turn, affects the winnowing display sounds associated with differences in tail morphology). In 2002, an AOU ruling reclassified and split the gallinago and delicata groups into distinct species, and the Wilson’s Snipe (Gallinago delicata) is now recognized as a nearctic breeder of the North American continent.
     
   For those interested in phylogenetic relationships between these two species... Although the recent AOU species split of Wilson ’s (Gallinago delicata) and Common (Gallinago gallinago) Snipe was made on the basis of morphological and behavioral criteria, some limited molecular analysis has been done to determine the phylogenetic relationships between these snipe taxa. Zink et al. (1995) performed analysis based on restriction site fragments of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from the North American and Eurasian taxa. Results revealed a low level of sequence divergence (0.6%) between the two groups, and the authors suggested that more sampling is needed to determine if there is a discrete mtDNA boundary corresponding to the geographic distribution of the North American and Eurasian groups. 


Hope this is helpful! I'm really glad to hear of local snipe sightings and see photos -- thanks VERY much for sharing this.



Britt Cline
GRA, Oregon State University
bcline at usgs.gov
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