Proposal (1044B-rev) to South American Classification Committee

English names for Formicarius nigricapillus and F. destructus - revised

This is simply an extension of part B of proposal 1044B to expand the voting to a ranked-choice system. The extensive discussion of the procs and cons of each choice are in the Comments section of SACC 1044.

Rank each choice from 1 (favorite) to 4 (least favorite).

Formicarius nigricapillus:

a. Black-capped

b. Black-crowned

c. Black-headed

d. Black-hooded

e. Central American

Formicarius destructus:

a. Black-hooded

b. Choco

Voting chart: https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCPropChart1044+.htm

Comments from Donsker:

“Formicarius nigricapillus.

1. Black-crowned

2. Black-capped

3. Black-headed

4. Central American (but only if "Choco" is chosen for F. destructus, in which case this name would rise to rank 1

5. Black-hooded

“Formicarius destructus

1. Black-hooded

2. Choco”

Comments from Remsen: Overall, I like best the names suggested in the original paper, especially for the point of maintaining a connection to the original Black-headed.

“Formicarius nigricapillus.

1. Black-capped (despite the slight misnomer, I like the connection to the scientific name, thus making both easier to remember

2. Black-crowned

3. Black-headed (this is a case in which retaining a parental name for one of the daughters is acceptable, because “headed” does best describe the plumage

4. Central American (but as noted by David, if Choco comes out first then I would bump the ranking, although probably not to #1)

5. Black-hooded

“Formicarius destructus

1. Black-hooded (good descriptive name, especially in comparison to nigricapillus)

2. Choco (also a good name, in particular because it is already in use … but so is Black-hooded, in the technical paper that provides the evidence for the split).”

Comments from Andrew Spencer (voting for Naka): “I would vote as follows:

“Formicarius nigricapillus:

1. Central American (but only if Choco is chosen for destructus)

2. Black-capped (if destructus gets named Black-hooded, this becomes number 1 for me)

3. Black-crowned

4. Black-hooded

5. Black-headed (though I would add that this I am very much against this name being retained at all and only include it here based on the voting prompt)

“Formicarius destructus:

1. Choco (but see above)

2. Black-hooded”

Comments from Gary Rosenberg (voting for Claramunt):

“For Formicarius nigricapillus:

1) Black-capped

2) Central American

3) Black-headed

4) Black-crowned

5) Black-hooded

“For Formicarius destructus:

1) Black-hooded

2) Choco

“My comments are similar to my previous comments - I prefer Black-capped for nigricapillus as it retains the connection to the scientific name, and I don’t think changing it to “crowned” makes much sense. For “destructus” I like Black-hooded as it retains the connection to Black-headed, and it was what the authors suggested. If we go with geographic names, which I am not against, then Central American and Choco makes the most sense, but it is my second choice for both - and agree with others that the two should be used in conjunction - so either Black-capped and Black-crowned, or Central American and Choco - but not splitting up the pairs.”

Comments from Josh Beck:

“nigricapillus:

1) Black-capped

2) Black-crowned

3) Black-headed

4) Central American (but only if in conjunction with Choco)

5) Black-hooded

“destructus:

1) Black-hooded (strong preference)

2) Choco

“I still think that any of the names will be ok, and the total confusion will be little; this is not a messy group. Given that, I give weight to the authors' suggested names, the English/binomial alignment for nigricapillus, keeping the two names a bit aligned to each other, and keeping the two names aligned to the original name. Further to the issue of the name Central American: I know I said it before, but I think it would be particularly poor to give this name to nigricapillus given that a future split of F analis is very likely. In this case, reserving Central American for F analis analis makes far more sense to me as it is by a good margin the most commonly observed or heard Antthrush in Central America, it mirrors well with Mayan Antthrush and it is already the group name in use by eBird and in a few other random places (likely inspired by eBird).”

Comments from Stiles: “(name choices in order); for nigricapillus: abcde; for destructus: ab.”