Proposal (1066) to South American Classification Committee

Revise the English names of the Heterocercus manakins.

The SACC has requested this proposal in notes 17a, 18, and 19 in the Manakins section of its list of species (https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline08.htm).

Currently the SACC and Clements/eBird (Clements et al. 2025) use “crowned” in the English names the three Heterocercus species:

*Orange-crowned manakin (H. aurantiivertex)

*Yellow-crowned manakin (H. flavivertex)

*Flame-crowned manakin (H. linteatus)

The IOC (Gill et al. 2024) and BirdLife International (HBW/BLI 2025) use “crested” in the three names. Previous authors also did so, for example Ridgely and Tudor (1994) and Kirwan and Green (2011). Field guides to Ecuador (Ridgely and Greenfield 2001) and Venezuela (Hilty 2003) do so as well. Most importantly to my mind, so does the brand-new AviList (Avilist Core Team 2025). Clements intends to fully or nearly so mirror AviList in its 2026 update; it made few English name changes in 2025.

Ironically, “crested” appears to apply only when the male is displaying; most of the time “crowned” is appropriate. Despite the irony, I propose replacing “crowned” with “crested”:

*Orange-crested manakin (H. aurantiivertex)

*Yellow-crested manakin (H. flavivertex)

*Flame-crested manakin (H. linteatus)

This proposal will align the SACC with the current AviList, IOC, and HBW/BLI names and what almost surely will be the 2026 Clements names.

Literature cited:

AviList Core Team. 2025. AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025. https://doi.org/10.2173/avilist.v2025

Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, M. Smith, and C. L. Wood. 2025. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2025. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/

Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2024. IOC World Bird List (v 15.1). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.15.1. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/

HBW and BirdLife International (2025). Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 10. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/about-our-science/taxonomy#birdlife-s-taxonomic-checklist

Hilty, S. L. 2003. Birds of Venezuela, 2nd ed. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 878 pp.

Kirwan, G., and G. Green. 2011. Cotingas and Manakins. Princeton Univ. Press, New Jersey, 624 pp.

Ridgely, R. S., and P. J. Greenfield. 2001. The Birds of Ecuador. Vol. I. Status, Distribution, and Taxonomy. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 848 pp.

Ridgely, R. S., and G. Tudor. 1994. The birds of South America, Vol. 2. University Texas Press, Austin.

Craig Caldwell, November 3, 2025

Vote tracking chart:

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

Comments from Remsen: “NO. As noted in the proposal, ‘crested’ in this case refers only to when males erect their crown patch during display. Otherwise, the bird in the field is as flat-headed as any other tyrannoid called ‘crowned’ with color patches no more visible than in several species called ‘crowned’.

“Ridgely & Tudor (1989) changed the ‘crowned’ to ‘crested’ with the following rationale:

“Only the coronal patch (or crest) is colored in males of the genus, not the entire crown. Under normal field conditions the color is actually barely visible. We thus suggest a sight modification of each species’ English name so as to indicate that the color does not encompass the entire crown (as for example, in the White-crowned and Blue-crowned Manakins).

“Regardless, I think that when bird people read “crested”, they are expecting something with a prominent tuft of feathers on the head, not a semi-concealed crown patch erected only during display. Also, this assumes that the use of “crown” refers to the entire top of the head … which is dead wrong in birds. Just as frequently, it refers to minor ornamentation on top of the head, e.g., widespread familiar North American species such as White-crowned Sparrow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and Orange-crowned Warbler, and a bunch of SACC birds that I will compile later. If crown were inaccurate, where is the outcry to change to “Ruby-crested Kinglet”?

“The use of ‘crest’ in bird names typically refers to head plumage that is elevated above or behind the crown, not an erectile crown patch. For example, birds in the SACC area with “crested” in their names include the Crested-Tinamous, Crested Guan, Wire-crested Thorntail, Rufous-crested Coquette, Erect-crested Penguin, Crested Eagle, Crested Owl, Crested Quetzal, Crimson-crested Woodpecker, Hairy-crested Antbird, Crested Gallito, Crested Hornero, Black-crested Tit-Tyrant, Crested Doradito, Crested Black-Tyrant, Plush-crested Jay, Crested Ant-Tanager, Flame-crested Tanager, Crested Finch, Black-crested Finch, Red-crested Cardinal, etc.). In other cases, when the crested is not normally held erect, at least one can see the flattened crest because of its color or elongated feathers, which may alter the head profile (e.g., Red-crested Cotinga, Long-crested Pygmy-Tyrant, White-crested Elaenia). On the other hand, I can think of at least three cases that are reasonably comparable to Heterocercus: Saffron-crested Tyrant-Manakin, Orange-crested Flycatcher and Crested Oropendola.

“I am tempted to just cave on this one and ‘go with the flow’ because AviList and others have gone ‘crested’ (without asking us), and so maybe it’s not worth putting up a fuss. But in this case, the name is less accurate and more confusing. If this were a positive or neutral change, then I’d vote Yes just to be consistent with other lists, but not for a ‘negative’ change. In fact, if we do reject this one, I’m going to propose to AviList to return to the more accurate ‘crowned,’ in part just to see if this seemingly ‘top down’ name process can be reversed, especially in a case in which the species are restricted to the SACC area. If we don’t rject the proposal, I will stick to my NO vote as a protest against useless name-meddling.

“From at least 1929 (Hellmayr) through Meyer de Schauensee (1966, 1970) through at least 1986 (Hilty, Colombia), these species were known as ‘crowned’ manakins. 50+ years of stability. Then, after Ridgely and Tudor (1989) many sources adopted ‘crested’ but many did not (e.g., Restall et al. 2006, Schulenberg et al. Peru 2007, Herzog et al. Bolivia 2016, Dickinson-Christidis 2014), including SACC. What a mess. All because of what I consider an unusual interpretation of what a ‘crest’ is in birds.

Comments from Mario Cohn-Haft (guest voter): “NO on calling the Heterocercus manakins “crested”.  A crest is almost always imagined as being a notable projection on the top or back of the head of a bird, visible in profile, even in silhouette. In tyrannoids, on the other hand, the “semi-concealed crown patch” (also sometimes called ‘coronal" = crown = “-vertex" of their scientific names), such as found in these guys, is such a familiar wording and phenomenon that it’s practically an expectation. It’s true that there are plenty of examples of crown and crest being used in common names in inconsistent and conflicting ways, so it’s certainly not a huge issue. But I can’t see any advantage in calling these crests, let alone going out of the way to change long-established names that were actually better than the ‘newbies’.

“On the other hand, I’ve long been impressed at how different this genus is from other manakins in plumage pattern and body shape, and iI like the idea of their having a (genus-level) common name to distinguish them. But that would be a different proposal altogether: something like “swallow-manakin” (you heard it here first) in allusion to their long wings and even longish tails and above-canopy, sweeping aerial flight displays and so on. We can save that for another day. But meanwhile, seems worth sticking to our guns on these ‘crowned’ manakins.”