Talk:Pirre hummingbird

Name

The naming "Rufous-cheeked" of this species was in contention and was voted down as an accepted name in August of 2007 by the S. American Classification Committee. The following was noted as the reasoning behind voting down the new name. "This proposal change the current SACC name, "Pirre Hummingbird" for Goethalsia bella to the newer "Rufous-cheeked Hummingbird", used by AOU (1983,1998), Ridgely & Gwynne (1989) and Sibley & Monroe (1990). I don't know who coined the latter name, but it seems to me to represent the epitome of useless tinkering with English names and an entirely unnecessary attempt to impose an Eisenmann-type "descriptive" name.

On the one hand, "Pirre Hummingbird" is a perfectly correct toponym taken from the type locality; the species has a very limited geographical range including only 3-4 isolated massifs in the Darién region of Panamá and the border with Colombia: use of toponyms in such cases is a useful indicator of a very restricted distribution, and the fact that the bird also occurs on a few adjacent mountains does not detract from this.

On the other hand, "Rufous-cheeked" is a singularly poor descriptor; the anterior forehead, lores and chin are rufous (or better, chestnut) but not the cheeks, thus the name is decidedly misleading. (The general effect is that of a bird that has just taken a drink from a cup of cocoa). Hence, I see no reason to perpetuate a poor descriptor with an established and adequate toponym already in place, and advocate the use of "Pirre Hummingbird" for Goethalsia bella, namely a NO vote. A YES would be in favor of use of "Rufous-cheeked".—Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.188.253.15 (talk) 16 November 2008

The text above was quoted from [1], which is cited in the article (as of the time I'm posting this). According to [2], the proposal (#304) failed on 1 Oct 2007. - dcljr (talk) 08:54, 22 January 2010 (UTC)