FitzPatrick Institute Seminar: 'Warbler secrets revealed by songs and DNA' by Per Alström

The avian superfamily Sylvioidea ("warblers", larks, swallows, bulbuls etc.) has been intensely studied by molecular markers in recent years, revealing a multitude of previously unexpected relationships. A number of well supported major clades have been established, and proposed to be recognised at the family level, although the relationships among these are still uncertain. Within these families, previously recognised genera have frequently been found to be non-monophyletic, calling for taxonomic revision, and underscoring the perils of basing classifications on non-cladistic evaluations of morphological data. Moreover, molecular markers in combination with non-molecular data, notably vocalizations, have shown that many taxa currently treated as subspecies are highly distinct, leading to reclassification of these as separate species. In some genera, this has led to a substantial increase in the number of recognised species. The present talk will give an overview and some examples of recent advances in the systematics of "warblers", mainly based on the speaker's research on (primarily) Eurasian species.