Well, it doesn’t look like iNat has implemented the taxonomic split yet so hardly an urgent matter for common names for species or genus. You could call the genus “Sturnella Meadowlarks” and I don’t think anyone would protest (much).
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In honour of Vampirella’s mysterious, largely unknown younger sister. I like it.
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I would.
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Is there a naming schema to highlight their disappearing habitat and draw attention to it? Is “Grassland Meadowlarks” an appropriate description?
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It’s like saying “feline catbirds”, or “nocturnal nightjar”. They are called meadowlarks for a reason, and Leistes meadowlarks live in grassland anyway.
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Per polling so far, it seems like people prefer descriptive naming that helps identify features. Two not-at-all serious options:
- Larky McLarkface - obligatory, see: Boaty McBoatface
- Central Meadowlark - geographical compromise between eastern, western, and Chihuahuan.
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I’ve never been a fan of common names that use cardinal directions, such as Eastern, Western, etc. East and west of what? If you don’t know the taxon at all, you have to know what continent is being referenced to make sense of that descriptor. But that’s a minor thing, not a real complaint, and nothing I lose sleep over … like with any species name.
Larky McLarkface would probably win in a vote with the general public.
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Of those choices, I’d pick Yellow-breasted Meadowlarks, but I think just calling them meadowlarks would be fine. That’s what they’ve been for decades, and I see no important reason not to call the southern hemisphere meadowlarks meadowlarks also, though they may not be in a different genus. Lots of meadowlarks.
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Haha! Yes, we didn’t realize how redundant that suggestion was 
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Yeah.
I’m not a fan of cardinal naming either, but still hoping to see a Sceloporus occidentalis on a western-facing fence someday.
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Hmmm, I think the lizard is Western and not the fence it’s basking on.
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Pretty sure that’s what the people who work with them will be calling them, at least when they aren’t just calling them Sturnella. It’s what I would call them if I were ever in a conversation where I wanted to distinguish them from other meadowlarks, but that’s mostly because I have a biologist’s education and scientific names come naturally to me. Most of the rest of the world will call them whatever they already call them. The effect of this split is going to be pretty limited and like it or not, a lot of folks who don’t know scientific names are going to refer to North American meadowlarks, at least initially, just because that’s what they are.
If I was going to have some fun with this I’d go with Jaundiced Meadowlarks. It’s at least not boring.
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…or Lemon Meadowlarks, if names related to liver pathology don’t do it for you.
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I see that the genus Aechmophorus is called the “Western and Clark’s Grebes” on iNat (was that invented on iNat or already in use?), but I’ve seen birders on eBird and elsewhere refer to them generally as Aechmophorus grebes when discussing an observation of an ambiguous specimen. That genus name is certainly more of a mouthful than Sturnella.
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I’m repeating a lot but…
The Clements update will happen in a few weeks and once it’s published, changes will start happening on iNat. And I’m just tackling problems early like common names.
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For that matter, calling them “Sturnella Meadowlarks” would not be unprecedented.
I find that much better than the other proposals; but not knowing the habitat of the Leistes Meadowlarks, I don’t know whether the iNat community would find it distinctive enough. Although I do see @elpatitojuan2 's point that “meadowlark” literally means “grassland lark” anyway.
Mainly, I just find that habitat or behavioral descriptors seem more meaningful in general than plumage or geographical descriptors. “Wandering Albatross” tells me more about the bird’s life than “Black-browed Albatross.” “Palmchat” gives me a better idea of where to look for the bird than “Yellow-breasted Chat.”
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So we wait until there’s an established common name (we don’t invent them for iNat purposes) and then we apply that common name. There’s no urgency and nothing for us to do here at all (except for fun to see if any of us end up guessing what the new common name will be–if there will ever be one established). Is there a policy that all bird genera must have common names? Also, remember that common names are whatever names the common folk happen to be using (a vernacular name in common usage). There’s no requirement that common names be “officially accepted” like scientific names.
Around here, folks call turkey vultures turkey buzzards. That’s a perfectly acceptable common name! In Florida, gophers are called salamanders and in the Dakotas, ground squirrels are called gophers. All perfectly acceptable common names!
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I’ll be curious to see how “Chihuahuan Meadowlark” is split out with records/range map on iNat. As far as I know I’ve only seen or heard about that form in my corner of the U.S. but don’t know if or where they might overlap with Eastern. But then I’ve not looked at the source study for this split.
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No, there’s no official terminology that I know for naming bird genera. Most of what we do have is slang that birders just start using a general whole rather than a vote from a committee. I mean one of the AOS proposals for 2022 was “Revise linear sequence of genera in Troglodytidae”, where they said “Troglodytidae” instead of “wrens”. But we all know they’re wrens so that’s the common name for the family. Just like how the common name for Falconiiformes is “falcons” because that’s what that order is consisted of. Genus Haliaeetus are often called “sea-eagles” because they’re all mostly oceanic and prey predominately on fish even though some species don’t have “sea-eagle” in the name like the Bald Eagle.
But you do reach gray zones. I have heard some people refer to Accipiter as “true hawks”. To me, that’s not a good name. Are you suggesting all other hawks are fake? Additionally, if I’m out birding with someone and someone shouts out “HAWK!”, I’m going to think of Buteo, because to me, that’s what a hawk is. My mind won’t go to those little bird hunters living in forests. So, my definition of a Accipiter is a “forest hawk”, and Buteo are “rangeland hawks”.
There are, however, official common names for species. Doesn’t mean a species can’t have multiple common names like the ones you mentioned, but there’s always a widely accepted term. People are bound to continue calling the aforementioned meadowlark, the Lilian’s Meadowlark. To me, it will forever be Mew Gull because the official name of “Short-billed Gull” is just silly. When I saw my first Long-tailed Duck (official name), the birder with me called it an Oldsquaw (former official name). I still call it a Gray Jay, even though everyone else has reverted to Canada Jay. And the list goes on and on.
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