Black-mantled goshawk

The black-mantled goshawk (Tachyspiza melanochlamys) is a species of bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. It is found in the highlands of New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. This species was formerly placed in the genus Accipiter.

Black-mantled goshawk
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Accipitriformes
Family:	Accipitridae
Genus:	Tachyspiza
Species:	T. melanochlamys
Binomial name
Tachyspiza melanochlamys (Salvadori, 1876)
Synonyms
Urospizias melanochlamys Salvadori, 1876 Astur melanochlamys schistacinus Rothschild & Hartert, 1913

The black-mantled goshawk was figured in John Gould's The Birds of New Guinea and the Adjacent Papuan Islands, where it was placed in the genus Astur. The plate was prepared by William Matthew Hart.^[2]

Taxonomy

The black-mantled goshawk was formally described in 1876 by the Italian zoologist Tommaso Salvadori based on a specimen collected in the Arfak Mountains of western New Guinea. He coined the binomial name Urospizias melanochlamys.^[3][4] This species was formerly placed in the genus Accipiter. In 2024 a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study of the Accipitridae confirmed earlier work that had shown that the genus was polyphyletic.^[5][6] To resolve the non-monophyly, Accipiter was divided into six genera. The genus Tachyspiza was resurrected to accommodate the black-mantled goshawk together with 26 other species that had previously been placed in Accipiter. The resurrected genus had been introduced in 1844 by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup.^[7] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek ταχυς (takhus) meaning "fast" with σπιζιας (spizias) meaning "hawk".^[8] The specific epithet melanochlamys combines the Ancient Greek μελας (melas), μελανος (melanos) meaning "black" with χλαμυς (khlamus), χλαμυδος (khlamudos) meaning "cloak" or "mantle".^[9]

This species has been treated as polytypic; however, the more recent contention is that it is monotypic, following Bruce Beehler and Thane Pratt.^[10] The form schistacinus was described from Mount Goliath by Walter Rothschild and Ernst Hartert in 1913. They described this subspecies as being distinct from the nominate in "the black of the upperside, including wings and tail, having a decided greyish wash or bloom, so that, instead of being glossy black, the upper surface is slaty black, and the collar, and especially the underside, is distinctly paler, more cinnamon-chestnut than rufous-chestnut."^[11] Beehler & Pratt wrote that they did "not think this minor clinal distinction merits recognition."^[10]

References

1. BirdLife International (2016). "Accipiter melanochlamys". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22695532A93513869. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22695532A93513869.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
2. Gould, John (1886). The Birds of New Guinea and the Adjacent Papuan Islands: including many new species recently discovered in Australia. London: Henry Sotheran. Plate 1 and text.
3. Salvadori, Tommaso (1875). "Descrizione di cinquantotto nuove specie di uccelli, ed osservazioni intorno ad altre poco note, della Nuova Guinea e di altre Isole Papuane, raccolte dal Dr. Opoarpo Reccari e dai cacciatori del Sig. A.A. Bruijn". Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova (in Italian and Latin). 7 (published 1876): 896–976 [905].
4. Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1979). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 333.
5. Catanach, T.A.; Halley, M.R.; Pirro, S. (2024). "Enigmas no longer: using ultraconserved elements to place several unusual hawk taxa and address the non-monophyly of the genus Accipiter (Accipitriformes: Accipitridae)". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society: blae028. doi:10.1093/biolinnean/blae028.
6. Mindell, D.; Fuchs, J.; Johnson, J. (2018). "Phylogeny, taxonomy, and geographic diversity of diurnal raptors: Falconiformes, Accipitriformes, and Cathartiformes". In Sarasola, J.H.; Grange, J.M.; Negro, J.J. (eds.). Birds of Prey: Biology and conservation in the XXI century. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. pp. 3–32. ISBN 978-3-319-73744-7.
7. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2024). "Hoatzin, New World vultures, Secretarybird, raptors". IOC World Bird List Version 14.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
8. Jobling, James A. "Tachyspiza". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
9. Jobling, James A. "melanochlamys". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
10. Beehler, B.M.; Pratt, T.K. (2016). Birds of New Guinea: Distribution, Taxonomy, and Systematics. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 211. ISBN 978-0-691-16424-3.
11. Rothschild, Walter; Hartert, Ernst (1913). "List of the collections of birds made by Albert S. Meek in the lower ranges of the Snow Mountains, on the Eilanden River, and on Mount Goliath in the years 1910 and 1911". Novitates Zoologicae. 20: 473-527 [482].