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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by SandyGeorgia 21:39, 16 September 2010 [1].

Madeira Firecrest

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Madeira Firecrest (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

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Nominator(s): Jimfbleak - talk to me? 10:14, 10 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Small, yet perfectly formed — at least the bird is. This little Madeiran beauty has only recently been recognised as a separate species, and since, unlike Zino's Petrel, it's not endangered, there's not a huge amount of research compared with that on its widespread continental cousin Jimfbleak - talk to me? 10:14, 10 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Note that checklinks says that ref 5 is subscription only, but the full article is in fact freely available, so I've not amended the ref Jimfbleak - talk to me? 10:21, 10 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comment. No problems with dablinks or deadlinks. Ref 5 is indeed reachable without subscription. For that link, I suggest it would be an enhancement to link instead to the abstract page, since the current link triggers an immediate PDF download. In my view this may needlessly put some people off, whereas the abstract page gives information straight away while also providing links to the other two views (full view, and PDF download). PL290 (talk) 10:49, 10 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for checking. The abstract page (actually the article's first page) is already linked via the doi, so the option is there. My normal practice is always to link to the full article if possible, but never to link to abstracts other than when unavoidable (like doi). This is because a link to a commercial page inviting purchase of the article is a bit too close to spam for my liking Jimfbleak - talk to me? 12:01, 10 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with Jim. J Milburn (talk) 14:05, 10 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Thanks, I couldn't find anything free to use

Taking a proper read through-

  • "This kinglet usually hops with its body held horizontally" What does that mean, sorry? (I see now, though it wasn't clear before- would taxonomy not go before description? That's how we do it with fungi articles)
  • "Cytochrome b gene divergence between" Suddenly very technical- links?
  • linked in previous sentence, surely overlinking to do so here?
  • "but not all authorities have recognised the new species" Who hasn't? Why not?
  • "(although the Madeiran birds react strongly to playback of the calls of mainland Firecrests)" Again, sorry, I don't follow
  • The point I was making in this sentence is that the continental Firecrests don't respond to the calls of the Madeira birds, which is evidence for species status, but the Madeiran form does recognise The European bird calls, which I thought was worth putting as a parenthetical statement Jimfbleak - talk to me? 15:15, 11 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • "The island form was split as the monotypic Madeira Firecrest based on differences in morphology, vocalisations, and genetics." Perhaps I'm just a little dull today, but, again, I didn't follow.
  • Yes, I've just left the description of the song in Description, and moved the lack of recognition by Common Firecrests to Taxonomy, tweaked to make clearer too Jimfbleak - talk to me?
  • "to endemic tree heaths" Like what?
  • "The clutch size is unknown" Does a reliable source note that note research has been done, or is this a way of saying "I couldn't find a source"?
  • "moss and lichens which often covers the" moss and lichen which often covers, or mosses and lichens which often cover, presumably?
  • "Even the high mountain nest sites of the endangered Zino's Petrel are not safe from these adaptable predators." A bit David Attenborough- rephrase?
  • "Data on specific parasites of the Madeira Firecrest is lacking" Again...
  • Unlike the other two instances where I have been able to provide some evidence that the research has not been done, I can't do so here. I certainly couldn't find anything, and it's an unlikely candidate, especially since there is little parasitology even for Common Firecrest. Studies tend to be done on common and widespread species where the nests are easy to find, such as swallows, sparrows and thrushes. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 14:53, 11 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • "although its population has not been evaluated." Again- do you have sources for these statements, or are they based on the fact you couldn't find any information?
  • Harcourt described this distinctive island form, so he is the authority for this Madeiran bird whether it is considered as a full species or as a subspecies of Firecrest. Many of Linnaeus' species aren't even in the same family that he placed them in, nevertheless, he described them, and remains the authority for all time Jimfbleak - talk to me? 12:25, 11 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Generally pretty good. I don't know if this is a touchy subject, but nominating at GAC first may have been helpful to you. J Milburn (talk) 11:47, 11 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sources comment: All sources look OK, no outstanding issues. Brianboulton (talk) 15:43, 12 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Support with a few minor comments:

  • Instead of the current map, a map showing the location of Madeira may be more informative.
  • I thought about that, but it's easy enough to follow the link if people don't know where the island is, and I wanted to show the archipelago because this is one of a series of Madeira endemics, not all of which breed on the main island
  • [[monotyping|monotypic]] – er... (I reworded the entire sentence)
  • thanks, much better
  • Do we know why it doesn't occur on the minor islands of the Madeira archipelago?
  • None of them now have suitable laurel forest habitat. Porto Santo used to have forests, and Trocaz Pigeon once occurred there, but was extirpated when the forests went. I could find no evidence that the firecrest ever bred there, but it's less likely than the large, crop-eating and edible pigeon to have been mentioned in the old sources anyway. The smaller islands are uninhabited now, whether they were were ever capable of supporting a woodland bird is questionable.

Support (moral or otherwise) as birds wikiproject contributor. Nothing jumps out as glaringly fixable. Comprehensive and prose polished. Casliber (talk · contribs) 04:15, 16 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

  • Thanks for review and support. I've put in all I can find, and even checked on the recent fire. Unsurprisingly, nothing regarding the firecrest, especially as their damp forests don't make great tinder.


The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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