[Tweeters] naming green heron

[via Tweeters]

Anne, might you be able to find the citation of the original paper that made this generic change? I follow the names of birds very closely, and I have never heard of this decision. The Butorides species are still all in that genus in Birds of the World online. And I can’t imagine splitting Butorides, as the two to four currently recognized species are so close they have been combined and split more than once.

The article claimed that Butorides was going to be split into multiple genera, yet the four species listed under Procolon are what some consider the four species of Butorides! To my knowledge, no other species has ever been included under Butorides.

Any online search for Procolon has given me only a medicine. That Birdful article is very confusing/confused? 

Dennis Paulson
Seattle


> On Aug 19, 2025, at 09:02, Anne Millbrooke via Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:

> 

> "Green Herons were originally classified in 1766 by Carl Linnaeus as Ardea virescens, with Ardea being the broad genus containing typical larger herons. The virescens portion of the name is Latin for greenish.

> 

> "Later it was given its own genus as Butorides virescens, first by Baird in 1858. Butorides comes from Latin for “bittern” again nodding to some of their bittern-like habits."

> 

> "For many decades Butorides virescens, was the accepted scientific name. However, a 2021 review of heron evolutionary relationships proposed splitting Butorides back into multiple genera. Under this taxonomic update, Green Herons are now placed in the genus Procolon, as Procolon virescens.

> 

> "So in summary, the scientific names for Green Herons have shifted from:

> Ardea virescens –> Butorides virescens –> Procolon virescens

> 

> "This illustrates how our understanding of taxonomy is continually being updated as new studies shed light on the evolutionary relationships between bird species. Regardless of genus, the virescens portion connecting Green Herons to their green plumage has remained constant."

> 

> Source: Birdful, https://www.birdful.org/what-are-the-names-of-green-herons/

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