<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">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 <i class="">Butorides</i> species are still all in that genus in Birds of the World online. And I can’t imagine splitting <i class="">Butorides</i>, as the two to four currently recognized species are so close they have been combined and split more than once.<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The article claimed that <i class="">Butorides</i> was going to be split into multiple genera, yet the four species listed under <i class="">Procolon</i> are what some consider the four species of <i class="">Butorides</i>! To my knowledge, no other species has ever been included under <i class="">Butorides</i>.<br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Any online search for <i class="">Procolon</i> has given me only a medicine. That Birdful article is very confusing/confused? <br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Dennis Paulson</div><div class="">Seattle<br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Aug 19, 2025, at 09:02, Anne Millbrooke via Tweeters <<a href="mailto:tweeters@u.washington.edu" class="">tweeters@u.washington.edu</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div class=""><div class="yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px;"><div class="">"Green Herons were originally classified in 1766 by Carl Linnaeus as <i class="">Ardea virescens</i>, with <i class="">Ardea</i> being the broad genus containing typical larger herons. The <i class="">virescens</i> portion of the name is Latin for greenish.</div><br class="">"Later it was given its own genus as <i class="">Butorides virescens</i>, first by Baird in 1858. <i class="">Butorides</i> comes from Latin for “bittern” again nodding to some of their bittern-like habits."<br class=""><br class=""><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false" class="">"For many decades <span class=""><i style="font-family: "times new roman", "new york", times, serif; font-size: 16px;" class="">Butorides virescens</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman", "new york", times, serif; font-size: 16px;" class="">,</span></span> was the accepted scientific name. However, a 2021 review of heron evolutionary relationships proposed splitting <i class="">Butorides</i> back into multiple genera. Under this taxonomic update, Green Herons are now placed in the genus <i class="">Procolon</i>, as <i class="">Procolon virescens</i>.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">"So in summary, the scientific names for Green Herons have shifted from:</div><i class="">Ardea virescens</i> –> <i class="">Butorides virescens</i> –> <i class="">Procolon virescens</i><br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">"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 <i class="">virescens</i> portion connecting Green Herons to their green plumage has remained constant."</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Source: Birdful, <a href="https://www.birdful.org/what-are-the-names-of-green-herons/" class="">https://www.birdful.org/what-are-the-names-of-green-herons/</a></div></div></div>_______________________________________________<br class="">Tweeters mailing list<br class=""><a href="mailto:Tweeters@u.washington.edu" class="">Tweeters@u.washington.edu</a><br class="">http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters<br class=""></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></div></div></body></html>