Asian Pied Starling is split into three species: a poltypic Indian Pied Starling Gracupica contra, with subspecies contra, sordida, and superciliaris; a monotypic Siamese Pied Starling Gracupica floweri; and a monotypic Javan Pied Starling Gracupica jalla. Note that we previously floweri, now recognized as a species, in the group Asian Pied Starling (Asian) Gracupica contra [contra Group]. These splits are based on patterns of genetic divergence, including evidence of a lack of gene flow between Indian Pied Starling and Siamese Pied Starling despite parapatric distributions (Baveja et al. 2020).
@loarie Any thoughts on this split? It sounds like the species in this complex are highly popular in aviculture, and that ultimately results in escapees. Of note, it seems there are no real observations of G. jalla since all Javan obs are causal reports of captive birds, so even though they are found throughout Java, I've only atlased one region with no obs so everything on Java isn't transferred to them.
@loarie Any thoughts on this split? It sounds like the species in this complex are highly popular in aviculture, and that ultimately results in escapees. Of note, it seems there are no real observations of G. jalla since all Javan obs are causal reports of captive birds, so even though they are found throughout Java, I've only atlased one region with no obs so everything on Java isn't transferred to them.