Template talk:Speciesbox

Banding codes for birds?

I wanted to suggest a potential addition to the speciesbox for bird species, the banding code. These are standardized 4 or 6-letter abbreviations of bird names used for brevity in checklists and database entry (4-letter based on the common name, e.g. MODO for MOurning DOve, 6-letter based on the binomial name, e.g. ZENMAC for Zenaida macroura) based on the common name. For many they are self evident, but for others there is ambiguity (should Great Blue Heron be GBHE? GRBH?) or conflict (Canada Goose, for example, is CANG, rather than CAGO, as CAGO conflicts with Cackling Goose). I think it would be useful for birders to be able to quickly reference these codes in the speciesbox. Gvbox (talk) 22:58, 25 July 2023 (UTC)

With two standards (BBL & IBP) and limited geographic applicability (North & Central America), I'm not sure these abbreviations should be incorporated into speciesboxes. If somebody is interested in these, in what direction would they be likely to search? 1) From the full name of the bird to find the abbreviation, or 2) from the abbreviation to find the full name of the bird? I would guess it's 1, but if it's 2, creating redirects for the abbreviations might be appropriate. iNaturalist lists abbreviations as common names in the "language" "Aou 4 Letter Codes"; does AOU follow BBL or IBP? WT:BIRDS might be a better place to discuss presenting the abbreviations in articles. Plantdrew (talk) 01:53, 26 July 2023 (UTC)

The {{taxonbar}} might be a better location if the codes were available on Wikidata. I can't find the AMBBP/BBL or IBP codes on Wikidata, so they would need to be added. The EURING number (P3459) is already available and that seems a similar thing. It might also be possible to allow it as a manual parameter in the taxonbar, although these seem to be discouraged. —  Jts1882 | talk  09:58, 26 July 2023 (UTC)

Error tracking when genus parameter (or first word in taxon parameter) isn't a genus?

At Peracle reticulata, the family Peraclidae had been put in |genus=. A taxobox displayed, but with no genus and the binomial displaying as Peraclidae reticulata. It seems like this is something that should go in an error tracking category. Plantdrew (talk) 20:28, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

Not Evaluated

Is there a reason that 'Not Evaluated' appears differently from other statuses? It's the only one I've seen that is spelled in italics and does not link to its corresponding article. – Primium (talk) 15:50, 6 May 2024 (UTC)

Never noticed that before, but I assume it is to distinguish it from an actual conservation status. 'Not recognised' is also italicised and 'Invalid status' is in italics and bold. Why is it not linked? Possibly it was considered self-explanatory when the templates were written and no one added link when the article was created. —  Jts1882 | talk  16:13, 6 May 2024 (UTC)

@Primium: I've linked the article and removed the italics for consistency, as the IUCN do list it as a category.

I'll add that I'm not sure of the value of showing this in the taxobox. 'Not recognised' (see Southern giraffe) has even less value. In contrast Data deficient does provide some information. —  Jts1882 | talk  16:48, 6 May 2024 (UTC)

Italics not rendering

Hello! I'm trying to use speciesbox for an article, Microhodotermes viator, and neither the name in the infobox nor the article's title is being automatically italicized by the template. I've worked around it with the Italic title template and by setting the name in the infobox with italic formatting, but as you can see in this version, without these hacks neither the article title nor the infobox name are italicized. Would appreciate any insight/help! Thanks very much :) ꧁Zanahary꧂ 05:07, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

I see you sorted it out. A better way is to provide |taxon=Microhodotermes viator and the template will automatically handle the italics. You didn't provide |taxon= or |genus= + |species= so it took the scientific name from the page title which doesn't get the italics handled.  —  Jts1882 | talk  08:26, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

Gotcha, thank you! I will do that. ꧁Zanahary꧂ 08:28, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

Template displayed slightly too high

This seems like a bug, although I can't see where it's occurring. This template is rendering about one line of text higher than a regular infobox does, on the desktop view.

On an article like Bluefish the top of the template is slightly higher than the first line of the lead, where a regular infobox would be slightly lower than it. Where an article has a problem template above the lead, like Muskellunge, the template actually overlaps it slightly. Belbury (talk) 09:19, 2 August 2024 (UTC)

I assume you are using the default Vector 2022 skin. I think the problem is due to parser bug T18700 which inserts an extra <p class="mw-empty-elt"></p> above the taxobox, which shifts its position. The empty paragraph is place above the first paragraph of text and the taxobox floats to its right. You can edit the code with Inspect in the browser and deleting this paragraph restores the taxobox to its correct position.

Previously we got around the bug by adding a <nowiki /> before the taxobox, which prevented the extra paragraph being inserted by the Wikimedia software (for reasons unknown). Unfortunately this solution doesn't work in Vector 2022, although it still works in other skins [edit: this might not be so]. One solution was the put the taxobox inside a div element, but this interferes with the position of the taxbox in mobile view (shifted below the first paragraph), which is a big no-no.

The ideal solution would be to fix the parser bug but as the bug was noted in 2008 I'm not holding my breath.  —  Jts1882 | talk  12:53, 2 August 2024 (UTC)

For some reason the CSS for Vector 2022 has .mw-body p + table {margin-top:-0.5em} which shifts a table immediately after a paragraph upwards. The parser bug inserts an empty paragraph before the taxobox table which cause the shift upwards. I've modified the CSS for the taxobox core to restore the 0.5em margin. The CSS is heavily qualified so shouldn't affect anything else.  —  Jts1882 | talk  13:35, 2 August 2024 (UTC)