The American Ornithological Society, the organization responsible for standardizing English bird names across the Americas, announced Wednesday that all species names will be changed to honor humans. The association said in a statement that bird names derived from humans are harmful and exclusionary and can undermine “attention, appreciation and consideration of the bird itself.”
This means the Audubon shearwater, a bird found off the coast of the southeastern United States, will no longer have a name recognizing John James Audubon, a famous bird illustrator and slave owner who staunchly opposed the abolition of slavery. It means that. The Scott's warbler, a black-and-yellow bird native to the Southwest and Mexico, will also receive a new nickname, linking it to Winfield Scott, the Civil War general who oversaw the forced removal of Native Americans in 1838. will be cut off. Trail of tears.
The group's decision is a response to pressure from bird watchers to correct perceptions of historical figures with racist and colonial pasts. The renaming process aims to give birds more descriptive names for their habitats and physical characteristics, and is part of a broader scientific push for a more hospitable and inclusive environment.
“We're really doing this to address a historical wrong,” said Judith Carle, executive director of the American Ornithological Society. Dr Skaar added that the changes would help “involve more people in enjoying, protecting and studying birds”.
According to a 2020 petition addressed to the American Ornithological Society, proponents of the change argue that many of the birds' common English names are “isolated and humiliating, reminiscent of oppression, slavery, and genocide.” He believes that it is a “thing”. The petition was written by Bird Names For Birds, an initiative founded by two ornithologists to address the issue of names for these birds. It is described as a “statuary of words'' that reflects the values of the world.
But some birdwatchers, while expressing sympathy for the cause, said they were unsure if this was the right route. “I'm not too enthusiastic about this bird, but I'm not too disappointed either,” said Jeff Marks, an ornithologist with the Montana Bird Advocacy Group.
“We're going to lose a little bit of knowledge about an important figure in the history of ornithology, and that's sad,” Dr Marks said. “But the way things work, maybe it's not that big of a deal.”
Jordan Rutter, founder of Birds Names For Birds, said the petition was inspired by significant events in Central Park in 2020. A white woman falsely reported to police that she was being threatened by Christian Cooper, a black birdwatcher.
“This wasn't a wake-up call,” Rutter said, but it brought “a problem that has been known for a long time but didn't get attention to the forefront of the bird world.”
The encounter in Central Park inspired the creation of Black Birders Week, an annual campaign celebrating the lives and careers of Black birdwatchers, and later expanded the scientific field against the backdrop of a national racial tally. Similar efforts began to take place like an avalanche. In 2021, the Entomological Society of America launched the Better Common Names Project to rename insects deemed inappropriate or derogatory. Astronomers have also advocated changing the name of the main telescope, saying it would alienate people from marginalized backgrounds.
In the birding community, efforts to drop problematic bird names have had mixed results. Bird Union and Chicago Bird Alliance recently changed their names to avoid association with Audubon. But the National Audubon Society's board of directors voted this year to keep the name, saying the organization's mission goes beyond one person's history.
In 2022, the American Ornithological Society announced the creation of a task force to decide what to do about controversial bird names. Committee members met every two weeks for several months to discuss topics such as the importance of name stability and how to decide on criteria for renaming birds.
Wednesday's announcement is the culmination of that effort. In a statement, the American Ornithological Society pledged to change the names of all birds derived from humans and to form a diverse group to oversee the name change process, which would include input from the public. Stated. More than 100 bird species from the Americas will be given new names.
“For a lot of people, myself included, the idea of changing a lot of names is throwing away a lot of history,” said Cornell University ornithologist John Fitzpatrick. He said he initially felt that bird names should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, but after further discussion he became convinced that “there is no formula that can tell you which name is appropriate.”
In particular, only the common English names of birds will be changed. This is because scientific names (traditionally used in Latin) are governed by a strict and universal set of rules that take into account the evolutionary relationships between different species. (Latin names also exist, such as the Peruvian bird named after Dr. Fitzpatrick, and his Capito Fitzpatricki for barbet.)
The decision to change the bird's common name “makes perfect sense” to Cooper, whose fame has led him to host the National Geographic Birding Show. “There's no reason to give a bird a human name, because we don't know anything about it,” he says.
Cooper mentioned the Wilson's warbler, a canary songbird with a distinctive black cap. He said changing the name to something “like the black-capped warbler” would help birders better understand what to look for.
But to Jerry Coyne, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago and an avid bird watcher, the need for a more descriptive name didn't seem urgent. Such performative behavior is “really seriously harmful to science,” he says. “You can't go back in the history of science and wipe out everyone who wasn't a perfect human being.” Dr. Coyne said the effort to update so many names, such as teaching underprivileged children about birds, He added that it would be better to invest in things that have more impact on society.
The American Ornithological Society plans to pilot the name change program next year with about 10 birds. Eventually, the program will be expanded to include all homonymous bird species in the United States and Canada, and then transition to birds in Central and South America, which are within the Society's nomenclature jurisdiction.
Carlos Daniel Cadena, an ornithologist at Colombia's University of the Andes and leader of the English Bird Names Committee, said the change will require a bit of a learning curve, but he sees it as a new opportunity for the nation to bond over birds. I expect it to be.
“It's going to be a level playing field where we all need to learn together,” Dr. Cadena said.
He noted that this process may be tailored to birds in Latin American countries, where it is common for people to refer to birds by their scientific names.
There are thousands of species in the Americas, as diverse as the communities that value birds. “Birds are some of the most familiar and beloved animals in the world's biodiversity,” Dr. Fitzpatrick said. He added that giving these creatures more colorful names would make it easier for “all kinds of new birders” to enjoy them.
