Selected birds native to the United States and Canada should be given new English names.
On Wednesday, November 1, the American Ornithological Society (AOS) announced that “in an effort to address the mistakes of the past and involve many more people in the enjoyment, protection and study of birds, they will change all English names of birds currently named after people within its geographic jurisdiction.”
The AOS plans to begin renaming American and Canadian birds in 2024, focusing on 70-80 bird species with names associated with people or “considered offensive and exclusionary,” according to the society’s announcement.
In addition, the organization has announced that it will adjust the way it names new bird species in the future by including different naming committees. AOS also plans to actively involve “the public in the process of selecting new English bird names”. This, the AOS hopes, will diversify birdwatching and provide better descriptors for the birds themselves.
“There is power in a name, and some English bird names evoke a past that is still exclusionary and harmful,” Dr. Colleen Handel, AOS president and wildlife biologist, explained in a press release. “We need a much more inclusive and engaging scientific process that focuses attention on the unique features and beauty of the birds themselves.”
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AOS has already changed the English names of the birds. In 2020, the prairie songbird named after John P. McCown, a naturalist and Confederate army general, was renamed the thick-billed longspur.
“Anyone who loves and cares for birds should be free to enjoy and study them—and birds need our help now more than ever,” added Handel.
According to NPR, an initiative called Bird Names for Birds helped drive these changes. The campaign reached out to AOS leadership and highlighted the problems that coincide with naming birds after people.
“The conventions of exclusive naming developed in the 1800s, clouded by racism and misogyny, do not suit us today,” said AOS Executive Director, Ph.D. Judith Scarl, in the press release of the organization. “The time has come to transform this process and shift the focus back to the birds, where they belong.”
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People like Christian Cooper are also working to make birding more accessible and diverse. Cooper has been an active member of the Central Park birdwatching community for years. But his interest in birds gained national attention in May 2020 after an unrelated white woman named Amy Cooper called the police on him and falsely accused him of threatening her while birdwatching in a section of Central Park known as The Ramble.
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The incident and its resulting headlines thrust Cooper into the spotlight, and the black birder used the reach of a wider audience to advocate for safer green spaces for all. In 2023, Cooper helped create the National Geographic series An extraordinary birder, of which he is also the host. The show takes viewers to meet beautiful birds around the world and teaches them how to protect them.
“Wild birds connect you to the natural world and remind you that we’re part of this whole process,” Cooper told PEOPLE in June about why he thinks everyone should try birding.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education