To respond to a few things Carl raised:
* Relatively few of these birds were named for the white people who
first described them. In most cases the describer named them to
honor someone else - Henslow's Sparrow, for example, was named by
Audubon in honor of Rev. John Henslow, who was a botanist and also a
mentor to Charles Darwin.
* The American Ornithological Society report says they are not
recommending changes to the Latin scientific names unless/until
there is evidence that makes the present name incorrect
scientifically (splitting, lumping, new DNA findings showing the
genus is wrong, etc.).
* Other misleading or unhelpful names will not be reviewed. We still
will have Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, Tree Sparrows, Evening Grosbeaks,
and Ring-Necked Ducks, as well as Nashville, Connecticut, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Palm, and Cape May Warblers..
* Baltimore Oriole will be unchanged. The AOS has ruled that the bird
was named not in honor of Lord Baltimore, but after the colors in
his coat of arms. Never mind that the colors in his actual coat of
arms, which you can see on the Maryland State flag & license plate -
or in wikipedia - actually were black & /yellow/, not black &
orange. Possibly this exception has more to do with the Baltimore
Oriole being the best known of the birds involved and the one whose
name change would be least likely to be accepted by the non-birding
public, including ticket holders at Camden Yards? The AOS may also
remember how little success they had with "Northern Oriole" a few
years back.
The AOS Committee was directed to “develop a process that will allow the
[AOS] to change harmful and exclusionary English bird names in a
thoughtful and proactive way for species within AOS’s purview." But
instead of developing a thoughtful process, the majority of its members
endorsed wholesale elimination of all honorary names. 'Wilson's Warbler'
would have survived had they respected their original charge: Wilson was
a penniless immigrant, a self-taught naturalist who always was
scrounging for money to pay for his materials and treks, and who died
of "dysentery, overwork, and chronic poverty." When he went looking
for birds in the southern states he found the area disagreeable and
deplored what he saw of slavery there. He also was really interesting
& worth reading up on. He left Scotland in 1794 after he had been fined
and jailed for publishing poems that sympathized with the conditions
suffered by mill workers and satirized the mill owners. In America in
1804 he walked 1300 miles from Philadelphia to Niagara Falls and wrote a
long, detailed report about it - in verse! In over 80 pages and 2200
lines of poetry, with an additional 24 pages of footnotes, he describes
what he encountered along the way, including what he found in what now
is the Catherine Valley, Watkins Glen, and Ovid. And he was the first
person to try to formally describe and illustrate all the birds of North
American, collecting 268 species in his nine-volume /American
Ornithology /(1808-1814) which was incomplete when he died at age 47.
When you have learned more about Wilson, check out Georg Wilhelm
Steller, another early ornithologist whose life would be unlikely to be
seen as harmful or exclusionary but whose adventures led to increased
knowledge of the peoples, birds, fish, plants, and sea mammals found on
both sides of the Bering Sea.
I only know about these men because of the various birds named for
Wilson, and the Steller's Sea Eagle who has been wandering around the
northeastern part of our continent for the past two years - the names of
those birds prompted me to learn more about the people behind the
names. It is a shame that now the stories of both men are destined to
fall even further beneath the radar. They were courageous and even
inspirational naturalists.
Alicia
P.S. If Google translate is to be trusted, the name for Steller's Sea
Eagle in Japanese, オオワシ, translates as "Wow Eagle." If it can't be
Steller's, I hereby nominate Wow Eagle as its new common name.
On 11/4/2023 4:43 PM, Carl Steckler wrote:
>
> I agree Dave, but I feel it is the right decision for the wrong
> reasons. Changing the names to better describe the bird, good.
>
> Changing the name because of what someone did in the past is wrong.
>
> you really have to look at the person in the context of their time,
> their morals and their laws.
>
> If the bird was named for someone other than the discoverer, then by
> all means change it.
>
> But if it is named after the person who discovered the bird you really
> have to consider the contributions made by this person and ask do they
> outweigh the faults?
>
> And what about the Latin names. A lot of them are named for people.
> Are we going to change those also?
>
> Again while I am in favor of changing the names to better describe the
> birds, let that be the reason for the change and not for any agenda
> which may or may not have anything to do with ornithology.
>
> It is a slippery slope we climb my friends.
>
> Ornamythelogy. The belief that you will actully see the bird every one
> else is reporting.
>
> Carl
>
>
> On 11/3/2023 23:56, Dave Nutter wrote:
>> Bird names for birds. Cool concept. The article includes many good
>> reasons. We will have to learn some new names for old birds. I look
>> forward to this.
>>
>> In many cases, the person who first described a species for science
>> decided to name it after someone who had nothing to do with the bird,
>> making the people-name even more irrelevant to the bird.
>>
>> I hope one of the benefits of the new names will be that they relate
>> better to the birds’ appearance, behavior, or habitat. This will make
>> the species and their field marks easier to learn and remember,
>> which I think will be more welcoming to all new birders as well as to
>> any birders traveling to unfamiliar areas. I struggle with many
>> western North American species named for people.
>>
>> Also, Kenn Kaufmann’s story is classic.
>>
>> - - Dave Nutter
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>>> *Subject:* *[The Washington Post] Dozens of bird names honoring
>>> enslavers and racists will be changed*
>>>
>>> The American Ornithological Society says it will alter all human
>>> names of North American birds, starting with up to 80 species.
>>> https://wapo.st/3Mr8fDw
>>>
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