ILJones
2023-11-14 20:04:41 UTC
In a bad dream I occasionally experience, I arrive back where I grew up (Ottawa) to find place names have been changed so I am lost… I urgently need to get to a particular street but names have been changed and there is little point in asking passersby for help because they are unfamiliar with original names… chaos ensues as I meet other lost people looking for our shared dentist on Metcalfe Street. Then I wake up.
In a similar nightmare that is apparently coming true, a small, unrepresentative, unaccountable committee has determined that familiar common names of 80-152 North American birds and 111 South American birds named after people will be erased, and will be replaced in short order. Lucy will lose her attachment to Lucy’s Warbler, as will Alexander Wilson his attachment to Wilson’s Warbler.
What is the purpose of a bird’s official common name? They are for communication only. Names of American birds are placeholders for identifying taxa, based on long traditions, known and understood by ornithologists, birders and other people interested in birds – facilitating communication about what living (or extinct) bird species we are discussing. These are the familiar names used in the vast North American ornithological literature (books, papers, specimen labels, lists of threatened species, legal documents including government regulations, ESA and MBCA/MBTA legislation, old artwork, et c.) going back more than 200 years, that we may wish to consult and use in local-international scientific communication. If everyone knows what we are referring to when ‘Leach’s Storm-petrel’ comes up, it could help save this species from imminent demise. Confusion about names won’t advance science or conservation, so we don’t want to add to it. Most bird common names are quaint (chickadee), misleading (Common Nighthawk), factually incorrect (Short-billed Dowitcher), or haphazardly named after famous (Audubon, the bird artist) or obscure people (McCown's Longspur, after an avid pioneering ornithologist who was coincidently an insubordinate and incompetent Confederate American civil war general). It is understood that these names are largely arbitrarily chosen, apolitical, and nonsensical (e.g., Cape May and Tennessee Warblers), or involve people whose alleged behaviour in the dim dark past not surprisingly may not adhere to 21st century norms. So what? The names’ value to everyone, their power, and their function in communication, are based on familiar, stable, long-term use – this is vital for our community. Recall that past committees have wisely chosen to avoid bird name changes unless urgently required (e.g., for updating taxonomic classification, Long-tailed Duck, et c.). So, let’s stick with the familiar book names and their quirks, cancel this misguided name-erasing project, let Bachman’s Warbler rest in peace, and focus on urgent matters related to bird conservation.
Concerns about this matter (for or against name changes) can be directed to:
https://americanornithology.org/about/committees/#nacc
https://ebird.org/about/staff
ilj
In a similar nightmare that is apparently coming true, a small, unrepresentative, unaccountable committee has determined that familiar common names of 80-152 North American birds and 111 South American birds named after people will be erased, and will be replaced in short order. Lucy will lose her attachment to Lucy’s Warbler, as will Alexander Wilson his attachment to Wilson’s Warbler.
What is the purpose of a bird’s official common name? They are for communication only. Names of American birds are placeholders for identifying taxa, based on long traditions, known and understood by ornithologists, birders and other people interested in birds – facilitating communication about what living (or extinct) bird species we are discussing. These are the familiar names used in the vast North American ornithological literature (books, papers, specimen labels, lists of threatened species, legal documents including government regulations, ESA and MBCA/MBTA legislation, old artwork, et c.) going back more than 200 years, that we may wish to consult and use in local-international scientific communication. If everyone knows what we are referring to when ‘Leach’s Storm-petrel’ comes up, it could help save this species from imminent demise. Confusion about names won’t advance science or conservation, so we don’t want to add to it. Most bird common names are quaint (chickadee), misleading (Common Nighthawk), factually incorrect (Short-billed Dowitcher), or haphazardly named after famous (Audubon, the bird artist) or obscure people (McCown's Longspur, after an avid pioneering ornithologist who was coincidently an insubordinate and incompetent Confederate American civil war general). It is understood that these names are largely arbitrarily chosen, apolitical, and nonsensical (e.g., Cape May and Tennessee Warblers), or involve people whose alleged behaviour in the dim dark past not surprisingly may not adhere to 21st century norms. So what? The names’ value to everyone, their power, and their function in communication, are based on familiar, stable, long-term use – this is vital for our community. Recall that past committees have wisely chosen to avoid bird name changes unless urgently required (e.g., for updating taxonomic classification, Long-tailed Duck, et c.). So, let’s stick with the familiar book names and their quirks, cancel this misguided name-erasing project, let Bachman’s Warbler rest in peace, and focus on urgent matters related to bird conservation.
Concerns about this matter (for or against name changes) can be directed to:
https://americanornithology.org/about/committees/#nacc
https://ebird.org/about/staff
ilj