AOS To Change Names of Species Named After People

In November 2023, the American Ornithological Society (AOS) announced that it will change all English bird names currently named after people or whose names are deemed offensive and exclusionary. This effort will start in 2024, focus initially on 70-80 bird species in the US and Canada, be led by a new and diverse committee, and involve the public in name selection.

Why this change? “As scientists, we work to eliminate bias in science. But there has been historic bias in how birds are named, and who might have a bird named in their honor. Exclusionary naming conventions developed in the 1800s, clouded by racism and misogyny, don’t work for us today, and the time has come for us to transform this process and redirect the focus to the birds, where it belongs,” said Judith Scarl, Ph.D., AOS Executive Director and CEO. For example, in 2020, the AOS renamed a small prairie songbird found on the Great Plains to “Thick-billed Longspur.” The bird’s original name—honoring John P. McCown, an amateur naturalist who later became a general in the Confederate Army during the U.S. Civil War—was perceived as a painful link to slavery and racism.

North America has lost nearly 3 billion birds since 1970. Says Scarl, “To reverse these alarming bird population declines, we need as many people as possible to get excited about birds and unite to protect them.” For more information, visit the AOS web site.