Some birds named after people will get new names to avoid troubling pasts of namesakes

Sarah Bowman, Indianapolis Star
·4 min read
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Some birds are about to get new names. And no, we aren't talking pets, parrots at a zoo, or cartoon characters like Woody Woodpecker. Think the Cooper’s hawk, Townsend’s warbler and Bachman’s sparrow — birds named after people.

The American Ornithological Society, the organization responsible for standardizing English bird names across North and South America, announced Wednesday it is going to rename all species named after people.

Many of the people whose names have been attached to birds "have objectively horrible pasts," according to Bird Names for Birds, a group leading the charge for change. Many of the birds' namesakes owned slaves, took land from Indigenous tribes, advocated for white supremacy, or had other troubling ties, according to one of the group's founders.

In a statement, the Ornithological Society said such bird names can be harmful, exclusive, and detract from "the focus, appreciation or consideration of the birds themselves."

A Cooper's Hawk perches on a utility line. This is one of the many birds that will receive a new name. The American Ornithological Society announced it is renaming all birds named after people because some may have problematic pasts with "historical bias."
A Cooper's Hawk perches on a utility line. This is one of the many birds that will receive a new name. The American Ornithological Society announced it is renaming all birds named after people because some may have problematic pasts with "historical bias."

The Indiana Audubon Society said it endorses the decision to change honorific bird names.

"Yes, certain honorific bird names, particularly those named after people who supported racist behavior, should be changed," the state organization said in a statement to IndyStar. "These names can perpetuate a legacy of injustice and discrimination, which is contrary to our mission of celebrating and conserving birds and their habitats."

In fact, one bird that will be renamed is the Audubon shearwater, a bird found off the coast of the southeastern United States. The bird's name will no longer acknowledge John James Audubon, the famous bird illustrator the National Audubon Society is named after in recognition of his contributions to the field of ornithology.

Audubon also was a slave owner who adamantly opposed abolition.

Some other birding organizations, including the Bird Union and the Chicago Bird Alliance, recently changed their names to avoid an association with Audubon. The National Audubon Society voted to retain its name earlier this year, saying that the organization's mission transcends the history of one person.

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There has been pushback to the renaming movement, with some questioning if it is another trivial grievance in the age of "wokeism" that is seeing statues removed and school mascots changed.

But Jordan Rutter, one of the Bird Names for Birds founders, previously told IndyStar the group has been working on this for years. She said if a conversation about bird names has been this hard, then it lessens hope for progress on the more important things.

“We are coming up on year three of this,” Rutter said. “And if we are struggling this hard to have a conversation about bird names, what hope is there for the future for making progress on those more important things.”

As a result of the AOS's decision, dozens of bird species will have their English names changed in an attempt to avoid associations with "historic bias." The effort will begin in 2024 and will focus initially on about 70 to 80 bird species that occur primarily in the U.S. and Canada, according to the AOS.

Its decision comes in response to pressure from birders to remedy the situation. That includes a petition from Bird Names for Birds that began in 2020 and was addressed to the Ornithological Society to confront the bird names it describes as "verbal statues" to their eponyms.

Bird Names for Birds is a grassroots organization founded three years ago by a few members of the birding community. The idea started after a May 2020 incident in Central Park that received nationwide coverage. Christian Cooper, a Black birder, was watching birds in the park when a woman called the police and falsely claimed he was threatening her after Cooper had asked that she keep her dog on a leash.

That was a reckoning for the birding community, one of the organization's founders previously told IndyStar.

In 2022, the AOS announced it was forming a committee to look into how to address the controversial bird names. Last week's announcement is the culmination of that effort.

In total, more than 100 bird species across the Americas will receive new names. The AOS said it is committed to changing all bird names derived from people.

The Society said it will assemble a diverse group to oversee the renaming process and it will include input from the general public. The new names will aim to be more descriptive either about the birds' habitats or physical characteristics.

This comes as part of a broader push in science, the AOS said, and to create a more welcoming and inclusive environment.

Call IndyStar reporter Sarah Bowman at 317-444-6129 or email at sarah.bowman@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook: @IndyStarSarah. Connect with IndyStar’s environmental reporters: Join The Scrub on Facebook.

IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Some birds named after people will be getting new names