[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

Here’s another petition concerning name-changing in reference to birds. The last one we mentioned was in October 2022 about the National Audubon Society dropping “Audubon” from their name. They decided against it.

This one is about the American Ornithological Society (AOS) wanting to axe all the eponymous names (names of human beings) from the English names (not the Scientific names) of all birds in the Western Hemisphere, totaling about 240 species. Among the first to go will be Clark’s Nutcracker and Lewis’ Woodpecker (of Lewis & Clark Expedition fame). Lucy’s Warbler, Anna’s Hummingbird, Townsend’s Warbler…all of that, gone, gone, gone. I don’t know about Baltimore Oriole (the city was named for Lord Baltimore). I’ll leave it at that for now, but if you’re interested I wrote a little bit about it in a blog about Malibu Lagoon in November 2023 (go here and scroll down to “A brief aside on bird names“).

The petition text is below, it’s self-explanatory, a bit over 3900 people have signed it so far, and if you feel like signing it, go to:
Petition to AOS Leadership on the Recent Decision to Change all Eponymous Bird Names || Change.org
There are links to comments from a dozen prominent petition signers. All are well worth reading.

To: Colleen Handel and AOS Leadership:

In response to a petition from Bird Names for Birds (BN4B) signed by approximately 2,500 people, AOS leadership announced the major decision to change all eponymous names in “an effort to address past wrongs and engage far more people in the enjoyment, protection, and study of birds.” 

We the undersigned strongly support diversity and inclusion in the birding community but disagree with this decision for the following reasons:

The destabilization of 150 English bird names is unprecedented. We believe that such a momentous decision that affects the English names used by many thousands of people requires listening to a diversity of voices rather than a few. One of the guiding principles of the AOS is to maintain a list that “fosters stability for the sake of effective communication,” yet it has never polled membership or the public regarding a decision that will impact the entire world-wide birding community. This one-sided decision is discriminatory against those that would rather see no change or are willing to compromise. Furthermore, no other ornithological or birding organizations were consulted. The International Ornithological Union, which monitors taxonomic changes and maintains a global list of standard bird names, have already indicated they will not follow suit and remove all eponyms.

The attempt by AOS leadership to appear more diverse and inclusive has created an unprecedented and unnecessary division within the birding community unseen in our lifetimes. This decree has brought culture wars to ornithology and birding.

We challenge the AOS to produce evidence that bird names are having a negative impact on the stated goals of the organization or birding in general. There is much to remedy in a science that has historically been dominated by white males, but changing bird names, many of which were described and named in a different era, and trying to hide ornithological history will not remedy this history. In all reality this decision will have little to no impact in removing obstacles to minorities in ornithology and birding. 

Rather than a total purge of eponyms, we suggest that the previous case-by-case method be resumed to remove offensive names rather than dishonoring the many people who founded ornithology in the Americas, many of whom are inadvertently disgraced by guilt by association. 

This methodology was also endorsed by the entire North American Checklist Committee (NACC) and all but one member of the South American Checklist Committee (SACC) although the committees recommendations were ignored by the AOS. 

We predict that assessing reaction from a broader portion of the user base will favor this approach. 

Differing opinions on this matter deserve to have a voice.