Across the country the usually placid waters of birding listservs began to roil on November 21, 2023. What could have happened to stir the usually staid birding world into such a tizzy? The American Ornithological Society (AOS) published its decision to rename all the North American birds that are named after people (eponyms). This means that up to 80 bird names will change. The impetus behind the move is to address past wrongs by changing names that could be controversial or exclusionary. Many birders were aghast, while others thought the time was well overdue for such a move. The divisiveness still continues, with some of the back-and-forths becoming quite heated.
Some background: Around the world, most birds are named after their physical attributes or their songs, not after people, and the names have often been in place for centuries. The name “nightingale” comes from the Old English “nihtegale,” which means “night songstress.” The pied wagtail of the U.K. is black-and-white with a tail that, well, wags. In the United States and Canada, many of the relatively recently named species were named after their European “discoverers” or other scientists.
But bird names are not static, and over the last century, many names have changed — just not 80 in one fell swoop! Scientists decided that what was once the rufous-sided towhee is in fact two separate species, renamed the spotted towhee and the eastern towhee. There are many similar examples of “splits” requiring new names, but some have also been changed for political reasons.
