Birds will be renamed to avoid harmful historical associations (PC style)

[C C]

Birds in North America will be renamed to avoid any harmful historical associations with people
https://apnews.com/article/bird-renaming...4a2d1f55e8

INTRO: Birds in North America will no longer be named after people, the American Ornithological Society announced Wednesday. Next year, the organization will begin to rename around 80 species found in the U.S. and Canada.

“There is power in a name, and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today,” the organization’s president, Colleen Handel, said in a statement. “Everyone who loves and cares about birds should be able to enjoy and study them freely.”

Rather than review each bird named after a person individually, all such birds will be renamed, the organization announced.

Birds that will be renamed include those currently called Wilson’s warbler and Wilson’s snipe, both named after the 19th century naturalist Alexander Wilson. Audubon’s shearwater, a seabird named for John James Audubon, also will get a new name.

In 2020, the organization renamed a bird once referring to a Confederate Army general, John P. McCown, as the thick-billed longspur. “I’m really happy and excited about the announcement,” said Emily Williams, an ornithologist at Georgetown University who was not involved in the decision... (MORE - details)

[Zinjanthropos]

Wow! What’s next? Offensive surnames? Are they still going to call a male bird a cock? Are Blackbirds and White Swans on the list?

I know a family named Cock and another named Death. How would that work for a married couple with those hyphenated surnames?

[confused2]

Whatever the reason I'm half in favour of this. You just need to learn the 8 basic bird types .. seagull, eagle, turkey, ostrich .. and you're nearly there with bird identification. Pick out the obvious feature (seagull + XXL = albatross) and you're there.

It just doesn't have the same magic .. like you're looking at a Finwhackers goose..

>O wise one, what is that bird that looks like a goose with pink feet?
>Beyond doubt, after 50 years studying ornithology, I can reveal that the bird is called a pink footed goose.

[Zinjanthropos]

Whatever the reason I'm half in favour of this. You just need to learn the 8 basic bird types .. seagull, eagle, turkey, ostrich .. and you're nearly there with bird identification. Pick out the obvious feature (seagull + XXL = albatross) and you're there.

It just doesn't have the same magic .. like you're looking at a Finwhackers goose..

>O wise one, what is that bird that looks like a goose with pink feet?
>Beyond doubt, after 50 years studying ornithology, I can reveal that the bird is called a pink footed goose.

The friendly Great Lakes seagull is affectionately known locally as the Shithawk for the 50 years at least. Propose they make the change permanent.

Do they still call a British woman a bird?

[confused2]

The friendly Great Lakes seagull is affectionately known locally as the Shithawk for the 50 years at least. Propose they make the change permanent.

Hm. Give a gull a bad name. Our local gull population includes shoplifters, street beggars and thugs as well as the professional fishing types. In fairness once a gull has caught and eaten a few fish it can spend the rest of the day surfing or gossiping or, and why not, crapping on humans. At the moment surfing seems to be fashionable so not so much crapping as when that was the favourite sport.

One of the many gull mysteries is that every evening we see them flying high and fast over the coast into the distance out over the sea. Do they fish at night or do they sleep on the sea? Our #2 house is several miles inland and we still see the same nightly migration of birds from even further inland. They can fly high and fast for miles, even hundreds of miles.
Of all the things to come back as a seagull is probably one of the best.

Do they still call a British woman a bird?

I don't move in the sort of circles that would but I suspect not since the 60's and maybe 70's. Things have moved on in the same way as the new condensing boilers that can no longer rely on convection.