Bird Names Being Changed Over 'Racist' Ties Sparks Backlash
By: Anna Skinner (Newsweek)
ENOUGH ALREADY FFS
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Anna Skinner Senior Writer, General Assignment FOLLOW
Social media users are pushing back after the American Ornithological Society (AOS) announced it would rename dozens of North American birds named for people.
The AOS said on Wednesday that it would rename all bird species in its jurisdiction that were named for people regardless of the name's history. The announcement came after birdwatchers have debated bird names for years, specifically ones that commemorate historical figures who committed acts of racism. The decision comes as numerous organizations reexamine landmarks, statues and other objects named for controversial figures.
"There is power in a name, and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today," AOS President Colleen Handel said in a statement. "We need a much more inclusive and engaging scientific process that focuses attention on the unique features and beauty of the birds themselves. Everyone who loves and cares about birds should be able to enjoy and study them freely—and birds need our help now more than ever."
AOS Executive Director and CEO Judith Scarl added that some bird names are clouded by racism and misogyny and don't benefit the organization.
A female Wilson's warbler. The Wilson's warbler is among dozens of birds that will be renamed by the American Ornithology Society. Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Newsweek reached out to the AOS by email for comment.
The announcement has elicited pushback on social media as some people question the AOS' decision. Others went as far as calling the AOS woke. The word, a colloquialism that has emerged in recent years, is defined as "aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues [especially issues of racial and social justice]," according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
"Here's to the lovely Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis), named after the famed American explorer Meriwether Lewis of Virginia. The bird is to be renamed by the woke-infested American Ornithological Society (AOS)," @AlbertoMiguelF5 posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday.
Here's to the lovely Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis), named after the famed American explorer Meriwether Lewis of Virginia. The bird is to be renamed by the woke-infested American Ornithological Society (AOS). pic.twitter.com/v4HXiG44Ub
— Alberto Miguel Fernandez (@AlbertoMiguelF5) November 1, 2023
"Woke leftists are demanding every bird in America get renamed to erase any links to racist history. We expose this ridiculous attempt to revise history," @StuDoesAmerica posted on X on Thursday.
Woke leftists are demanding every bird in America get renamed to erase any links to racist history. We expose this ridiculous attempt to revise history. @JasonButtrill discusses the Israel-Gaza crisis. Watch on the Stu Does America YouTube channel. pic.twitter.com/fsUCB87d66
— Stu Burguiere (@StuDoesAmerica) November 2, 2023
Birds to be renamed include the Wilson's warbler, Wilson's snipe and dozens of others. Three birds not named for people also will get new names: the flesh-footed shearwater, the Eskimo curlew and the Inca dove.
"The word flesh may imply that all—or at least 'normal'—skin resembles that of white people," an AOS document read.
The AOS went on to explain that Eskimo is a derogatory term among Inuit and Yupik people and that the Inca dove is an erroneous name coming from "profound confusion of the geographic locations of the historic Inca and Aztec cultures."
It is not the first effort by the AOS to change bird names associated with racism and slavery. In 2020, the AOS renamed a songbird found in the Great Plains to the thick-billed longspur. The bird's name previously honored John P. McCown, an amateur naturalist and general who fought with the Confederate Army during the Civil War, according to the AOS.
New names will focus on describing the bird rather than honoring historical figures.
"Eponyms are poor names when it comes to describing a bird. Names that describe the bird (e.g., Spotted Sandpiper, Red-breasted Nuthatch), its habitat (e.g., Marsh Wren, Pinyon Jay), its range (e.g. Eastern Wood-Pewee, Mexican Chickadee), or something else about the species (e.g., Fish Crow, Northern Mockingbird) convey more information," the AOS wrote in a report.
The scientific, or Latin, names of birds will not be changed as part of the initiative. The change also does not impact species named for places that were named for people, such as the American Crow or the Carolina Chickadee.
No Trump, trolling, fascist crap
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What next? Trees? What bullshit. Like anyone cares what a bird is called? Grow the hell up people.
When are the 99% going to stop giving in to the 1% who are offended by everything?
When you figure it out or find out, let us all in on it. Looks to me like we are doomed with these me me me types.
I’ll bet that the renamed birds are greatly relieved.
The insanity never ends…the magellenic clouds in space might be Renamed too.
I saw some great Brown Boobys on a Caribbean trip.
What do you call a bird that doesn’t spit?
A swallow.
You are on a roll my friend LMAO
Just gotta shake your head..............pretty ironic.........Got rid of the Indian and kept the land.............
I think that they should have replaced her with a cow, lose the lake and pine trees and replace them with meadows.
They were close with this one............................
I saw a pair of Great Tits in Kansas and then Dickcissel.
AGAIN
This name changing silliness has gone way too far
Oh come on now. If someone describes seeing a Hammond’s flycatcher, don’t you immediately Google Hammond until you find out that William Alexander Hammond, a former US surgeon general would be labeled a racist today.
I can’t look at that bird again in the face until it’s renamed.
Arvo...so what are they going to rename a Blackbird as???
Oppressed?
A bleached Michael Jackson bird?
Are you sure the Newsweek article wasn't meant to be satire?
Unfortunately not...it was reported here too...I thought what a load of bull dust...
shona, do you have any rough-faced shags or are they only in New Zealand?
Morning Drinker...geez haven't even had brekkie yet...yawn....
Umm we have just ordinary pied shags/cormorants far as I am aware..well it is in my part of the world anyway..if they are around may as well pack up and move as there will be no fish in the area...
Sounds like the roughie is a Kiwi bird only..
Knock yourself out. Animal names are generally pretty arbitrary and don’t actually affect people. So, unless they’re changing what we call chicken, turkey, or duck, who cares?
Nah, not really. Let’s be real, there’s no “history” - that anyone cares about - tied to the names of birds they might change, unless the Bald Eagle is going to be called the Follicly Challenged Eagle. This is not worth freaking out over.
I recently heard someone appropriately call this group the American Orninth-ILLOGICAL Society .
Yes, there is power in a name, and this woke bird society is proving that Marx and Orwell were correct:
I'm finding the freak out on both sides pretty humorous. How much does the name of a particular bird effect any one person whether it's 'woke' or 'non-woke'?
“How much does the name of a particular bird effect any one person whether it's 'woke' or 'non-woke'?”
Agreed.
If only the goddamn rooster down the way would allow me to be ‘woke’ when I want to be.
"The change also does not impact species named for places that were named for people, such as the American Crow..."
Named for Jim Crow?
I have to get to Stone Mountain before it gets turned into a giant tit. Or maybe I'm too late.
I guess the "grand tetons" time is running out.
How fucked up does ones life have to be that these names make anybody with a functioning brain think racism?
And the farther down the rabbit hole of stupidity they go the less people take them seriously.
Nobody should have taken them seriously in the first place. Just changed their diapers, given them their pacifiers and let them waddle away.
I'm sure you have heard the old saying, When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The sister quote, when you are a racist democrat, everything looks racist.
You left out that they MUST cry about it at every opportunity.
What would be really progressive is not eliminating the racist bird names but rather relabelng them to birds that are now extinct.
Obviously taking down statues, constantly playing the victim card, changing the names on streets and schools, changing the names of sports teams and several other things have not taken care of the huge race problem they keep telling us about.
It was only a matter of time before they found the true root cause, those damn racist birds. And those damn racist fish are next.
But in their feeble minds they "did their part". Of what still remains a mystery.
Don’t get me started on racist plant names.
Okay then, how about colours? Surely it's racist to say black, white, yellow and red so maybe those colours should be renamed. How about "coal", "blank" (as opposed to "colourless"), "blond" and "tomato"? At first I thought "banana" for yellow, but I then realized it has racial connotations as well.
Oh again I forgot to add this to satisfy the supersensitive among us:]
There's "Amber" in place of yellow or banana
Yes, I guess that would do as well.
Good thing you added that, I was about to grab my emotional support puppy and head to my safe space
I will continue to call things by their original names
As will I. I intend to continue saying man and woman, men and women, he and she, him and her, and even if they rename blackbird to coalbird I will still call it and think of it as a blackbird for the rest of my life. Just because the world is going absolutely nuts doesn't mean I have to do so as well.