Cross-posting from Boulder County Nature-Net:
Without getting further into the discussion of whether it's appropriate to name birds (or plants, or mountains, or towns ...) after people, let me add just a few (mostly tongue-in-cheek) observations about what happens if bird names change.
I wondered which ornithologists would get hosed the worst by bird nomenclature changes, ie, whose name disappears from the most species. William Swainson's name is on nearly 10 species or subspecies, though only a few in N.A. Alexander Wilson and John Cassin lose out on at least five each. (As an aside, per Wikipedia, Wilson died of "chronic poverty", and Cassin of arsenic poisoning due to handling too many preserved skins. Clearly ornithology was a tough gig back in those days.)
I am totally fine with MacGillivray's Warbler changing to something that I can spell correctly consistently.
Along the same lines, if we don't change Steller's Jay to Crested Conifer Jay, please make it Stellar Jay so that the majority of the Internet will be able to spell it right with no further work needed.
If shooting at birds is a major disqualifier for having them named after you, presumably gentle ladies such as Lucy, Grace, Anna, and Virginia are OK to keep "their" warblers and hummingbirds?
And should we really name birds after jobs, like the "prothonotary", which was apparently a Byzantine court recorder? I personally think the alternate name, "Golden Swamp Warbler", rocks.
The odonates community did a great job when assigning official common names to dragonflies, handing out descriptive and mellifluous monikers such as "sundragons" and "boghaunters". Fortunately, "long ass butterfly" didn't make the cut. Perhaps bird nomenclaturists can do similarly well.
-Peter Ruprecht, Superior (who, based on my inability to call Marsh Hawks anything more contemporary, will probably keep referring to "Audubon's Warbler" for several more decades after it gets renamed ...)
On Wednesday, August 12, 2020, 4:57:47 PM MDT, Richard Trinkner <richardinboulder@gmail.com> wrote:
Forgive me if this has already been covered on Cobirds. I don't recall seeing it's discussion.
-- The AOU decided last Friday to rename the bird-fomerly-known-as-McCown's-Longspur to the Thick-billed Longspur. I personally had not realized how controversial the bird's former namesake was.
I would imagine we'll be seeing the change in eBird soon.
Richard Trinkner
Boulder
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