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The thick-billed longspur was previously named McCown’s longspur in honor of Confederate Army Gen. John P. McCown.
The American Ornithological Society (AOS) says it’s going to change the nonscientific names of all birds which might be named after individuals (aka eponymous names or eponyms), resembling Arizona’s acquainted Gambels’ quail (Callipepla gambelii) and Cooper’s hawk (Accipiter cooperii).
The group can even take away names deemed offensive or exclusionary.
The transfer is not going to have an effect on birds’ scientific names. That course of is ruled by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.
But it’s going to have a major affect. Birds are greatest recognized by their frequent names, that are bandied about in discussions starting from birdwatching to conservation, public coverage and legislation.
The impetus for change got here in 2020, when the killing of George Floyd and the harassment of a Black birdwatcher in Central Park reinvigorated a petition to take away Confederate General John P. McCown’s identify from a prairie fowl, now often called the thick-billed longspur (Rhynchophanes mccownii).
The transfer was a recognition that names enshrining individuals additionally evoke their typically checkered legacies, which might draw focus from the birds and points affecting them.
Rather than make case-by-case choices that would embroil them in debate and controversy, the AOS opted to rename all eponymous birds, beginning within the U.S. and Canada.
Though the method is certain to ruffle some feathers, the society says it hopes to provide extra descriptive names and encourage wider, extra various participation in birding.
No single physique guidelines the roost in the case of vernacular or frequent fowl names.
However, as the biggest ornithological society within the Western Hemisphere and writer of the Check-list of North American Birds, the AOS exerts appreciable affect within the subject.
