Dozens of bird names honor racists. That’s about to change.

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The American Ornithological Society says it will alter all human names of North American birds, starting with up to 80 species.

An Audubon shearwater, named for John James Audubon, one of America's most famous birders and an enslaver. After two years of discussion and debate, the nation’s premiere birding organization has decided that birds should not have human names.announced Wednesday that it will remove names given to North American birds in honor of people and replace them with monikers that better describe their plumage and other characteristics.

Racial insensitivity in the overwhelmingly White field of ornithology and birding should be rejected, Morris said. Recent reports projected that North America has lost 3 billion birds in the last 50 years, and “we need to engage as many people as we can in the enjoyment, study and conservation of birds as we can,” said Morris. “We need to break down as many barriers to participation as we can.”Not every birder in the 2,700-member society is expected to welcome the news.

In North America, where Indigenous tribes in what are now the United States and Canada discovered birds centuries before the arrival of European settlers, “White people are credited for discovering . White people were the ones to name the birds after other White people.

Erica Nol, co-chair of the society’s Ad Hoc Committee on English Bird Names, said members took the issue seriously from the day the committee was formed more than a year ago. Meeting every two weeks via Zoom, they came up with a priority list of names to consider changing.At first, the diverse White, Black and Latino members failed to arrive at a consensus.

 

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