“The time has come for us to transform this process and redirect the focus to the birds, where it belongs,” says CEO.
(November 1, 2023)—Today the American Ornithological Society (AOS) announced that in an effort to address past wrongs and engage far more people in the enjoyment, protection, and study of birds, it will change all English bird names currently named after people within its geographic jurisdiction. The AOS will also change the process by which English names are selected for bird species. The effort will begin in 2024 and will focus initially on 70–80 bird species that occur primarily within the U.S. and Canada.
Scientific names will not be changed, but the English (NA) names will be changed to better reflect the animals, not named after people.
Three owls would be subject to name changes.
- Blakiston Fish Owl
- Verreaux Eagle Owl
- Wallace’s Scops Owl
This post already has potential to go wrong, but it can also begin some opportunities for education.
The movement of a collective of birders has been working on this for a few years, so there is lots of info about the project and its goals, and the history of the controversial figures is better documented than the owls currently named after them.
Would you guys want a writeup of all of this, or is this too political or negative for this group? I'll respect your decision, but I'll probably do an article to share somewhere. I just want to know if you all want this to be a SuperbOwl thing.
It'd be written from a neutral standpoint, just factual info.
