What’s In a Name? That Which We Call a Bird

Visitors birding on a ranger led birding program

Friends of Acadia/Yehyun Kim

Birders flock to Acadia to seek out a diverse variety of migratory birds. Our thick forest, rocky cliffs, and crashing coastline provide a safe environment for a variety of bird species. It is hard to imagine that birds are a topic of conversation in the wake of systemic injustices and larger efforts to confront biases. Birds' names take on a different tone when we find out the person behind the name. Changing eponymous birds' names is the birding community’s response to this new awareness.

John James Audubon

NPS

Power and privilege continue to be synonymous with western ornithology with eponymous bird names, naming birds after the person who discovered them or in honor of someone else. One hundred and fifty bird names are associated with white supremacists, slave owners, and grave robbers. For example, the Clark’s Grebe is named after Captain William Clark who brought an enslaved person on his expedition and denied his freedom in exchange for his service. John Kirk Townsend of the Townsend’s Warbler robbed indigenous graves, taking skulls that are still housed in museums but have not been repatriated. Even the prominent John James Audubon is guilty of relying on African Americans and Native American to assist him with one of his greatest works, Birds of America, finding them scientifically useful, but not socially or racially equal.

Bird naming is representative of colonialism. Colonizers claimed birds as they were “discovered,” despite already having names given by indigenous people who understood these creatures before European arrival. This displays a triumph of possession over appreciation. In light of present day social standards, supporters are thinking that some of these names should be changed. Bird Names for Birds is a group striving to make birding more inclusive by changing all eponymous bird names.

Long Tailed Duck

NPS

Wintering on Acadia’s coastline, the Long- Tailed Duck was once known as the Oldsquaw Duck. Due to the decline of the Long- Tailed Duck in Alaska, conservation management plans required the collaboration of native people and biologists were concerned the name would offend the natives. In 2000, the North American Classification Committee, who manages bird names, officially changed the name because oldsquaw is an offensive term toward indigenous people. Although a step in the right direction, inclusion was not the committee’s motivation, instead conservation implications was their basis, according to the ruling statement.

Wilson's Warber

NPS

Bird names are remnants of our own history rather than natural history. Naturalist Alexander Wilson “discovered” the Wilson’s Warbler, a common bird found in Acadia. According to the Cornell Lab, he called it “green black-capt flycatcher,” a fitting description for the bird's identifying features. Those who wanted to honor Wilson’s contribution to ornithology solidified the name Wilson’s Warbler instead. Eponymous bird names do not give descriptions of the bird itself. Descriptive bird names are logically useful and can be considered by characteristics, geographic information, taxonomic splits, onomatopoeia and indigenous names.

Honorific bird names perpetuate social injustices and this practice has created inequities in the birding community and emblematic of a larger problem. First, these offensive names encompass a sense of not belonging. Birders of color are reminded that this field is founded by people who would find them lesser than. In addition, a lack of diversity in the outdoors is traced to the beginning of park establishment in the United States, which has led to no immediate access to nature around minority communities compared to white communities, according to the Audubon Society. However, this awareness has led to the creation of Black Birders Week, amplifying black birders, and black professionals in the natural resources realm. Efforts like this uplift communities of color to explore nature and encourage others to support a more equitable outdoors.