In November 2023, the American Ornithological Society (AOS) announced a decision to change all eponymous and exclusionary English-language common names of birds within its geographic jurisdiction. Since then, the AOS has been working behind the scenes to respond to our members’ concerns, collect information about who could help with the emerging initiative, and provide our …
Post updated on 14 May 2024, to add Harris’s Sparrow to the list of extant species with eponymous English names whose regular breeding and nonbreeding ranges occur entirely within the U.S. and Canada or nearly so. Post updated 23 September 2024 to correct image caption. In an effort to address past wrongs and engage more …
“There is power in a name, and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today,” says president. “The time has come for us to transform this process and redirect the focus to the birds, where it belongs,” says CEO. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: media@americanornithology.org CHICAGO (November …
It has been a while since the American Ornithological Society (AOS) last informed the ornithology and birding communities about its progress in addressing harmful or exclusionary English bird names and in developing a process to change such names in a thoughtful, proactive way. This initiative is central to the AOS’s goal of building a more …
