Tag Archives: bird names for birds

The fun part: New bird names

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To get the party started, here are my proposals for new bird names for 82 species. I also provide a lot of historic and current alternatives.

Ross’s Gull’s Latin name Rhodostethia rosea can be translated as Rosy Gull. Indeed, the bird is called Rosy Gull throughout most of the world.

In a previous blogpost, I documented the history of honorific bird names in the United States. Some basic facts emerged. The practice became common in the early to mid-1800s, after most eastern species had already been given descriptive English names. Thus, 58% of honorific names are western species. They were often named by ornithologists after each other, or after colleagues or supporters, or their wives or daughters (first names for women). Remarkably a third do not have Latin names that match their English honorific name (e.g. Cassin’s Auklet is Ptychoramphus aleuticus, or Aleutian Auklet), almost always because the species was described twice, with the second time (usually Audubon) providing the honorific name. When it was realized the species had been previously described, they followed international protocol and reverted to the original Latin name.

Moving forward, the AOS is now considering new English names for potentially all species with honorific names. As controversial as that may be, coming up with new names is very much the fun part. Here is my personal exercise in that.

For each of these 82 species, I provide their current English name, the meaning of their Latin name, other historic names, the meaning of any subspecies names (leaving off the nominate subspecies), names in other languages, and, finally, my proposals for a new English name (or reverting to a previous name, as the case may be).

Caveats: 1) translating Latin is not clear-cut; there are options for each name. 2) My research on other historic names is undoubtedly incomplete; please add more in the comments. I relied largely on the Birds of the World species accounts and Grinnell and Miller (1944) for these. 3) Translating the names in other languages is definitely as much art as science. I used some online dictionaries, but it was clear they were struggling at times with the nuance. At times I felt like a bewildered traveler unfamiliar with the local slang. I encourage Native speakers to provide clarification.

I was struck that, more often than not, other languages eschewed American English honorifics. For example, Sprague’s Pipit is known as Prairie Pipit in Danish, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Polish, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. Worldwide species such as Leach’s and Wilson’s Storm-Petrel are predominately known by other names around the world (e.g. Northern and Oceanic Storm-Petrel, respectively, among other names).

This opens the door to a rich tableau of alternative names. Hands down my favorite non-English name goes to Haitian Creole’s moniker for Blackburnian Warbler: Little Flamboyant Warbler. A special shout-out to Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, and Slovak, which almost always avoid honorifics and use a descriptive moniker. I became a big fan of Norwegian, which often relies on habitat-based names (e.g. Chaparral Sparrow for Bell’s Sparrow, Yucca Oriole for Scott’s Oriole).

The Norwegian list also includes several indigenous-based names (e.g. Eskimo Goose, Navajo Thrasher, Shoshone Sparrow, and Apache Sparrow). Following guidance on tribal consultation (“nothing about us without us”), the selection of such a name should involve discussions with relevant tribes. I’ll dedicate a blog post to indigenous-based names in the future.

Regarding my proposed new names, I gave priority to previous historic names, whether they be in English or derived from Latin, as well as to ideas from other languages. I am confident that others can come up with gems that are better proposals than mine.

Originally called the Horned Wavey, the bird is known as the White Goose, Dwarf Goose, and Eskimo Goose in other languages.

Ross’s Goose

  • Meaning of Latin name: Ross’s Goose
  • Other historic names: Horned Wavey, Ross Snow Goose
  • Names in other languages: White (Croatian, Czech), Dwarf/Pygmy (Danish, Swedish), Eskimo (Finnish, Norwegian), Lesser/Little Snow (German, Portuguese, Slovenian, Turkish), Blizzard (Polish), Snowflake (Slovak)
  • My proposals: Ivory Goose

Steller’s Eider

  • Meaning of Latin name: Steller’s Eider
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Bald (Czech), Siberian (Lithuanian), Lesser (Slovak, Spanish), Russian (Slovenian), Bird-that-sat-in-the-campfire (Inupiat)
  • My proposals: Fire Eider, Charred Eider, Flaming Eider, Flammulated Eider

Barrow’s Goldeneye

  • Meaning of Latin name: Iceland Goldeneye
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: American (Finish), Iceland (most languages)
  • My proposals: Crescent Goldeneye, Northern Goldeneye
Described in the 1800s, birds of the southwest disproportionately have honorific names. This quail frequents dry washes filled with mesquite.

Gambel’s Quail

  • Meaning of Latin name: Gambel’s Quail
  • Other historic names: Desert Quail
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Forgiving/Gracious, Pemberton’s, Tawny-breasted, Stephens’s
  • Names in other languages: Desert (Finnish), Helmeted (German), Black-bellied (Norwegian), Pointed (Polish), Headbanded (Slovak), Oak (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Mesquite Quail, Arroyo Quail, Desert Quail

Clark’s Grebe

  • Meaning of Latin name: Clark’s Grebe
  • Other historic names:
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Transitional
  • Names in other languages: Mexican (Finnish), White-faced (French), Yellow-billed (Norwegian, Polish), White-fronted (Slovak), Orange-billed (Spanish-Mexico)
  • My proposals: Elegant Grebe, White-faced Grebe

Vaux’s Swift

  • Meaning of Latin name: Vaux’s Swift
  • Other historic names: American Swift, Oregon Swift
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Gaumer’s, Tamaulipas, Richmond’s, Pale-rumped, Invisible
  • Names in other languages: Gray-bellied (German, Polish), Brown (Norwegian), Common (Spanish-Costa Rica)
  • My proposals: Forest Swift
Known previously as Magnificent, and then reverting to Rivoli’s when split, it’s Latin name is Glittering Hummingbird.

Rivoli’s Hummingbird

  • Meaning of Latin name: Glittering Hummingbird
  • Other historic names: Magnificent (when lumped with Talamanca Hummingbird)
  • Names in other languages: Purple-crowned Brilliant Hummingbird (German), Glowing Brim (Icelandic), Purple (Norwegian), Thin-billed Amethyst (Polish), Honey (Slovak), Magnificent (Spanish)
  • My proposals: Glittering Hummingbird

Anna’s Hummingbird

  • Meaning of Latin name: Anna’s Hummingbird
  • Other historic names:
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Sedentary
  • Names in other languages: Red-faced (Norwegian), Ruby-bearded (Finnish), Red-headed (Spanish-Mexico)
  • My proposals: Winter Hummingbird, Singing Scrub-gem

Costa’s Hummingbird

  • Meaning of Latin name: Costa’s Hummingbird
  • Other historic names: Ruffed Hummingbird, Coast Hummingbird
  • Names in other languages: Violet-headed (German, Spanish-Mexico), Desert (Norwegian), California (Polish)
  • My proposals: Desert Hummingbird, Xeric Hummingbird, Desert Scrub-gem, Amethyst Scrub-gem

Allen’s Hummingbird

  • Meaning of Latin name: Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) for “hummingbird” (so really meant for Rufous)
  • Other historic names: Nootka Hummingbird (original Latin name for Rufous, with which Allen’s was lumped)
  • Names in other languages: Green-backed Cinnamon/Rufous (German), Chaparral (Norwegian), California (Polish)
  • My proposals: Pacific Hummingbird, Coastal Hummingbird, California Hummingbird, Chumash Hummingbird

Ridgway’s Rail

  • Meaning of Latin name: Plain Rail
  • Other historic names: Clapper Rail (when lumped), Red-breasted Rail
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Light-footed, Belding’s, Yuma
  • Names in other languages: California (Dutch, French, Polish, Slovak), Pacific Coast (Spanish-Mexico)
  • My proposals: Pacific Rail

Wilson’s Plover

  • Meaning of Latin name: Wilson’s Plover
  • Other historic names: Belding Plover
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Belding’s, Cinnamon, Thick-billed
  • Names in other languages: Thick-billed (Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Slovak, Spanish), Necklaced (Haitian), Tidal/Tideland (Icelandic), Big-eyed (Polish), Beaked (Portuguese), Beach Puppet (Spanish-Cuba), Maritime (Spanish-Puerto Rico), Coastal (Turkish), Sea Runner (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Beach Plover, Large-billed Plover
Baird’s, a short-grass specialist with an incredible migration, is the sand-colored sandpiper. There are a lot of potential names to chose from.

Baird’s Sandpiper

  • Meaning of Latin name: Baird’s Sandpiper
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Long-winged (Czech, Polish, Turkish), Eskimo (Finnish), Clay (Icelandic), Yellow-breasted (Norwegian, Swedish), Fine-billed (Portuguese, Spanish-Uruguay), Gravel (Slovenian), Plain (Spanish-Argentina, Paraguay)
  • My proposals: Arenaceous Sandpiper, Nunavut Sandpiper, Long-winged Sandpiper

Wilson’s Snipe

  • Meaning of Latin name: Delicate/Elegant Snipe
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: American (Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Serbian), North American (Czech, Spanish-Mexico), Short-legged (Haitian), Indian (Norwegian), Shrill (Spanish-Venezuela)
  • My proposals: Elegant Snipe, Winnowing Snipe

Wilson’s Phalarope

  • Meaning of Latin name: Tricolored Phalarope
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Tricolored (Croatian, Polish, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish), Long-billed (Czech, Spanish-Mexico, Venezuela), American (Danish, Finnish, Latvian, Romanian), Large/Great (Dutch, Lithuanian, Turkish), White-tailed (Norwegian), Common (Spanish-Argentina, Uruguay)
  • My proposals: Tricolored Phalarope

Kittlitz’s Murrelet

  • Meaning of Latin name: Short-billed Murrelet
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Short-billed (Finnish, German, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish), Mountain (Icelandic), Gray (Slovak), Brown (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Glacier Murrelet, Short-billed Murrelet

Scripps’s Murrelet

  • Meaning of Latin name: Scripps’s Murrelet
  • Other historic names: Xantus’s (when lumped with Craveri’s and Guadalupe)
  • Names in other languages: Black-tailed (Croatian), California (German, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish), Mourning (Polish), White-winged California (Spanish-Mexico)
  • My proposals: California Murrelet

Craveri’s Murrelet

  • Meaning of Latin name: Murrelet
  • Other historic names: Xantus’s (when lumped with Scripps’s)
  • Names in other languages: Mexican (Croatian, Norwegian), Baja California (German, Swedish, Turkish), California (Polish), Dark-winged (Slovak), Dark-winged California (Spanish-Mexico)
  • My proposals: Mexican Murrelet, Baja Murrelet

Cassin’s Auklet

  • Meaning of Latin name: Aleutian Auklet
  • Other historic names: Aleutian Auklet (first described before Cassin was born)
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Southern
  • Names in other languages: Aleutian (German), Black (Polish), Ashy/Smoky (Slovak, Turkish), Somber (Spanish), Dark (Spanish-Mexico),
  • My proposals: Pacific Auklet, Ashy Auklet

Sabine’s Gull

  • Meaning of Latin name: Sabine’s Gull
  • Other historic names: Fork-tailed Gull
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Palearctic, Chukhotski, Voznesensky
  • Names in other languages: Fork-tailed (Dutch, Spanish-Cuba, Turkish), Swallow-tailed (Hungarian, Serbian, Slovenian), Split-tailed (Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Spanish-Mexico), Collared (Polish), Tern Gull (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Fork-tailed Gull, Tundra Gull

Bonaparte’s Gull

  • Meaning of Latin name: Philadelphia Gull
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Little Black-headed (Dutch, Turkish), Tree (Icelandic, Swedish), Canada Hooded (Norwegian), Canadian (Polish), American (Portuguese), American River (Slovenian), Little/Small (Spanish-Cuba)
  • My proposals: Boreal Gull

Ross’s Gull

  • Meaning of Latin name: Rosy Gull
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Rosy (Basque, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish)
  • My proposals: Rosy Gull

Franklin’s Gull

  • Meaning of Latin name: Aztec Gull (Nahuatl for “gull”)
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Prairie (Finish, German, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Swedish), Rosy (Spanish-Venezuela), Little (Spanish-Paraguay and Argentina)
  • My proposals: Prairie Gull
Over 95% of the world’s Heermann’s Gulls come from tiny Isla Rasa in the Gulf of California, Mexico.

Heermann’s Gull

  • Meaning of Latin name: Heermann’s Gull
  • Other historic names: White-headed Gull, Belcher Gull
  • Names in other languages: Mexican (Finnish, Spanish), Ashy (Norwegian), Snowy (Polish), Coastal (Slovak), Leaden/Plumbeous (Spanish-Mexico), White-headed (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Isla Rasa Gull, Plumbeous Gull, Mexican Gull, Baja Gull

Forster’s Tern

  • Meaning of Latin name: Forster’s Tern
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: North American (Czech), Prairie (Danish, Norwegian), Silver (Finnish), Fork-tailed (Haitian), Pond (Hungarian), Black-eared (Polish), Marsh (Slovak, Swedish), American River (Slovenian), Masked (Turkish)
  • My proposals: Marsh Tern

Wilson’s Storm-Petrel

  • Meaning of Latin name: Oceanic Storm-Petrel
  • Other historic names: Yellow-webbed Storm-Petrel
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Exasperating, Chilean
  • Names in other languages: Ordinary/Common (Afrikaans), Yellow-footed (Czech, Polish), Southern (Finnish, Greek), Variegated (German), Oceanic (Icelandic, Spanish-Dom Rep), Brown (Indonesian), Antarctic (Slovenian), Brownish-Gray (Spanish-Uruguay)
  • My proposals: Oceanic Storm-Petrel

Leach’s Storm-Petrel

  • Meaning of Latin name: White-rumped Storm-Petrel
  • Other historic names: Mother Cary’s Chicken
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Chapman’s
  • Names in other languages: Forked/Swallow-tailed (Afrikaans, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish), Large (Basque), Northern (Asturian, Catalan, Czech, Latvian, Lithuanian, Spanish), Great (Danish), Storm Fairy (Finnish), White-rumped (French, Haitian), Wave Runner (German), Sea Swallow (Icelandic), Storm Swallow (Norwegian)
  • My proposals: Northern Storm-Petrel

Cory’s Shearwater

  • Meaning of Latin name: Diomedes/White Shearwater
  • Other historic names:
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Northern
  • Names in other languages: Brown (Basque), Ashy (Catalan, French), Gray (Czech), Kuhl’s or Atlantic (Danish), Kuhl’s (Dutch), Macaronesian (Finnish), Sepia (German), Great/Northern (Italian), Yellow-billed (Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Slovenian, Swedish), Mediterranean (Portuguese-Brazil), Fairy (Slovak), Cinderella (Spanish), Large (Spanish-Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela)
  • My proposals: if split with Scopoli’s, Diomedes/White/Silver Shearwater and Northern Shearwater
I own older bird books that call this both Gray-backed and New Zealand Shearwater.

Buller’s Shearwater

  • Meaning of Latin name: Buller’s Shearwater
  • Other historic names: New Zealand Shearwater, Gray-backed Shearwater, Ashy-black Shearwater
  • Names in other languages: Gray-backed (Czech, German, Norwegian, Polish, Slovak, Spanish, Turkish), Gray (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Gray-backed Shearwater, New Zealand Shearwater, Elegant Shearwater

Audubon’s Shearwater

  • Meaning of Latin name: l’Herminier’s Shearwater
  • Other historic names: Dusky-backed Shearwater
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Miller’s
  • Names in other languages: Seaweed (Icelandic), Equatorial (Polish), Broad-winged (Portuguese), Ocean/Oceanic (Slovak)
  • My proposals: Gulf Stream Shearwater

Brandt’s Cormorant

  • Meaning of Latin name: Paintbrush/Painted/Plumed Cormorant
  • Other historic names: Plumed Cormorant, Green Cormorant
  • Names in other languages: Blue-throated (Croatian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish), Paintbrush (German), Plumed (Polish), Short-tailed (Slovak), Sergeant (Spanish)
  • My proposals: Plumed Cormorant, Paintbrush Cormorant

Cooper’s Hawk

  • Meaning of Latin name: Cooper’s Hawk
  • Other historic names: Blue-backed Hawk, Mexican Hawk
  • Names in other languages: Smooth (Norwegian)
  • My proposals: Woodland Hawk, Blue-backed Hawk, Capped Hawk, Town Hawk

Harris’s Hawk

  • Meaning of Latin name: Banded Hawk
  • Other historic names: Bay-winged Hawk
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Bay-winged
  • Names in other languages: Desert (Dutch, German), Knight (Finnish), Sand (Icelandic), Cactus (Norwegian, Swedish), Social (Polish), Bay-winged (Portuguese, Slovenian), Four-colored (Slovak), Mixed (Spanish), Red-and-black (Spanish-Mexico), Walking (Spanish-Venezuela)
  • My proposals: Bay-winged Hawk, Cactus Hawk, Social Hawk, Coyote Hawk
Other languages often avoid American honorifics in place of ecology-based names. This bird is known as the Prairie Hawk across much of Europe. In its wintering grounds, it is called the Grasshopper Hawk.

Swainson’s Hawk

  • Meaning of Latin name: Swainson’s Hawk
  • Other historic names: Rocky Mountain Buzzard, Canada Buzzard, Brown Hawk, Sharp-winged Hawk
  • Names in other languages: White-throated (Czech), Prairie (Dutch, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Swedish), Grasshopper (Spanish-Argentina, Chile, Paraguay)
  • My proposals: Prairie Hawk, Plains Hawk, Grasshopper Hawk

Lewis’s Woodpecker

  • Meaning of Latin name: Lewis’s Woodpecker (previously, Collared Woodpecker)
  • Other historic names: Black Woodpecker (by Lewis)
  • Names in other languages: Blood-faced (German), Crow Woodpecker (Icelandic, Swedish), Flycatching Woodpecker (Norwegian), Pink-bellied (Polish)
  • My proposals: Crow Woodpecker, Wandering Woodpecker, Painted Woodpecker

Williamson’s Sapsucker

  • Meaning of Latin name: Shielded Sapsucker
  • Other historic names: Black-breasted Sapsucker, Brown-headed Woodpecker, Round-headed Woodpecker, Brown Woodpecker
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Natalie
  • Names in other languages: Mountain (Dutch), Pine (German, Norwegian), Shielded (Icelandic), Black/Dark-headed (Polish, Swedish), Dark (Spanish), Elegant (Spanish-Mexico)
  • My proposals: Mountain Sapsucker, Montane Sapsucker, Conifer Sapsucker, Larch Sapsucker

Nuttall’s Woodpecker

  • Meaning of Latin name: Nuttall’s Woodpecker
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: California (Norwegian, Polish, Serbian, Spanish-Mexico), Chaparral
  • My proposals: Oak Woodpecker, California Woodpecker

Couch’s Kingbird

  • Meaning of Latin name: Couch’s Kingbird
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Texas (Dutch, German, Polish, Russian), Mayan (Norwegian), Whistling (Spanish), Mexican (Swedish, Turkish)
  • My proposals: Whistling Kingbird, Mexican Kingbird, Veracruz Kingbird, Mayan Kingbird
This bird was called a vociferous tyrant by Swainson when Cassin was just 13 years old.

Cassin’s Kingbird

  • Meaning of Latin name: Vociferous/Noisy Kingbird
  • Other historic names: Noisy Kingbird
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Different-winged
  • Names in other languages: Squeaky/Noisy/Screaming (Icelandic, Polish, Spanish), Scrub (Norwegian)
  • My proposals: Vociferous Kingbird

Hammond’s Flycatcher

  • Meaning of Latin name: Hammond’s Flycatcher
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Spruce (Dutch, Norwegian, Slovak), Fir (German, Polish),
  • My proposals: Lodgepole Flycatcher, Mountain Flycatcher

Say’s Phoebe

  • Meaning of Latin name: Say’s Phoebe
  • Other historic names: Black-tailed Phoebe
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Peaceful/Tranquil/Quiet, Pale/Pallid
  • Names in other languages: Brown (Finnish, Norwegian), Rufous-bellied (French, Swedish), Cinnamon-bellied (German), Land/Terrestrial (Icelandic), Plain (Slovak), Plains (Spanish)
  • My proposals: Mesa Phoebe, Plains Phoebe, Cinnamon Phoebe, Sunrise Phoebe

Bell’s Vireo

  • Meaning of Latin name: Bell’s Vireo
  • Other historic names: Greenlet
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Intermediate, Arizona, Least/Tiny
  • Names in other languages: Brown-eyed (German), Floodplain (Slovak), Chaparral (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Riparian Vireo

Hutton’s Vireo

  • Meaning of Latin name: Hutton’s Vireo
  • Other historic names: Dusky Vireo
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Pacific (group), Island, Dusky, Parkes’s, Mountain/Sierra, Unitt’s, Oberholser’s, Connected; Interior (group), Stephens’s, Caroline’s, Peaceful, Mexican, Volcano
  • Names in other languages: Greenish (Icelandic, Polish), Oak (Norwegian), Kinglet Vireo (Spanish-Mexico)
  • My proposals: Oak Vireo, Live Oak Vireo

Cassin’s Vireo

  • Meaning of Latin name: Cassin’s Vireo
  • Other historic names: Solitary Vireo (when lumped with Plumbeous and Blue-headed)
  • Meaning of subspecies names: San Lucas
  • Names in other languages: Ash-green (Icelandic), California (Norwegian), Olive (Polish), Spectacled (Slovak)
  • My proposals: Gray-headed Vireo, Spectacled Vireo
One of the first birds given an honorific name (by a Russian expedition in the late 1700s), a recent study shows the Pacific and Rocky Mountain birds have been separate for four million years and have different habitat preferences.

Steller’s Jay

  • Meaning of Latin name: Steller’s Jay
  • Other historic names: Sierra Jay, Blue-fronted Jay, California Mountain Jay, Crested Jay
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Charlotte, Fronted, Coal, Connecting, Long-crested, Diademed, Phillips, Crowned, Purple, Aztec, Teotepec, Ridgway, Azure, Pleasant
  • Names in other languages: Pine (Norwegian), Diademed (German), Crested (Spanish-Mexico)
  • My proposals: assuming a split, Forest Jay (along the Pacific) and Mountain Jay (Rocky Mtn interior)

Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay

  • Meaning of Latin name: Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay
  • Other historic names:
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Nevada, Texas, Gray, Dark-blue, Sumichrast’s, Remote
  • Names in other languages: Juniper (Norwegian), Woodland (Polish), Hooded (Slovak), Necklaced (Spanish-Mexico), Inland (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Juniper Scrub-jay

Clark’s Nutcracker

  • Meaning of Latin name: Columbian Nutcracker
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Gray (Dutch, Polish, Swedish), American (Finish, French, Russian, Serbian, Spanish), Pine (German, Norwegian)
  • My proposals: Timberline Nutcracker, Pine Nutcracker, Alpine Nutcracker

Bewick’s Wren

  • Meaning of Latin name: Bewick’s Wren
  • Other historic names:
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Desert-loving, Obscure/Hidden, Pulich’s, Sada’s, Mexican, Fine-voiced/Melodious, Thicket/Wood-dwelling, Marin, Spot-tailed, White-browed, Beautiful-tailed, Cerros Island, Magdalena, Short-tailed
  • Names in other languages: Gray (Icelandic), Long-tailed (Norwegian, Spanish-Mexico), Mousey (Polish), Garden (Slovak), Black-tailed (Spanish), Thicket (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Thicket Wren, Long-tailed Wren

Bendire’s Thrasher

  • Meaning of Latin name: Bendire’s Thrasher
  • Other historic names:
  • Meaning of subspecies names: White/Glittering, Ruddy
  • Names in other languages: Cactus (Dutch, German, Polish, Slovak), Navajo (Norwegian), Short-billed (Spanish)
  • My proposals: Yucca Thrasher

LeConte’s Thrasher

  • Meaning of Latin name: LeConte’s Thrasher
  • Other historic names: Yuma Thrasher
  • Meaning of subspecies names: McMillan’s, Desert (Vizcaino)
  • Names in other languages: Desert (Dutch, German), Mohave (Norwegian, Swedish), Sand (Polish), Steppe (Slovak), Pale/Pallid (Spanish),
  • My proposals: Yuma Thrasher, Sand Thrasher, Xeric Thrasher
The America’s most northerly solitaire is a juniper specialist.

Townsend’s Solitaire

  • Meaning of Latin name: Townsend’s Solitaire
  • Other historic names:
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Fine-voiced/Melodious
  • Names in other languages: Mountain (Dutch), Squeaky (Icelandic), Gray (Norwegian), Clarinet (Polish), Northern (Spanish, Swedish)
  • My proposals: Juniper Solitaire, Northern Solitaire, Clarinet Solitaire

Bicknell’s Thrush

  • Meaning of Latin name: Bicknell’s Thrush
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Newfoundland (Czech), Mountain (Danish), Forest (Norwegian), Wandering (Polish), Brown (Slovak)
  • My proposals: Fir Thrush
Divided into the Russet-backed and Olive-backed groups, Swainson’s Thrush is also known by a variety of names that describe its appearance or habitat.

Swainson’s Thrush

  • Meaning of Latin name: Burnt/Burnished Thrush
  • Other historic names:
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Russet-backed: Phillip’s, Musical; Olive-backed: Hoary, Appalachian, Swainson’s
  • Names in other languages: Dwarf (Croatian, Dutch), Western (Czech), Olive (Danish, French, German, Slovak), Brown Forest (Norwegian), Spectacled (Polish, Portuguese, Spanish-Mexico), Spruce (Slovenian), Boreal/Northern (Spanish-Argentina), Beige (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Boreal Thrush, Lyric Thrush

Sprague’s Pipit

  • Meaning of Latin name: Sprague’s Pipit
  • Other historic names: Missouri Skylark
  • Names in other languages: Prairie (Danish, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Polish, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish)
  • My proposals: Prairie Pipit

Cassin’s Finch

  • Meaning of Latin name: Cassin’s Finch
  • Other historic names: Cassin Purple Finch, Cassin Pine Finch
  • Names in other languages: Rock (Icelandic), Red-crowned (Norwegian), Red-headed (Polish, Slovak), Mountain (Spanish-Mexico)
  • My proposals: Pine Finch, Crimson-crowned Finch

Lawrence’s Goldfinch

  • Meaning of Latin name: Lawrence’s Goldfinch
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Masked (Dutch, German), Gray (French, Norwegian), Gorgeous (Polish), Oak (Slovak), Black-faced (Spanish-Mexico), California (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Fiddleneck Goldfinch, Golden-winged Goldfinch, Desert Goldfinch, Oasis Goldfinch

Smith’s Longspur

  • Meaning of Latin name: Painted Longspur
  • Other historic names: Painted Bunting
  • Names in other languages: Pied (Dutch), Golden-bellied (German), Frenzied (Icelandic), Tundra (Norwegian, Swedish), Fawn (Polish), Painted (Slovak)
  • My proposals: Painted Longspur

Botteri’s Sparrow

  • Meaning of Latin name: Botteri’s Sparrow
  • Other historic names:
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Arizona, Texas, Mexican, Goldman’s, Petén, Van Tyne’s, Black-and-chestnut, Volcano
  • Names in other languages: Stripe-backed (German), Straw (Icelandic), Prairie (Polish), Stubble/Grass (Slovak),
  • My proposals: Monsoon Sparrow, Sacaton Sparrow

Cassin’s Sparrow

  • Meaning of Latin name: Cassin’s Sparrow
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Apache (Norwegian), Gray (Polish), Meadow (Slovak)
  • My proposals: Skylarking Sparrow, Nomadic Sparrow, Plains Sparrow

Bachman’s Sparrow

  • Meaning of Latin name: Summer Sparrow
  • Other historic names: Pinewoods Sparrow
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Bachman’s, Illinois
  • Names in other languages: Pine (Dutch, French, German), Palmetto (Norwegian), Sharp-tailed (Polish)
  • My proposals: Pinewoods Sparrow, Summer Sparrow
Brewer’s Sparrow maps so well onto traditional Shoshone lands that I looked up the word in Shoshone, which translates to “sage bird” or “sage sparrow”. This would be a great English name, though it would cause confusion with the other species formerly known by that name.

Brewer’s Sparrow

  • Meaning of Latin name: Brewer’s Sparrow
  • Other historic names: Pale Sparrow
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Taverner’s (aka Timberline)
  • Names in other languages: Pale (German), Shoshone (Norwegian), Bright-bellied (Polish), Sage (Shoshone)
  • My proposals: Dawn Sparrow, Trilling Sparrow, Shoshone Sparrow

Harris’s Sparrow

  • Meaning of Latin name: Mourning/Plaintive Sparrow
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Black-crowned (Dutch), Eskimo (Finnish), Black-faced (French, Polish, Slovak), Spruce (Norwegian), Canada (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Mourning Sparrow, Treeline Sparrow

Bell’s Sparrow

  • Meaning of Latin name: Bell’s Sparrow
  • Other historic names: Sage Sparrow when lumped with Sagebrush Sparrow
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Gray/Hoary, San Clemente Island, Ashy
  • Names in other languages: Sage (German), Chaparral (Norwegian), California (Spanish-Mexico)
  • My proposals: Chaparral Sparrow

LeConte’s Sparrow

  • Meaning of Latin name: LeConte’s Sparrow
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Gray-eared (Norwegian), Striped Marsh (Polish), Meadow (Slovak)
  • My proposals: Meadow Sparrow

Nelson’s Sparrow

  • Meaning of Latin name: Nelson’s Sparrow
  • Other historic names: Sharp-tailed Sparrow (when lumped with Saltmarsh Sparrow)
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Other, Streak-bellied
  • Names in other languages: Needle-tailed (Norwegian), Marsh (Polish), Wetland (Slovak)
  • My proposals: Marsh Sparrow

Baird’s Sparrow

  • Meaning of Latin name: Baird’s Sparrow
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Dakota (Norwegian), Meadow (Polish), Solitary/Reclusive (Slovak), Prairie (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Prairie Sparrow, Buffalo Sparrow, Dakota Sparrow

Henslow’s Sparrow

  • Meaning of Latin name: Henslow’s Sparrow
  • Other historic names:
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Whispering
  • Names in other languages: Red-winged Swamp (Polish), Weed (Slovak)
  • My proposals: Tallgrass Sparrow

Lincoln’s Sparrow

  • Meaning of Latin name: Lincoln’s Sparrow
  • Other historic names: Forbush Sparrow
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Slender/Elegant, High-dweller/Mountain
  • Names in other languages: Streaked/Striped (Czech, Danish), Cane-browed (Haitian), Breast (Icelandic), Gray-browed (Norwegian), Gray-breasted Fawn (Polish), Migratory (Spanish-Venezuela)
  • My proposals: Fawn Sparrow, Bog Sparrow
The masked Abert’s Towhee is another Southwest mesquite specialist.

Abert’s Towhee

  • Meaning of Latin name: Abert’s Towhee
  • Other historic names:
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Thicket, Vorhies’s
  • Names in other languages: Black-chinned (Dutch, German), Masked (Norwegian, Spanish-Mexico), Black-faced (Polish, Slovak), Arizona (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Mesquite Towhee, Bosque Towhee, Masked Towhee, Arizona Towhee

Bullock’s Oriole

  • Meaning of Latin name: Bullock’s Oriole
  • Other historic names: Northern (when lumped with Baltimore), Western Oriole
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Short
  • Names in other languages: Turnip (Icelandic), Golden-browed (Norwegian), Orange-browed (Spanish-Mexico), White-winged (Slovak)
  • My proposals: Western Oriole, Cottonwood Oriole

Audubon’s Oriole

  • Meaning of Latin name: Step-tailed Oriole
  • Other historic names: Black-headed Oriole
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Audubon’s, Nayarit, Dickey’s
  • Names in other languages: Black-headed (Dutch, German, Polish, Slovak), Citrine/Lemon (Norwegian), Black-hooded (Spanish-Mexico),
  • My proposals: Citrine Oriole

Scott’s Oriole

  • Meaning of Latin name: Paris’s Oriole
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Gold-green (French), California (German), Yucca (Norwegian), Prickly Pear (Spanish-Mexico), Black-headed (Slovak)
  • My proposals: Yucca Oriole

Brewer’s Blackbird

  • Meaning of Latin name: Blue/Purple-headed Blackbird
  • Other historic names: Satin Bird, Glossy Blackbird, Western Blackbird
  • Names in other languages: Field (Finnish), Purple (German, Polish, Slovak), Smooth/Satin (Icelandic), Purple-headed (Norwegian), Yellow-eyed (Spanish-Mexico), Prairie (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Purplish Blackbird, Purple-headed Blackbird, Satin Blackbird

Swainson’s Warbler

  • Meaning of Latin name: Swainson’s Warbler
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Sharp-beaked (Haitian), Cane (Icelandic, Polish), Brown (Norwegian), Long-billed (Slovak), Brown-capped (Spanish-Mexico), Plain (Spanish-Venezuela)
  • My proposals: Cane Warbler, Palmetto Warbler, Bayou Warbler

Lucy’s Warbler

  • Meaning of Latin name: Lucy’s Warbler
  • Other historic names: Mesquite Warbler, Desert Warbler
  • Names in other languages: Red/Rufous-rumped (German, Spanish-Mexico, Swedish), Plain (Icelandic), Mesquite (Norwegian), Rusty (Polish), Little (Slovak)
  • My proposals: Mesquite Warbler
Originally named Tolmie’s Warbler, and called that in some older bird books, it carries two honorifics, one in English and one in Latin. Others call it by its appearance or preference for riparian thickets.

Virginia’s Warbler

  • Meaning of Latin name: Virginia’s Warbler
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Yellow-vented (German), Pine (Norwegian), Ravine (Slovak)
  • My proposals: Juniper Warbler, Great Basin Warbler

MacGillivray’s Warbler

  • Meaning of Latin name: Tolmie’s Warbler
  • Other historic names: Tolmie’s Warbler
  • Names in other languages: Mourning (Dutch), Bush/Shrub (French), Thicket/Copse (German, Norwegian), Earth/Soil (Icelandic), Lemon (Polish), Scrub (Slovak), Tolmie’s (Spanish), Black-lored (Spanish-Mexico), Gray-headed (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Thicket Warbler, Riparian Warbler, Riverine Warbler, Brook Warbler

Kirtland’s Warbler

  • Meaning of Latin name: Kirtland’s Warbler
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Michigan (German), Firefield (Norwegian), Spotted (Slovak)
  • My proposals: Jack Pine Warbler, Wildfire Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

  • Meaning of Latin name: Dusky or Dark Warbler
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Hemlock (Czech, Norwegian), Fire (Danish, Spanish-Puerto Rico), Spruce (Dutch, German), Orange-throated (French, Spanish), Little Flamboyant (Haitian), Orange-crowned (Hungarian), Glossy/Glowing (Icelandic), Red-breasted (Lithuanian), Red Forest (Polish), Firecracker (Portuguese), Orange-streaked (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Flamboyant Warbler, Flame-faced Warbler

Grace’s Warbler

  • Meaning of Latin name: Grace’s Warbler
  • Other historic names:
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Yaeger’s, Remote, Beautiful
  • Names in other languages: Arizona (German), Ponderosa (Norwegian), Yellow-throated (Polish), Yellow-breasted (Slovak), Yellow-browed (Spanish-Mexico), Gray-headed (Swedish)
  • My proposals: Yellow-fronted Warbler, Pine-oak Warbler

Townsend’s Warbler

  • Meaning of Latin name: Townsend’s Warbler
  • Other historic names:
  • Names in other languages: Tree (Icelandic), Spruce (Norwegian), Black Forest (Polish)
  • My proposals: Evergreen Warbler
Western field guides thru the 1950s called it the Pileolated Warbler. Its Latin name means Tiny Warbler. Wilson himself called it the Green Black-capped Flycatcher.

Wilson’s Warbler

  • Meaning of Latin name: Little or Tiny Warbler
  • Other historic names: Pileolated Warbler, Black-capped Yellow Warbler, Green Black-cap Warbler, Green Black-capped Flycatcher
  • Meaning of subspecies names: Pileolated, Golden
  • Names in other languages: Black-crowned (Swedish, Spanish-Mexico), Black-capped (Portugese)
  • My proposals: Brilliant Warbler, Dancing Warbler, Golden-green Warbler

My other blog posts about bird names for birds:

Bird names matter: Top ornithologists and organizations endorse name changes for all species named after people

Honorific bird names facts and figures

Erasure, white fragility, and the verbal monuments of bird names: Should we hold people in the past accountable to present-day mores?

Reflections of a Native birder: The one Indian killer bird name I really have trouble with

This golden-winged gem, known for its erratic wanderings, can often by found at desert oases and wherever fiddleneck is blooming.

Honorific bird names facts and figures

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Here is a closer look at the eponymous (mostly honorific) names for the most familiar species in North America.

At the American Ornithological Society (AOS) Congress on English Bird Names on April 16, 2021, a host of prominent organizations and individuals endorsed “bird names for birds”, a widespread effort to rename eponymous or honorific species names with more descriptive names, focusing on their physical or ecological attributes.

This Analysis: 80 familiar species

Scott’s Oriole was named after two brothers and then, later, the Commanding General of the US Army.

Looking at Version 8.0.8 (March 12, 2021) of the ABA Checklist, 116 of the 1,123 species, or a little over 10%, are named after people. Of the 116 in the ABA area, two (Bishop’s Oo and Bachman’s Warbler) are considered extinct, one is an introduced species in Hawaii (Erckel’s Francolin), and 32 others are Codes 3, 4 or 5, meaning they occur rarely in the ABA area. The remaining 80 are all Code 1 or 2 and can be expected to be seen in the ABA area regularly. The following analyses focuses on these 80 familiar species.

The Birds

The first thing to note is that these 80 species come from a wide array of families and species groupings. As with all birds, Passerines are dominant, making up 49% of the list. Digging deeper, seabirds and Passerines with limited ranges (mostly warblers and sparrows) are over-represented—because they were described relatively late in the European discovery process, when honorific naming became more in vogue.

Naming Patterns

The AOU (American Ornithological Union, the precursor to the AOS) began proposing English names in its first checklist in 1886, but didn’t complete the effort – and the names were not universally accepted – until the 5th edition in 1957. Meanwhile, the scientific names have always followed a clear rule: the scientific name is set by the first published description of a species. The “bird names for birds” movement is focused on English names only.

Eponymous naming was rare in the 18th century, limited to just four of the 80 species, all emanating from Russian/German and British field work, primarily focused on the far north. The four early birds are Steller’s Eider (1769), Blackburnian Warbler (1776), Steller’s Jay (1788), and Barrow’s Goldeneye (1789).

Then, in 1811, Alexander Wilson named a woodpecker and a nutcracker after Lewis and Clark, and honorific naming was off and running, peaking in the mid-1800s.

Eponyms for the 80 Code 1 and Code 2 species are overwhelmingly honorific. Only six are named after the describer himself (Wilson’s Warbler, Sabine’s Gull, Brandt’s Cormorant, Townsend’s Warbler, Gambel’s Quail, and Cory’s Shearwater), and it’s not clear that even all of them intended for the species to have an eponym; the scientific names for the warbler, cormorant, and shearwater suggest otherwise. Wilson himself called his warbler the Green Black-capped Flycatcher and the western subspecies went by Pileolated Warbler (coined by Pallas) as late as the 1950s.

The namers were widespread – 36 different people provided the 80 names, though four stand out. John James Audubon provided fifteen of the eponymous names, Spencer Baird and John Cassin each provided seven, and Rene Lesson four. Together, these four ornithologists were responsible for 41% (33/80) of the honorific names in this analysis. In addition, many eponymous subspecies were coined by Baird.

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Locations on the diagram only loosely correspond to the time axis due to space constraints.

The majority of the namers were connected to each other, with many naming birds after colleagues, who in turn named species after other colleagues. Lesson described Audubon’s Shearwater and Oriole; Audubon described Baird’s Sparrow; Baird described Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay; Woodhouse described Cassin’s Sparrow; Cassin described Lawrence’s Goldfinch; Lawrence described LeConte’s Thrasher.

There are no examples of a quid pro quo, where two people named birds after each other, unless you count Audubon’s Warbler, described by Townsend in 1837; Audubon returned the favor with Townsend’s Solitaire the following year. Or Coues, who christened a sandpiper after Baird in 1861; four years later, Baird named a warbler after Coues’ sister, Grace.

Despite Audubon’s dominant role in honorific naming, no Americans honored him (excepting Townsend with Audubon’s Warbler); only Lesson, a Frenchman, did.

A third of the species (27 of 80) have scientific names that do not match the honorific English name. In most instances this is because the bird was accidentally described twice. Most often, they were not originally intended to have an honorific name. A person described the species and gave a descriptive scientific name, then later another person described the same species and gave an honorific name. For example, Lichtenstein described A. aestivalis in 1823, then Audubon described it again in 1839, naming it Bachman’s Sparrow. When it was realized the two were the same species, the scientific name provided by the first publication held, but, at least in these instances, the honorific English name was also given—a kind of consolation prize to the second describer. Thus, what was called Pinewoods or Oakwoods Sparrow became Bachman’s Sparrow. It’s apparent that oversight and review of “naming and claiming” was limited.

Among the 80 species in this analysis, this double-describing happened at least 18 times. Curiously, six of these were by Audubon and account for 40% of his honorific bestowments. These are Harris’s Hawk, Bachman’s Sparrow, MacGillivray’s Warbler, Harris’s Sparrow, Brewer’s Blackbird, and Smith’s Longspur. MacGillivray’s Warbler was intended to be Tolmie’s Warbler as described by Townsend; the other five have descriptive scientific names. There is one other double-described species that has a scientific honorific—Scott’s Oriole, Icterus parisorum, originally named after the Paris brothers. Most of the others have descriptive scientific names.

Cassin’s Auklet (P. aleutica) and Cassin’s Kingbird (T. vociferans) were first described, respectively, before Cassin was born and when Cassin was just thirteen. Clearly the original describers did not intend to honor Cassin. However, by the 1886 AOU checklist both carried the Cassin moniker, though there is no record that I could find how or why that came to be (and even a co-author of the auklet’s Birds of North American species account didn’t know the answer).

Interestingly, two species have scientific names derived from indigenous words: pipixcan of Franklin’s Gull is Nahuatl for the gull or possibly the Aztec region in Mexico; sasin of Allen’s Hummingbird is Noo-chah-nulth (Nootka) for hummingbird, a reference to when the species was lumped with Rufous Hummingbird. The gull was described twice, which is how it ended up honoring Franklin. The hummingbird was split, providing an opportunity for another name. Ironically, Allen’s, not Rufous, Hummingbird always bore the Noo-chah-nulth name which emanates from Vancouver Island.

Correlated with the timing, a clear regional pattern emerges. Because the common eastern species had already been described a century earlier, western species with honorific names outnumber eastern ones nearly ten to one. A map plotting the year of description with the core of the species’ range mimics European expansion – and ethnic cleansing of Native Americans – across the continent in the nineteenth century.

ADDITIONAL NOTE ADDED June 2023: I decided to compare the odds of encountering a bird with an eponym in Arizona with Massachusetts. Using eBird frequency data at the state level, I tallied 32 species in Arizona which appeared on at least 3% of all checklists in any week during the year. The most common were Anna’s Hummingbird (hitting a maximum of 33% at one point during the year), Gambel’s Quail (30%), Abert’s Towhee (27%), Lucy’s Warbler (27%), Say’s Phoebe (25%), and Wilson’s Warbler (21%). In Massachusetts, there were only 7, two of which were pelagic species (Wilson’s Storm-Petrel and Cory’s Shearwater). The most common you would encounter on land were Cooper’s Hawk (10%), Wilson’s Warbler (10%), Swainson’s Thrush (8%), Bonaparte’s Gull (5%), and Forster’s Tern (3%). As you can tell, any checklist in Arizona is far more likely to contain birds with honorific names than in Massachusetts, probably five to ten times more, depending on the time of year. This likely holds generally in comparing the West to the East.

The Honorees

As for the honorees, most were naturalists, either doing field work or promoting it (70 of 80), most were Americans (55 of 80) or at least had spent some time in North America (add ten more). French collectors dominated the hummingbirds.

Only six species honor women—or girls. Blackburne is the early outlier, a British naturalist honored by one of the German ornithologists in the late 1700s. Neither spent time in North America; the type specimen comes from South America. Curiously, the eponymic title is not in the possessive form (e.g. Blackburne’s Warbler). For reasons unknown to me, the scientific name was changed from blackburniae to fusca before 1910.

During the surge of honorifics in the mid-1800s, the only females honored were friends or family, and they only got first names. Anna, age 27 when the hummingbird was named in her honor, was the wife of an ornithologist and a lady-in-waiting in the court of Emperor Napoleon III’s wife. She was described by Audubon as a “beautiful young woman, not more than twenty, extremely graceful and polite.” Virginia was the wife of William Anderson, the original collector; she was honored by Baird at Anderson’s request. Grace, also honored by Baird, was Elliot Coues’s sister. Lucy, age 13, honored by James G. Cooper, was Baird’s daughter.

We don’t return to female scientists – and last names – until the 1900s, with Scripps, who was honored in 1939, and her bird didn’t reach species status until 2012.

Most of the honorees have no obvious indications of a checkered past (66 of 80), though most of these were quite comfortable associating with, or honoring with bird names, those who were slaveholders, white supremacists, or actively involved in killing or removing Native Americans, even while these actions were hotly debated and contested at the time among whites—and universally opposed by Blacks and Native Americans. As early as 1920, the entire concept of eponymous bird names was challenged.

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Locations are intended to approximate the location of the species’ range or location of type specimen.

The dominance of western species among honorific names with morally objectionable pasts is no accident. In wars of conquest against Mexico and Indigenous peoples, the US army sought solider-scientists who could help map new lands. In the process, they renamed land and wildlife as if it was discovered for the first time. Many of the ornithologists working in the West were attached to US military expeditions or other surveys of colonization, such as railroad surveys or the border survey after the Mexican-American War. They often served as doctors while doing naturalist work on the side. Many were likely looking for a vehicle to get into the field.

Others were active combatants, with the naturalist work coming on the side. William Clark, after the famous 1803 expedition, played a leadership role in the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans for three decades. Abert served as a soldier under John Fremont’s Third Expedition and likely participated in the Sacramento River massacre of Wintu families, deemed horrific by their contemporaries. General Winfield Scott, not a naturalist in any way, was honored by Couch with an oriole precisely for his role as the Commanding General of the US Army, which included overseeing the arrest, detainment, and expulsion of the Cherokee during the Trail of Tears. Scott had been a major party candidate for president of the United States just two years before Couch honored him with the oriole. Imagine McCain’s Oriole or Romney’s Finch.

This passage, from a 1960 article about soldier-scientists Richard and Edward Kern (who collected birds but only got a river, a beetle, and a county named after them), exemplifies the era. “Their first task… was to map uncharted Navajo country on a punitive march with the army.* It was a rich opportunity to observe Indians in their native haunts. How many men did they know at the academy in Philadelphia who would give an arm to be thus contacting Pueblos and Navajos! Moreover, the Kerns would measure a few more skulls for Morton; snare some strange lizards for Leidy; and capture for their own delight any number of bright birds from a terra incognita.”

[* This was Col. John M. Washington’s 1849 incursion in which elderly Navajo Chief Narbona was killed minutes after a peace agreement, leading to war between the Navajo and US, who had just annexed much of the Southwest from Mexico]

But why did they turn to honorific naming when their predecessors did not? Was it the spirit of conquest, of erasing the former occupants of the land, that gave them the presumption and bravado to name even the birds after each other? After all, mountains, rivers, valleys, and large regions of land were all being re-named and claimed as European. In the Southwest, many places that already had Spanish names were given English names.

White supremacy permeated the sciences. Crania Americana was published between 1839 and 1849 by Samuel Morton, a colleague of several of the naturalists. In addition to the Kern brothers mentioned above, Townsend collected skulls for him. During the same era, to support the Indian Removal Act and other similar policies, the Mound Builder Myth, asserting that Native Americans were not actually native, but that North America was originally populated by Europeans, was widely taught in grade schools across the land. The land was originally European, so the story went. This theory was eventually laid to rest thanks to the efforts of John Wesley Powell, but only after most Natives were detained in concentration camps.

In short, the scientific fields were permeated with white supremacy and a sense of white ownership. Ornithological research found itself interlocked with US military endeavors and, on the Western frontier, far from Eastern progressive voices advocating abolition and respect for slaves and Natives. In this climate, honorific naming eventually ran amok, often foundering on the rocky shores of slavery and ethnic cleansing, aka manifest destiny.

It would be wrong to assume that “everyone was doing it.” In 1822, Thomas Say, honored by Charles Bonaparte with the phoebe, described Long-billed Dowitcher, Band-tailed Pigeon, Dusky Grouse, Western Kingbird, Rock Wren, Lark Sparrow, Lesser Goldfinch, Lazuli Bunting, and Orange-crowned Warbler, giving all of them descriptive names.

Caveat: Researching the origins of species’ names is challenging, especially for those described more than once or subject to taxonomic revisions. Corrections from knowledgeable readers are much appreciated. Regardless of errors, the larger picture, the trends regarding time and place, still hold.

Note: Updated June 2, 2021 to include Blackburnian Warbler.

I recently dug deeper and looked at what these species are called in other languages. It turns out that all of these species have alternative “bird names” in other languages.

I’ve added some thoughts addressing the question: Should we hold people in the past accountable to present-day mores?

As a citizen of Cherokee Nation, here is my personal connection to Scott’s Oriole.

Bird names matter: Top ornithologists and organizations endorse name changes for all species named after people

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At the American Ornithological Society (AOS) Congress on English Bird Names on April 16, 2021, a host of prominent organizations and individuals endorsed “bird names for birds”, a widespread effort to rename eponymous or honorific species names with more descriptive names, focusing on their physical or ecological attributes. For example, Wilson’s Warbler could become Black-capped Warbler, Townsend’s Solitaire might become Northern or Juniper Solitaire, and Kittlitz’s Murrelet would probably be re-named Glacier Murrelet.

MacGillivray’s Warbler was named by John James Audubon after his friend, William MacGillivray, a Scottish ornithologist who never came to America. Audubon also coined its Latin specific, tolmiei, to honor William Fraser Tolmie, a Scottish employee of Hudson’s Bay Company based at Fort Nisqually during the period of Native removal. Scientific, or Latin names, are subject to international rules and are not the focus of this process.

While specific new names have not yet been chosen, representatives of the American Birding Association (ABA), National Audubon Society, as well as David Sibley and Kenn Kaufmann, all heartily endorsed developing a process to make the changes, noting that new names would engage a larger audience, contribute to greater equity and inclusivity among birders and the interested public, and could aid in public communication and conservation efforts.

The effort has grown out of the national reckoning on racial equality in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing. Movements to change names are underway with regard to parks, mountains, streets, other wildlife, and even rock-climbing routes. Current names generally go back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries during European expansion across North America and recall an era of conquest, when species and landforms were “discovered” – and some named after the individual who documented them, or after their friends and colleagues.

An FAQ, full list of the panelists, and a video of the Congress can be found at the AOS English Bird Names website. The direct link to the video is here.

Sibley commented that, the more he learns about the names, “the more they cast a shadow over the bird” and “the name doesn’t mean just the bird anymore. They have baggage.” Out of respect for people and the birds, they “should not have to carry a reminder of our own fraught history.” Choosing between stability and respect, Sibley stated “I choose respect.”

Name changes over social justice concerns began last year when McCown’s Longpsur was changed to Thick-billed Longspur, after widespread outcry because McCown was a Confederate general and involved in the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans. A proposal in 2018 for that name change was roundly rejected. 

Name changes for these reasons are not new; most birders can probably recall the switch from Oldsquaw to Long-tailed Duck in 2000. At that time, the American Ornithologists’ Union, the precursor to the AOS, asserted that the name change was not for reasons of “political correctness” but merely to conform with usage elsewhere.

The Bird Names for Birds website includes bios of various people memorialized with bird names. For example, Townsend (of the solitaire, warbler, and storm-pretrel) collected Native skulls for his friend Samuel Morton, author of Crania Americana. The November 2020 issue of Birding magazine focused on name changes, with a strong endorsement by ABA President Jeffrey Gordon and a longer article providing historical background. It is available here for ABA members.

Bird Names for Birds, a group of interested birders, was instrumental in reaching out to the larger organizations to participate in the congress. In their words, “Eponyms (a person after whom a discovery, invention, place, etc., is named or thought to be named) and honorific common bird names (a name given to something in honor of a person) are problematic because they perpetuate colonialism and the racism associated with it. The names that these birds currently have—for example, Bachman’s Sparrow—represent and remember people (mainly white men) who often have objectively horrible pasts and do not uphold the morals and standards the bird community should memorialize.” They describe such names as “verbal statues” that should be removed.

Jordan Rutter of Bird Names for Birds argued that, when reaching out to the public to protect an endangered sparrow, Bachman’s Sparrow has much less appeal than an alternative name rooted in local ecology that the public could identify with. Kaufmann pointed out that Bachmann was a pro-slavery white supremacist and that the species was formerly known as the Pinewoods Sparrow.

In the AOS’s own language, “The Community Congress opens the discussion on the complex issues around eponymous English Bird Names…. The specific aim of the Community Congress is to provide an opportunity for a broad range of stakeholders from the birding and ornithological community to share their viewpoints, including challenges and opportunities from their perspectives, to best inform future next steps to address the issue of naming birds after people.”

The AOS Congress on English Bird Names was superbly moderated by José González, providing a model for the process ahead.

Keepers of various ornithological databases also participated in the Congress, including representatives for eBird, Christmas Bird Counts, Breeding Bird Surveys, and the Bird Banding Laboratory. While noting potential complications with name changes (and changes in four-letter banding codes), they all agreed the hurdles were not insurmountable. Indeed, name changes, as well as taxonomic lumps and splits, occur every year, with name changes being the simplest of the three to address in data management. eBird currently supports bird names in 47 languages, including 14 different versions of English. Where Americans see Black-bellied Plover, Brits see Grey Plover.

Marshall Iliff of eBird pointed out that the effort is also an opportunity to clean up old taxonomic messes, pointing out that Audubon’s Shearwater has been used for eleven different combinations of nine different taxa. In this case, he said, fresh names for specific taxa will provide clarity, not confusion. He embraced a worldwide effort to “dig into the essence of each species” to “find inspired and appropriate names.”

For now, the effort will be limited to primary eponymous English bird names. The effort will not include secondary names (e.g., American Crow, named after the continent, which was named after Amerigo Vespucci). Other problematic names, such as Flesh-footed Shearwater for a bird with pink feet, were not discussed.

Many suggested using Native names for species, though most stated this could be challenging because 1) names from Native languages may have been lost, or 2) most bird species’ ranges span multiple historic aboriginal territories and languages, creating a conundrum over which indigenous word to use. The exception to this is Hawaii, where indigenous names are already in widespread use. Among mammals, moose, raccoon, and skunk are all derived from Algonquian.

Does Lawrence’s Goldfinch deserve a better name?

Looking at Version 8.0.8 (March 12, 2021) of the ABA Checklist, 115 of the 1,123 species, or a little over 10%, are named after people. Of these, 2 (Bishop’s Oo and Bachman’s Warbler) are considered extinct, and 20 others are Code 4 or 5, meaning they occur extremely rarely in the ABA area (though three of these are regular in Mexico, within the AOS area). The remaining 93 are all Code 1, 2, or 3, and can be expected to be seen in the ABA area regularly.

Here are the 113 non-extinct species from the ABA Checklist.

Ross’s Goose

Steller’s Eider

Stejneger’s Scoter

Barrow’s Goldeneye

Gambel’s Quail

Erckel’s Francolin

Clark’s Grebe

Vaux’s Swift

Rivoli’s Hummingbird

Anna’s Hummingbird

Costa’s Hummingbird

Allen’s Hummingbird

Xantus’s Hummingbird

Ridgway’s Rail

Wilson’s Plover

Temminck’s Stint

Baird’s Sandpiper

Wilson’s Snipe

Wilson’s Phalarope

Kittlitz’s Murrelet

Scripps’s Murrelet

Craveri’s Murrelet

Cassin’s Auklet

Sabine’s Gull

Bonaparte’s Gull

Ross’s Gull

Franklin’s Gull

Pallas’s Gull

Belcher’s Gull

Heermann’s Gull

Forster’s Tern

Salvin’s Albatross

Wilson’s Storm-Petrel

Swinhoe’s Storm-Petrel

Leach’s Storm-Petrel

Townsend’s Storm-Petrel

Tristram’s Storm-Petrel

Murphy’s Petrel

Fea’s Petrel

Zino’s Petrel

Cook’s Petrel

Stejneger’s Petrel

Bulwer’s Petrel

Jouanin’s Petrel

Parkinson’s Petrel

Cory’s Shearwater

Buller’s Shearwater

Newell’s Shearwater

Bryan’s Shearwater

Audubon’s Shearwater

Brandt’s Cormorant

Cooper’s Hawk

Steller’s Sea-Eagle

Harris’s Hawk

Swainson’s Hawk

Lewis’s Woodpecker

Williamson’s Sapsucker

Nuttall’s Woodpecker

Nutting’s Flycatcher

La Sagra’s Flycatcher

Couch’s Kingbird

Cassin’s Kingbird

Hammond’s Flycatcher

Say’s Phoebe

Bell’s Vireo

Hutton’s Vireo

Cassin’s Vireo

Steller’s Jay

Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay

Clark’s Nutcracker

Bewick’s Wren

Pallas’s Leaf Warbler

Blyth’s Reed Warbler

Pallas’s Grasshopper-Warbler

Middendorff’s Grasshopper-Warbler

Townsend’s Solitaire

Bicknell’s Thrush

Swainson’s Thrush

Bendire’s Thrasher

LeConte’s Thrasher

Sprague’s Pipit

Pallas’s Rosefinch

Cassin’s Finch

Lawrence’s Goldfinch

Smith’s Longspur

McKay’s Bunting

Pallas’s Bunting

Botteri’s Sparrow

Cassin’s Sparrow

Bachman’s Sparrow

Brewer’s Sparrow

Worthen’s Sparrow

Harris’s Sparrow

Bell’s Sparrow

LeConte’s Sparrow

Nelson’s Sparrow

Baird’s Sparrow

Henslow’s Sparrow

Lincoln’s Sparrow

Abert’s Towhee

Bullock’s Oriole

Audubon’s Oriole

Scott’s Oriole

Brewer’s Blackbird

Swainson’s Warbler

Lucy’s Warbler

Virginia’s Warbler

MacGillivray’s Warbler

Kirtland’s Warbler

Grace’s Warbler

Townsend’s Warbler

Wilson’s Warbler

Morelet’s Seedeater

There are also several hybrids (e.g. Brewster’s and Lawrence’s Warblers), prominent subspecies (e.g. Thayer’s Gull and Audubon’s Warbler), and superspecies (e.g. Traill’s Flycatcher) that are used in some databases. It is not clear if these will be addressed at this time.