American Society of Ornithology wants to change names of "problematic" birds

There have been the statues, the street names and, recently, the Queen of England.

From now on, it is the birds that risk being targeted by the “cancel culture”.

Last April, the American Ornitological Association (AOS) organized a seminar devoted to the names of North American birds, reports

.

The goal of this initiative: to rename the birds whose name refers to slavery or colonization.

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It all started in August 2020, with a column published in the

and signed by two American ornithologists, Jordan Rutter and Gabriel Foley.

In their text, they considered in particular that "

" and that they should "

" be changed.

To our colleagues in the

, Jordan Rutter regretted that the birds were all named after men - "

" - white, most of whom "

" .

A list of 150 "problematic" birds

Since then, the two specialists have launched a site called Bird Names for Birds. It lists some 150 birds whose names are linked to characters deemed "

". For each name, the site publishes a kind of technical sheet, which recalls the profession, the nationality and what is accused of the "accused". Among them was Hammond's flycatcher, named after William Alexander Hammond, a 19th century surgeon and neurologist who believed black people were inferior human beings. Or the Bachman sparrow, named after the Lutheran pastor John Bachman, described as "

" but accused of having been a slave owner and of having "

".

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By this initiative, Jordan Rutter and Gabriel Foley intended to convince the AOS to initiate a profound reform of the names of birds. With success, since the president of the company, Mike Webster, appointed a committee of 18 professional and amateur ornithologists, in charge of working on the issue, underlines

. And this little revolution has already claimed its first victim: McCown's plectrophane, named after Confederate General John Porter McCown. The bird was renamed “big billed plectrophane” because

of the American officer's “

” liability

. Not without difficulty, since the AOS had first refused this change in July 2019, before giving in.

With our colleagues, the organization now recognizes that some names are "

". And to make an appointment at the beginning of the year 2022, for a first series of recommendations from the committee.