Callum Jones
In potentially devastating news for birders, a whole bunch of birds' names are set to change - but there is a good reason for that.
A lot of familiar names in the US bird scene look set to be disappearing fairly soon, including the likes of Anna's Hummingbird, Gambel's Quail, Lewis's Woodpecker, Bewick's Wren, Bullock's Oriole, and many more.
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Why you may ask?
Well, the American Ornithological Society has vowed to change the names of all bird species that are currently named after people, as well as any other bird names that are deemed offensive.
If you're wondering why birds named after people could be considered offensive, the problem is who some of these birds are named after.
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There are understandable concerns people of color may feel alienated by birds named after slave traders, white supremacists and people known to have robbed Indigenous graves, and it's these names that are first on the list to be changed.
Among the birds who could be up for a rebrand are the Bachman's warbler, named after slave-owning priest John Bachman; the Hodgson’s Frogmouth named after colonial administrator and naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson; and the Townsend's warbler named after ornithologist John Kirk Townsend, known for robbing graves in a bid to prove his white supremacist views.
As for the replacements, the American Ornithological Society are hoping the new names will better reflect the birds' plumage and other characteristics.
When they're brought in by the society next year, they will follow more descriptive names names such as the red-headed woodpecker.
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Colleen Handel, the society's president and a research wildlife biologist with the US geological Survey in Alaska, said:
"We've come to understand that there are certain names that have offensive or derogatory connotations that cause pain to people, and that it is important to change those, to remove those as barriers to their participation in the world of birds."
The project to rename all of these birds will initially focus on 70 to 80 bird species found predominately in the US and Canada. To put that into perspective, that's around six to seven percent of the total species.
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The changing of names is a huge change for the birding community, with Kenn Kaufman, a prominent figure in the birding community, telling NPR: "I've been seeing some of these birds and using these names every year for the last 60 years."
The bird lover was initially against the idea of changing names, but has come around to the idea.
"It's going to feel like a bother to some people, but I think it's actually an exciting opportunity," he added.
"It's an exciting opportunity to give these birds names that celebrate them — rather than some person in the past."