P.E.I. birders need to learn new names as ornithological society makes big change

Birders on Prince Edward Island will be learning some new names in 2024, after the American Ornithological Society announced it is renaming all birds in the United States and Canada that were named after people. 

The decision by the world's largest professional organization for ornithologists will affect as many as 80 species, including about 25 that have been spotted on Prince Edward Island. 

Some birds named after people "have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today," according to the society. 

"The idea is largely to make the situation more accessible for birders, and also to remove any names that are considered offensive for certain sectors of the birding community," said Kathy Martin, a professor of wildlife ecology at the University of British Columbia. 

Martin grew up in Stanhope, P.E.I., and is a long-time member and a former president of the American Ornithological Society.

She said some of the species on P.E.I. that will have their names changed include Ross's gull, Swainson's thrush, Cooper's hawk, Swainson's hawk, Wilson's warbler and Wilson's phalaropes.

She said the decision to rename the species has annoyed some in the birding community. 

"But I think every time names are changed, it ruffles somebody's feathers," Martin said. 

"There's always opposition to change, and there's also some opposition because some people feel that it's removing history, because some of these birds were named after people as an honour because they made a lot of contributions to ornithology." 

People will still be using the old names out of habit for a while, Martin thinks.

"They say when you change a name, it takes about 20 years to get it into the common language. I think this will go much faster because the idea of changing the names will be to something that's more descriptive." 

One example she gives is Wilson's warbler.

"It's a beautiful little warbler, with a yellow breast and black head. [It] might be renamed something like the black cap warbler or the black-headed warbler, which if you're new to birding, it'll be a lot easier to remember."

Another example she cites is Swainson's thrush, which has a beautiful song and could thus be renamed something like the melodious thrush.