Why bird names matter to Birdability

When I first moved to Texas from Australia, I didn’t give all the new birds’ names much thought. The only thing that did occur to me was that some names were much more helpful than others — bird names like Yellow-rumped Warbler told me exactly what to look for! And when I was learning a whole new hemisphere’s worth of birds and their names, that was very much appreciated!

Graphic courtesy of Bird Names for Birds.

Fast forward a few years, and The Incident at Central Park happened in May 2020. A Black birder, Christian Cooper, had the police weaponized against him by a white woman who refused to follow the posted signs and put her dog on a leash. The outright racism of this event, caught on video by Christian, shocked a huge portion of the birding community, myself included. With all the privilege that is inherent to being a white, straight, able-bodied birder, I had never experienced such viscous hatred while out birding, and was horrified that it could happen to a fellow birder who was just out to enjoy the birds.

What followed in the week afterwards could not have been predicted. Young Black birders banded together and held the online #BlackBirdersWeek — celebrating the joys of being a Black birder, and facilitating awareness-raising conversations about racism in birding and the outdoors. I learnt that there are many Black birders, and they experience racism all the time when trying to go birding. (There’s more about #BlackBirdersWeek, including links to the events, on our Racism in Birding page.) It was, in fact, #BlackBirdersWeek that gave me a roadmap for Birdability Week, without which we would not be a non-profit organization today.

I’d met the amazing Dr J. Drew Lanham two years earlier and heard him talk about Black birders having different ‘range maps’ to white birders. He sparked something inside me, but it wasn’t until #BlackBirdersWeek that a fire was ignited. On the Friday of #BlackBirdersWeek I — quite unexpectedly — found myself in tears of passion, trying to explain to a white birding friend why I was so amped up about this Week. Everybody should be able to go birding as easily as I can. It isn’t right that this isn’t how it is. And we white birders should be doing everything we can to fix this.

Everybody should be able to go birding as easily as I can. It isn’t right that this isn’t how it is. And we white birders should be doing everything we can to fix this.

That’s when I heard about the efforts of Bird Names for Birds. A small group of folks were petitioning the American Ornithological Society’s North American Classification Committee to rename all the birds that were named after a person. As it turns out, and as the folks behind Bird Names for Birds have uncovered, many of these people were not nice people. (“Not nice” is probably too nice. Many of these people supported — or actually enacted — really racist acts, like John Bachman preaching about how inferior he felt Black people were to white people. Or John Kirk Townsend, who dug up Native American graves to collect their skulls to “prove” that the white colonizers were superior to the Indigenous people.)

I happen to think Bachman’s Sparrows are pretty cute, and I’m looking forward to seeing a Townsend’s Warbler one day. The thing is, once you know something it’s hard to unknow it. And when I do meet these birds for the first time, it will be hard for me to distance these amazing avians from these awful acts of hatred and racism. But why should I be hating on a bird that had nothing to do with any of this awfulness?

Why should I be hating on a bird that had nothing to do with any of this awfulness? That’s the power of a name.

That’s the power of a name.

At the same time as #BlackBirdersWeek, I was taking two beginner birder friends out birding every week or two. They were brand new birders (I’d been birding since childhood), and were always asking me questions I’d never thought about. One day one asked me about bird names, and why some where helpful (Red-headed Woodpecker) and some weren’t helpful (Cooper’s Hawk) in knowing which bird was called what. It was a great question.

I explained that in biology, when someone “discovers” a new species (which has, let’s be real, usually been quite well-known by the Indigenous people of that area for hundreds or thousands of years), they get to name it. These white, straight, able-bodied men often named species after themselves, or after a friend or supporter. That’s all very nice, my friend said, but it doesn’t help me remember which bird is which!

That’s all very nice, my friend said, but it doesn’t help me remember which bird is which!

And that’s it. Being welcoming and inclusive of Black, Indigenous and People of Color birders and of beginner birders is one of Birdability’s core values. Our focus is on birders who have disabilities and other health concerns, but those folks aren’t only white. True inclusion and diversity work cannot operate in silos. And it’s not enough to just think you’re being inclusive. You have to be intentionally inclusive. And that usually takes time, effort, and sometimes money. But it’s the right thing to do. That’s why, along with the American Birding Association, the American Bird Conservancy and so many others, Birdability stands with Bird Names for Birds.

Birdability’s mission is to share the joys of birding with people who have disabilities, and to ensure birding is accessible to everybody. In addition to current birders, we strive to introduce birding to people with disabilities and other health concerns who are not yet birders so they too can experience the joys of birding. When birds are named useful names that tell us something about their field marks (White-winged Scoter), their behavior (Northern Mockingbird), their sounds (Eastern Whip-poor-will), or their preferred habitat (Pine Warbler), they are so much easier to learn and remember for beginner birders. And when we do this, we make birding that much more accessible for everybody.

When birds are named useful names that tell us something about their field marks, their behavior, their sounds, or their preferred habitat, they are so much easier to learn and remember for beginner birders. And when we do this, we make birding that much more accessible for everybody.

Birds are so amazing, and birding is such a wonderful past time. Surely we all want everybody possible to enjoy it too? So why add another hurdle? Especially one that’s so easy to change, and doesn’t hurt anybody to do so.

Yes, it will take some effort to change the names of the 149 species of North American birds with eponymous names. (Eponymous names are those named for a person.) They don’t have to be changed all at once though. Two or three a year wouldn’t be too hard to manage. Take it from this transplanted Australian, who has to call the thing at the back of a car a “trunk” these days, because no one in the US knows what I’m talking about if I say, “I need to get my bag out of the boot”. Word swaps are annoying the first two or three times you forget about the new word. And then you remember. And then you forget you even had to remember! It’s really not that hard… although it does have to be intentional.

Word swaps are annoying the first two or three times you forget about the new word. And then you remember. And then you forget you even had to remember! It’s really not that hard… although it does have to be intentional.

We don’t call Hooded Mergansers “Cock Robins” anymore. And when was the last time you referred to a Pileated Woodpecker as a “Black Woodcock”? Both those old school names would be really confusing nowadays. Mergansers aren’t robins, and woodpeckers aren’t woodcocks. So the name was changed, to ensure no one was confused.

Let’s make sure the rest of the world isn’t confused about what kind of people the birding community celebrates. And let’s make sure that beginner birders aren’t confused about which bird is which. It’s an easy way to ensure that birding truly is inclusive and accessible to everybody and every body!