My response to Pacific Seabirds listserv discussions regarding honorific bird name changes:
All these PhD’s and yet no one seems capable of understanding the concept of intersectionality. The logic in much of your arguments is flawed and contradictory. The pushback against this coming change only shows people of color that your concern is more about your own egos and comfort than it is about bird conservation. When you say that politics and conservation should not be mixed, the message you send is that the status quo is acceptable to you. Yet you also say that the status quo is not acceptable and society needs drastic changes to conserve seabirds (a fact). Scientists say that we need better outreach and public education because it affects birds, yet somehow this change to bird names doesn’t count towards that effort.
Changes are happening both in the science world and in the more social part of our society. Science is changing over to a more ecosystem based approach with the understanding that ecosystems are complicated and many species are connected. Part of this change includes the incorporation of some issues previously seen as ‘social sciences’ into the so-called ‘hard sciences’. Seabirds in particular are already managed with a social aspect to their management, being consumed by humans for food and feathers in Alaska and elsewhere. It does not stand to reason to pretend that it benefits birds to keep science and politics somehow separate. They are not separate, they’re intimately intertwined through human use of birds, human effects on birds and their habitats, and human legislation.
Finally, the idea that this name change somehow detracts from actual bird conservation is a straw man argument. There is plenty of room for both things to occur. Everyone agrees that in order to best conserve species, local communities must be invested in doing so. It is directly connected to conservation to make birds, birding, and bird conservation less alienating to the public, including people of color. We all want more people to care about birds and this IS a step in that direction.
The bottom line is that AOS is enacting these changes and many people of color who work in avian conservation and are active birders (such as myself), see them as a welcome change and step towards allowing more people to care about birds. It is my hope that this change allows people in the younger generation to feel more welcome to replacing some of these outspoken and respected retirees who are reacting so poorly to this name change issue. The negative reactions of people on this listserv and others are doing much more to alienate people from birds and to distract from actual conservation of birds than the AOS name change itself.
I encourage others on this listserv to read the original report from the AOS Ad Hoc Committee on English Bird Names which goes into more detail about these issues.
https://americanornithology.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/1-AOS-EBNC_recommendations_23_10_19.pdf
As well as a Native perspective on this issue from Steve Hampton, respected birder, retired PhD biologist, and member of the AOS Ad Hoc Committee on English Bird Names.
https://thecottonwoodpost.net/2021/05/30/honorific-bird-names-facts-and-figures/
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