As many already know, a fifteen-year project to apply standardized
English names to the world's bird species was recently completed by the
International Ornithological Congress.  The work is described and
presented at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/ . The IOC has invited
comments, and those from many other organizations, including the AOU,
are posted there.
        Following the lead of similar postings in other states, here is a list
of names of birds on the Ohio list that would represent changes if the
IOC list is adopted (current AOU standard names in parenthesis):
        Black-bellied Whistling Duck (Black-bellied Whistling-Duck)
        Brant Goose  (Brant)
        Common Pheasant  (Ring-necked Pheasant)
        Velvet Scoter  (White-winged Scoter, unless not separated from the
European form by the AOU)
        American Scoter (Black Scoter, if separated from European Common Scoter
by the AOU)
        Great Northern Loon (Common Loon)
        Black-necked Grebe (Eared Grebe)
        American White Ibis (White Ibis)
        [Anhinga is missing from the IOC list, but how could they call Aninga
anhinga anything else?]
        Black-crowned Night Heron  (Black-crowned Night-Heron)
        Yellow-crowned Night Heron  (Yellow-crowned Night-Heron)
        Roughleg  (Rough-legged Hawk)
        American Golden Plover (Golden-Plover)
        Grey Plover  (Black-bellied Plover)
        Common Black-headed Gull (Black-headed Gull)
        Pomarine Skua  (Pomarine Jaeger)
        Common Ground Dove (Common Ground-Dove)
        Common Pigeon (Rock Pigeon)
        Eurasian Collared Dove  (Eurasian Collared-Dove)
        Eastern Screech Owl (Eastern Screech-Owl)
        Northern Hawk-Owl  (N. Hawk Owl)
        Great Grey Owl  (Great Gray Owl)
        Green Violetear  (Green Violet-ear)
        Eastern Wood Pewee  (Eastern Wood-Pewee
        American Dusky Flycatcher (Dusky Flycatcher)
        American Grey Flycatcher  (Gray Flycatcher)
        Great Grey Shrike  (Northern Shrike)
        Northern Raven  (Common Raven)
        Sand Martin  (Bank Swallow)
        American Cliff Swallow  (Cliff Swallow)
        Blue-grey Gnatcatcher  (Blue-gray Gnatcatcher)
        Common Starling  (European Starling)
        Grey Catbird  (Gray Catbird)
        Buff-bellied Pipit  (American Pipit)
        Grey-cheeked Thrush  (Gray-cheeked Thrush)
        American Yellow Warbler  (Yellow Warbler)
        Black-throated Grey Warbler  (Black-throated Gray Warbler)
        Painted Whitestart  (Painted Redstart)
        Nelson's Sparrow  (Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow)
        Saltmarsh Sparrow  (Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow)
        Grey-crowned Rosy Finch  (Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch)
        Two-barred Crossbill  (White-winged Crossbill)
        Arctic Redpoll  (Hoary Redpoll)

        Having typed all this, I claim the right to some irrepressible
comments. All the uses of "grey" signal the ascendancy of British bird
mavens in the process. Sure, it'd look a little funny if only in the
names of birds would Americans use that spelling of the word....but what
the heck, we are told to capitalize bird names, a practice just as
nonstandard in English as well.
        A lot of people will probably applaud the removal of all those
hyphens--even though the IOC *adds* one for "Hawk-Owl." Parkes's article
in the Auk--see http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v095n02/index.php
--gives the North American side's rationale for hyphens, and the very
weak ones for capitalization as well.
        "Nelson's Sparrow" and "Saltmarsh Sparrow" sound like great
improvements to me. It did seem a bit presumptuous of Americans to think
we could use the fairly generic "Yellow Warbler," "Cliff Swallow," and
"Gray Flycatcher" for *our* species; adding the "American" would remove
rationalizations for capitalizing names, too. Let's face it, the
starling is lamentably no longer just "European," and the painted
redstart does not show a flash of red in the wings and tail (like the
American redstart), but of white.  For those interested in names, there
are lots of other things to talk about in the IOC proposals, and lots
and lots of new names not mentioned above for a small place like Ohio.
If you're thinking we might as well go back to the Latin names, remember
that they tend to get changed MORE often!
Happy Meleagris gallopavo,
Bill Whan
Columbus










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