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 ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]