80 bird species will be renamed ‘to break links with ‘slavery and racism’
Birds in the United States and Canada will no longer be named after people because the previous selection process was “clouded by racism and misogyny”, the American Ornithological Society has announced.
The organisation will rename 80 species next year due to their associations with controversial historical figures, including slave owners and white supremacists.
Birds that will be renamed include Audubon’s shearwater, a tropical seabird widespread in the Atlantic Ocean that honours John James Audubon, a 19th-century slave owner and perhaps America’s best-known ornithologist.
Townsend’s warbler and solitaire will also get new names. John Kirk Townsend, who died in 1851, stole skulls from the graves of indigenous people and believed they were racially inferior.
The decision to rechristen birds named after people means that Wilson’s warbler
