6.11.2021

Jack Pine Warbler?

Of late, the effort to rename ~150 eponymous bird names has gained more media attention here and here. I think it's inevitable these name changes will occur, likely starting in 2022. Scanning around the Internet on this subject, I stumbled across this article by University of Chicago Biologist and prolific science writer Jerry Coyne. Do note, he's a pretty liberal individual, and yet:

"There is no evidence that I know of—and the articles present none—that eponymous bird names have created harm and social injustice. The very idea of that is almost laughable. But this is what scientists do when they want to show that they’re on the right side of history and don’t know how to really promote social change."
 
One commenter to his post nailed it:

"If only renaming things was all you needed to do to make your community welcoming. If the birding community of the USA is not welcoming to minorities, it’s the birders that are a problem, not the names of the birds."
 
Kirtland's Warbler © 2021 Mike McDowell