"Anyone who considers themselves harmed by a bird name needs to be dumped in an enclosure with an angry cassowary, so they can learn what actual harm is."
― Robert Elessar
This is a LeConte's Sparrow Ammospiza leconteii, named after John LeConte by John James Audubon. LeConte was an enthusiastic amateur scientist who dedicated his life to the teaching of chemistry and physics, eventually becoming the president of the University of California at Berkley. None of this ever mattered to me, but what did matter was seeing my lifer over a quarter century ago and linking the visual of the bird to a name. Not knowing anything about Mr. LeConte, I thought it a clever and fancy name for a smart-looking sparrow.
Though descriptive names are fine ― and I'm a fan of most of them, I'm simply not going to jump on the rename the birds bandwagon. As it has been stated elsewhere here, if the birding community is not welcoming to minorities, it’s the birders that are a problem, not the names of birds. Trust me, people are the problem.
For a multitude of reasons and rationale, Máistir Nádúraí will not adopt whatever common names the 80 or so eponym North American birds are renamed to. Since none of the scientific Latin names will change, perhaps that's how I'll refer to all aves and animals from here on out, both on this blog and out in the public sphere when leading field trips ― won't that be fun! Don't like it? Don't come on them. As far as I'm concerned, LeConte's Sparrow will always be LeConte's Sparrow, and the same is true for all eponymously named critters.
Incidentally, field guide author Kenn Kaufman said,"It's an exciting opportunity to give these birds names that celebrate them rather than some person in the past."
It'll be an exciting opportunity to sell a lot more field guides, but I won't be buying them.
And it will also be fun learning all the Latin names.
Wait a sec ... is Latin racist?
LeConte's Sparrow © 2023 Mike McDowell