Talk:Bird Names for Birds

Unsourced statements
There's a few unsourced statements in this article that I'm skeptical of.


 * "follows years of unsuccessful proposals to replace common names that honor anti-abolitionist and Confederate figures, or historic figures with a legacy of oppression against indigenous people." What proposals are being referenced here? As far as I can see the only proposal that matches this description is the 2018 Mccown's Longspur proposal. I don't think the AOS has ever received any other proposals to remove eponyms for this kind of reason.
 * "With few exceptions, previous proposals to NACC to address problematic common bird names—such as the Maui parrotbill or the Inca dove—remained unsuccessful." Beyond the examples of Oldsquaw, Maui Parrotbill and Inca Dove, are there any more? This statement seems odd if it's really just that 2 out of 3 proposals ever submitted have been rejected. Moreover the proposal for Inca Dove does not mention anything related ot diversity/inclusion/etc., nor do the responses so it's unclear why it's included here.
 * "When they did, like in the case of the long-tailed duck (formerly known as oldsquaw, a name with derogatory references to indigenous people), NACC stated that equity, diversity and inclusion considerations were not part of the decision." Again, this implies that this is part of a trend, with other similar cases. Are there other similar cases?

I suspect this is just exaggeration, but maybe there is actually some basis for these statements? Am I missing something?Somatochlora (talk) 16:56, 24 September 2020 (UTC)

Title and content of this page
A few points that seem true to me: I think this page should be moved to something like "Bird name change controversies" (open to suggestions, I don't love using the word "controversies" but don't have a better idea), and rewritten to remove the emphasis on this specific organization. I can see this being controversial so wanted to leave this here and see if anyone has opinions before making any changes. Somatochlora (talk) 20:32, 14 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Most of this page is not about the "bird names for birds" organization, but about a broader movement/event/controversy
 * The title "bird names for birds" does not really describe the contents of the article
 * The organization "bird names for birds" is probably not notable. As far as I can tell, the only source used for this page that mentions the phrase "bird names for birds", that is not their own website or written by one of their founders, is this piece in Science: https://www.science.org/content/article/reversal-ornithologists-yank-confederate-general-s-name-bird. The articles in NYT, the official AOS statement etc. never mention the organization
 * As such, ascribing these changes to BNFB seems like synthesis
 * The actual topic of this page is clearly notable and deserves an article given the multiple articles in big publications about it

Requested move 26 January 2024

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. – robertsky (talk) 15:53, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

Bird Names for Birds → Eponymous Bird Name – See my post above for a bit more detail, but (1)"Bird Names for Birds" is not Wikipedia notable as an organization or movement, and all sources mentioning it by name are basically self-promotion (2) There is lots of useful, well-sourced content on this page that really refers to a broader phenomenon. (3) The proposed title, after some reorganization, would describe this article's contents much better than the current one. (I'm not sure if it should be "Eponymous Bird Name" or "Eponymous Bird Names".) Somatochlora (talk) 14:25, 26 January 2024 (UTC)


 * Weak Oppose - I agree that BNFB is not the correct title for this, but I'm not sure the Eponymous Bird Name is the best choice. Since the AOS pretty recently agreed to this proposal in principal, I think we won't know what to call this until it all shakes out (maybe even a simple merge into AOS at some point). I'd support leaving it as is for now (probably how it's most well known) and revisiting this in the future. grungaloo (talk) 04:53, 28 January 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
 * Oppose This particular suggestion, as I don't get where the suggested name came from. It's called the "English Bird Names Project". However, I would support something like 2023 renaming of eponymous English bird names or something along those lines. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 05:38, 29 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Fair enough... it's very hard coming up with a reasonable name for this article. No birds were actually renamed in 2023 so I don't think that title works. Maybe just "English Bird Names Project" as that's the thing that really spurred all the media coverage? Somatochlora (talk) 15:38, 29 January 2024 (UTC)