More on Racism and Birds – Liberty and Ecology Blog

This is a guest post by environmental analyst R.J. Smith, in response to the Washington Post article “The Racist Legacy Many Birds Carry,” which reports that many birds are named after racists. (See the summary on this site.)

Yes, I’ve seen a lot of this hysterical madness. Soon they’’ll have to get rid of all the blackbirds. The American Black Duck, Black Scoter, Black Albatross, Black Storm-Petrel, Black Rail, Black Tern, Black Noddy, Black Oystercatcher, Black Turnstone, Black Guillemot, Black Vulture, Common Black-Hawk, Black Swift, Black Phoebe, etc., etc. Then there are five species of blackbirds and one more in Puerto Rico. And what about all the partially black birds? The Black-capped Chickadee? Lots of them.

The European Blackbird, a Turdus thrush and close relative of our American Robin. The nursery rhyme bird: the birdie with a yellow bill; four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.

And of course the Australian Black Swan. We can’t permit any more Black Swan events.

The American Ornithological Society’s nomenclature committee will likely go along with this nonsense. A quarter-century ago they approved changing the name of the OldSquaw to the Long-tailed Duck because it was supposedly offensive to Inupiat women. Some said squaw was slang for female private parts. But I had read that the name came from the loud yodeling ululating calls the ducks made, which was reminiscent of the singsong calls elderly Eskimo women made.