Big bird news, people! If you just got the same New York Times alert message on your phone that LoCO got, then you already know that the American Ornithological Society announced today that, henceforth, birds in the Americas will no longer be named after human beings. This edict will be applied retroactively to existing English bird names. 

As you may have instantly surmised, this initiative is an effort to ensure that figures who may have done bad in the past are not granted everlasting avian honor. For example, as the Times notes, the Scott’s oriole — a l’il black-and-yellow fellow found in Mexico and the U.S. Southwest — is named after Civil War general Winfield Scott, who forcibly relocated Native Americans along the Trail of Tears. Moving forward, the AOS says it plans to choose new monikers that highlight birds’ characteristics — say, plumage or beak shape. 

The Scotts (oriole and Winfield)

What does this mean for us bird watchers here in Humboldt? Well, thanks to the invent of LoCO‘s new-ish Humboldt Life species database, we were able to easily pull the names of every human-named bird species spotted in the county. Thus, without further delay, the following is the list of at least 48 local feathered friends who’ll need to change their letterhead:

• Allen’s Hummingbird
• Anna’s Hummingbird
• Audubon’s Warbler
• Baird’s Sandpiper
• Barrow’s Goldeneye
• Bell’s Sparrow
• Bewick’s Wren
• Bonaparte’s Gull
• Brandt’s Cormorant
• Brewer’s Blackbird
• Brewer’s Sparrow
• Bullock’s Oriole
• Cassin’s Auklet
• Cassin’s Kingbird
• Cassin’s Sparrow
• Cassin’s Vireo
• Clark’s Grebe
• Cooper’s Hawk
• Forster’s Tern
• Franklin’s Gull
• Gambel’s White-crowned Sparrow
• Hammond’s Flycatcher
• Harlan’s Hawk
• Harris’s Sparrow
• Heermann’s Gull
• Hutton’s Vireo
• Lawrence’s Goldfinch
• Leach’s Storm-Petrel
• LeConte’s Sparrow
• Lewis’s Woodpecker
• Lincoln’s Sparrow
• MacGillivray’s Warbler
• Nuttall’s White-crowned Sparrow
• Rivoli’s Hummingbird
• Ross’s Goose
• Sabine’s Gull
• Say’s Phoebe
• Steller’s Jay
• Swainson’s Hawk
• Swainson’s Thrush
• Thayer’s Gull
• Townsend’s Solitaire
• Townsend’s Warbler
• Vaux’s Swift
• Virginia’s Warbler
• Wilson’s Phalarope
• Wilson’s Snipe
• Wilson’s Warbler