This Month in Birding – July 2020
July 30, 2020
It’s This Month in Birding, a panel discussion covering the best bird news we might have missed here at the ABP for the last month.
We’ve a got a great panel this time around with wildlife biologist Danielle Belleny, #birdnamesforbirds creator Jordan Rutter, and host of Birds of North America Jason Ward. We’ve got a full agenda covering recent news on honorific bird names, the resignation of AOS president-elect over a cowbird egg, Guam Kingfishers, amazing condor feats of flight and everyone’s most under-rated shorebird.
Links to topics discussed:
The American Birding Podcast brings together staff and friends of the American Birding Association as we talk about birds, birding, travel and conservation in North America and beyond.
Join host Nate Swick every other Thursday for news and happenings, recent rarities, guests from around the birding world, and features of interest to every birder.
In regards to Danielle’s comment on White-tipped Doves in the San Antonio area, we’ve actually begun to see them with regularity in western Bexar County and the Texas Hill Country in general. The species is now a resident at Lost Maples State Natural Area in Bandera County and can be found (by ear!) at Government Canyon State Natural Area near San Antonio. Whether this species has seen a northward movement and is now more widely dispersed in the Texas Hill Country is an interesting question.
Let’s take a step back folks, take a deep breath, and not throw out the baby with the bath water. I share the desire to remove McCown’s name from a bird, but that shouldn’t mean all eponymic names need to be removed. Yes, Cooper’s Hawk isn’t particularly descriptive, but at least you know it’s a hawk. Is ‘Robin’ descriptive? How about red-breasted thrush instead. What about place names. Lots of Canada Geese in the USA, not very descriptive there. Is a Meadowlark a lark? No. And what about birds that are named for the male (e.g. Purple Finch)-not very PC… Read more »
It’s a shame you didn’t have someone on the panel who disagrees with the proposal to change eponyms. Not that interesting to hear 4 people agreeing with each other.