Thick-billed Longspur is new name for McCown’s Longspur
Written by Andy McCormick
In August 2020, the North American Classification Committee (NACC) of the American Ornithological Society (AOS) voted to rename McCown’s Longspur. The longspur was originally named after Captain John P. McCown, a military man and naturalist who collected the species in 1851. He was the only person for whom a bird was named who also fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. It was this part of history which prompted the desire to change the bird’s name.
The first request for this name change was made in 2019, but the committee declined the proposal. However, the committee made a commitment to review its policy on bird names in anticipation of additional requests for changes to honorific names. During the ensuing year, it developed new guidelines for English names. Based on these guidelines and the merits of the request, it voted unanimously in favor of the name change in 2020.
Supporting the name change, the Bird Names for Birds movement organized a petition which has gathered 2,300 signatures in support of changing all honorific names for birds. There are now 149 Western Hemisphere birds named after a person. The Bird Names for Birds website https://birdnamesforbirds.wordpress.com/ states that honorific names “are problematic because they perpetuate colonialism and the racism associated with it.” The activities during Black Birders Week highlighted some of the difficulties birders of color have had in some communities and and stimulated more thinking about how to make birding and conservation organizations more accessible for people of color.
The Thick-billed Longspur is a bird of dry shortgrass prairie and it has a thicker bill than have other longspurs. Both the male and female are streaked buff and brown on the back and wings and have an inverted black “T” on their white tail. The male in breeding plumage has a white face, black crown and upper chest, and chestnut colored coverts showing as a crescent on the wing. The species is locally common in prairies in Montana, Colorado, and southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. It winters in the prairies of Texas and northern Mexico.
Photo credit by Melissa Hafting.