Birds in North America will no longer be named after people, the American Ornithological Society announced Wednesday. “There is power in a name, and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today,” the organization's president, Colleen Handel, said in a statement. “Everyone who loves and cares about birds should be able to enjoy and study them freely.”Rather than review each bird named after a person individually, all such birds will be renamed, the organization announced. She said heated discussions over bird names have been happening within birdwatching communities for the past several years. And a group called Bird Names for Birds sent a petition to the ornithological society urging it to “outline a plan to change harmful common names” of birds.

---

Persons: Colleen Handel, Alexander Wilson, John James Audubon, John P, McCown, “ I'm, ”, Emily Williams, Susan Bell, Christian Cooper, Amy Cooper, Cooper, birdwatchers Organizations: American Ornithological Society, Confederate Army, Georgetown University, National Audubon Society, National Audubon Society's, Audubon, Birds, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science, Educational Media Group, AP Locations: North America, U.S, Canada, ”, New