Into my email box just now came something called Birdlife Bulletin for March. There is a section headed ‘Birdlife Australia in the media: March 2024. Find out more about our bird conservation work around the country
with our monthly multimedia round-up.’
The first item is headed ‘Should our birds be named after people?’ There follows: ‘In Australia, dozens of bird species are named after people. But with so many of these historical figures tied to colonial violence,
there’s a growing movement to have them renamed. Amid a review of eponymous bird names (led by BirdLife Australia’s Research and Conservation Committee), PhD student Felix Cehak delves into this cultural conversation.’
There is a link to an article by Felix in The Conversation, mainly about possible renaming of Albert’s Lyrebird. There is not much about the procedures now in train (see my earlier note on this),but Felix does say: ‘Some
Australian scientists and birdwatchers (including one from the peak ornithological body Birdlife Australia) have proposed a review, particularly of names with colonial associations.’ There is a further link to the publishing details and abstract of the piece
in Emu ‘Why Australian common bird names should respond to societal change’ (Garnett, Maurer & Garrard).
Eventually we shall get an announcement from BirdLife Australia about what is going to happen, but at the moment the subject is being probed by scouting parties at a safe distance with just the occasional arrow being
fired into the encircled wagons.
