FW: FW: A colossal achievement: from the June newsletter of BirdLife International

["calyptorhynchus via Canberrabirds " <>]

I dunno, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. I don't think I even think of birds by their official names until I have to write them down or talk about them to other birdwatchers. I go around thinking 'Stilt' or 'grey-and-white Kite' and I have to pause to think 'it's White-headed Stilt and Black-shouldered Kite'. These are no more logical than calling them, say, Australian Stilt and [C19 notable's name]'s Kite.

I don't think a new agreed list of common names is going to make any difference to my birdwatching.

John L

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 at 19:12, Wallaces via Canberrabirds <> wrote:

It will be interesting to see how AviList addresses the naming issue.

 

Steve

 

From: Canberrabirds <> On Behalf Of Andrew Cockburn via Canberrabirds
Sent: Monday, 30 June 2025 3:49 PM
To: Canberrabirds <>
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] FW: FW: A colossal achievement: from the June newsletter of BirdLife International

 

The difficulty is that ornithologists are virtually unique in using “common” names in publications in lieu of the Linnaean names used by other scientists.  The use of an official name is denoted by Capitalisation eg Superb Fairywren rather that superb fairy-wren.  Just as there should only be one Linnaean name, there should only be one English Name for such uses, though there can be quadzillion common names in different languages.  Avilist will define that name, and associate it with Linnaean name. It will be in English, but often an English term for a word associated with a bird in another language. For example, many of the birds that have survived extinction on South Pacific islands have a name that is an onomatopoeic rendition of the sound of the call (eg tui, kaka etc).

 

From: Canberrabirds <> on behalf of Wallaces via Canberrabirds <m("lists.canberrabirds.org.au","canberrabirds");" target="_blank">>
Date: Monday, 30 June 2025 at 2:34 pm
To: <m("lists.canberrabirds.org.au","canberrabirds");" target="_blank">>
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] FW: FW: A colossal achievement: from the June newsletter of BirdLife International

My understanding, from the extract below, is that, while there with be an AviList English name, there will probably be alternative names (different spellings and hyphenation?) included in future lists.

 

Future versions of AviList will include an official AviList English name decided upon by a newly established English Names Committee commencing its work after the release of version 2025. Even so, the AviList team does not feel that there needs to be only a single prescribed common name for each species, and future AviList versions may display additional widely used alternative English names.

From https://www.avilist.org/checklist/components-of-the-avilist-checklist/

 

Re Grey Grasswren, the AviList 2025 English name is Grey Grasswren.

 

I am currently working through modifying HANZAB to reflect the AviList taxonomy. The bigger issue in my mind is the change in subspecies. I know that the subspecies, like English names, have not been finalised in the 2025 list but it does contain some changes which undo what BirdLife Australia had decided Eg. Hooded Plover has two subspecies (Eastern and Western) in WLAB 4.3 but is monotypic in AviList 2025.

 

Steve

 

 

From: Canberrabirds <> On Behalf Of Mark Clayton via Canberrabirds
Sent: Monday, 30 June 2025 1:54 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] FW: FW: A colossal achievement: from the June newsletter of BirdLife International

 

We all know that Americans can't spell. There is no such bird for example as a GRAY Grasswren, it is a GREY Grasswren. It is a bit like spelling my name MARC rather than Mark. Surely if the name was spelt a particular way when the bird was first described then this should be the ONLY name to be used!! Just my 2 bobs (ok 20 cents) worth!!

Mark

On 30/06/2025 12:55 pm, Andrew Cockburn via Canberrabirds wrote:

Sadly, I think the main argument that will hinder having a useful international list of common names that can be used in lieu of Linnaean names will revolve around ‘grey’ versus ‘gray’, and ‘colour’ versus ‘color’. 

 

 

 

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