In the past I’ve raised a couple of name issues on this chatline. A few years ago it was the stilt. The discussion there helped in the choice of Pied Stilt, which is now the AviList name. I’m experimenting here with
another current issue, before possible wider circulation. The issue is set out both below and in the attached. Please send responses to me, but if you like you can air thoughts on this chatline for discussion here.
Is Graham Gall there? I’d like to discuss BirdLife Photography policy on this one – 3 different vagrants are pictured in the gallery.
Seeking opinions on an egret name
There is quite a long background to this issue. In 1848 John Gould described an egret that he called ‘Plumed Egret’, scientific name
plumifera. ‘Plumed Egret’ was long used in Australian books (for example, the popular Cayley, and the first Pizzey) even after the scientific species name became
intermedia in about1913. However, in 1994 (in Christidis & Boles) the English name was changed to ‘Intermediate Egret' for international consistency.
More recently bird books have become less important, with the use of digital media – and of global lists giving us both scientific and English names. Birdlife Australia followed a list maintained
by Birdlife International, which split this species in 2014, going back to plumifera for the Australian species, and returning to ‘Plumed Egret’. BirdLife Australia followed suit in 2019. This meant that in the Australian list we had Plumed Egret (plumifera)
plus a nearby Asian species occurring on Christmas Island and vagrant to Australia although the extent of that is not known. That was Intermediate Egret (intermedia). As that was the previous name for the Australian species that naming arrangement was,
and perhaps still is, quite confusing. In October 2023 eBird also split the species, and used ‘Plumed Egret’. If it is available, some eBirders are likely to select ‘Intermediate’ to record
plumifera, given, for example, that only the single species is shown in
The Australian Bird Guide (Menkhorst et al. 2019).
We now come to the efforts being made within AviList to agree on suitable global English names after the great achievement of agreement on taxonomic arrangements. This has led to the issue that
is being raised here, on which there are quite strong differences in views.
At present, for our egret, AviList keeps the name ‘Plumed’ and has introduced ‘Medium’ in place of ‘Intermediate’ to avoid the confusion just mentioned. I think you will find that in eBird ‘Intermediate
Egret’ is no longer available. However, from an Asian perspective ‘Medium’ is not popular, and there is concern that the new naming is not understood by recorders, leading to fewer records. One recent suggestion is that the two relatively new species might
be named ‘Asian Intermediate Egret’ and ‘Australian Intermediate Egret’. That would be one way of keeping ‘Intermediate’ in the name of both species. That raises questions about long names, AND of how attached Australians are to ‘Plumed’ as the long-standing
name. Perhaps that will depend on age group.
We are therefore seeking views from a sample of Australian bird name users, all ages, all backgrounds. The questions are: A. Are you interested in which English name is chosen? B. If you had
to decide, would you keep the present provisional names of Plumed Egret (for
plumifera) and Medium Egret (for intermedia)? C. If those names are reconsidered, would it be important to retain ‘Plumed’ for the Australian species?
You may answer all three questions, or any of them, or none of them. Add comments if you wish.
