BBC story - capitalising bird names

["Tony Keene" <>]

Ah, the tyranny of house styles. A certain institute I used to work at had a 
house style almost incompatible with the sciences and a publishing group that 
really should know better in the chemical sciences produces styles that border 
on the illiterate. As for a response from the BBC, good luck. As Ian Hislop 
once said "the BBC goes from breathtaking arrogance to grovelling apology wih 
nothing inbetween."
 One thing sometimes overlooked is that while a species is treated as a proper 
noun, the family is not (so Wonga Pigeon, but a flock of pigeons).
 Cheers,

 Tony