What is in a name? Shakespeare wrote that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” 1960s personality psychologist Gordon Allport stated that “the most important anchorage to our self-identity throughout life remains our own name.” Now bird names are becoming a very big deal indeed!
A longtime challenge for ornithologists has been grouping birds in scientific families to bring clarity to the incredible diversity among the approximately 11,000 birds globally. Determining the proper genus, species and subspecies for each bird has often been a head-scratching experience. Birds have the habit of relocating, interbreeding and evolving. Recently the venerable American Ornithological Society, with roots stretching back to 1883, announced multiple new classifications.
Three birds long considered separate species have been determined to be one and the same. The common redpoll, hoary redpoll, and the lesser redpoll of Europe are now labeled simply as redpolls. In reverse, barn owls have been split into three species, with our version named the American barn owl. Finally, the diminutive house wren now has two listings — northern house wren and southern house wren. Time to update your bird books!
Looking past the impact on your lifetime bird list, let us consider why a redpoll is now a redpoll regardless of where you identify it. Unfortunately, we do not regularly spot redpolls in Maine because they breed in boreal and Arctic regions far to our north. Cornell’s Birds of the World states that redpolls are primarily seed eaters, with a focus on birch trees. One observer reported seeing the birds shaking catkins, then dropping to the snow below to snap up their tiny seeds.
These hardy birds are known to add 30% more plumage in winter, and they will tunnel into snow at night so they can survive temperatures of 65 degrees below zero. In some years the redpolls join pine siskins and evening grosbeaks in irruptive flights to the lower 48 states in search of food. Large numbers may swarm to your feeders, particularly for thistle or nyger seeds. During the breeding season, adults harvest nutritious insects for their young.
Beyond these irruptions, redpolls can log serious frequent flyer miles, with banded birds found in places like Siberia and China. Distributed around the far Northern Hemisphere, with introduced populations in places like New Zealand, redpolls are thought to number in the hundreds of millions. The oldest known banded bird exceeded 8 years in age.
The challenge with redpolls is to group birds that vary in appearance. Often seen in mixed flocks, the hoary redpoll appeared larger, lighter in color, and smaller-billed than the common redpoll. Even among adult birds these distinctions were muddled, so identification was difficult.
Finally, the mystery has been solved by three persistent scientists. Drs. Nicholas Mason and Scott Taylor shared results with the American Ornithological Society that documented no genetic differences between common and hoary redpolls. Going one step further, Dr. Erik Funk identified a chromosomal inversion that explains small variations in appearance among the species. With this precise data in hand, the American Ornithological Society finally moved to combine three former species into one, the redpoll.
Historically, bird names were derived in a haphazard or confusing manner. Often, birds were named after the first person to document the species. The discoverer might choose to honor a colleague or friend. This resulted in more than 150 North American birds named for people, including four for Georg Wilhelm Steller. I counted 17 birds whose names begin with “plumbeous,” from the Latin word for the color of lead.
In a burst of logic, many birds were named based upon their appearance, habits or family relationships. Thus, you could witness a bald eagle, golden eagle, fish eagle and so on. Unfortunately, birds vary considerably in appearance as they age, and you find significant differences between the sexes or in breeding and nonbreeding plumage.
Flying to the rescue is the American Ornithological Society, folks who are very serious about avian nomenclature and taxonomic groupings. They annually publish an official checklist of North American birds to support research, conservation and education.
Now the society is working with partners around the world to update bird names that “are deemed harmful or exclusionary.” This challenging effort will eliminate human names and will take into consideration input from Indigenous peoples who were often ignored in such matters. The project is controversial in many quarters and could eventually affect more than 1,000 birds globally.
Change is coming to the birding world. While the redpolls are sorted, a lot of feathers are still to be ruffled.
