singemonkey wrote
P.s. Bob. Although all birds have scientific names that clearly identify their species so that there can be no doubt, a recent wave has had some of the most attractive English common names unified for who knows what reason (probably to sell new field guides) which has the beautiful upshot that some of the few, wonderful English names, such as Gymnogene and Jackass Penguin, have been turned into fall-asleep boredom names such as African Harrier Hawk, and African Penguin. Soon the Bateleur (meaning "acrobat") will be renamed the African Mountain Snake Eagle or something, I have no doubt.
The extensive name changes were made in 1999 which certainly did cause a lot of unhappiness at the time. I do think it was for the better even though, as you say, we've lost some beautiful names (Gymnogene and Jackass Penguins being two good examples). The reasons for the name changes were so that our bird names could be in line with their international counterparts. The Gymnogene and Jackass Penguin were known by other names to the international community and the more widely recognised names were adopted locally as well. Other birds had names that conflict with other international species. The Black Eagle for instance was not the only bird going by that name and the Black Eagle of southeast Asia indeed was a black eagle. Ours on the other hand has a fair bit of white and the name was changed to Verreaux's Eagle. These changes were not decided on by the local naming authority (Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of Ornithology) but rather just adopted. The changes were made by the various international bodies whom we subscribe to - most prominent in this regard the International Ornithological Congress.
It's a difficult toss up because on the one hand you have all these wonderful colloquial names but on the other hand it certainly is very convenient and sensible to have bird names that are consistent across the world.
singemonkey wroteAs far as I know, English is alone in pulling this soul-deadening stunt. Totally unnecessary, as I mentioned, because the scientific names are absolutely standardised.
This is not entirely true. In fact, I think the scientific names might have changed more often than the English names. People are just not all the emotional about scientific names. The scientific name for a bird could be different depending on which taxonomic authority you subscribe to. There are four major international bird taxonomic authorities; Howard & Moore, Clements, Sibley & Monroe and the IOC.
The Chestnut-vented Tit-Babbler is recognised by Clements and Howard & Moore as
Parisoma subcaeruleum, Sibley & Monroe recognises it as
Sylvia subcaeruleum while the IOC recognises it as
Sylvia subcaerulea (although prior to 2009 they also recognised
Parisoma subcaeruleum). There are other that are way more confusing, especially where the species status of a bird is uncertain.
The issue is that taxonomy is a dynamic science and as we get to understand birds and their relationships better we have to find new names where a new species comes to light or decide on appropriate names where two species are lumped into a single species.
