PRESS RELEASE: The First Annual Banned Bird Week: November 6th to 10th, 2023
(For Immediate Release November 5th)
From November 6th through 10th, 2023, educators, librarians, families, and anyone interested in the history of science is invited to celebrate the history of bird science by participating in Banned Bird Week.
Inspired by the courage of librarian Judith Krug, who in 1982 founded Banned Book Week, which forty years later continues to combat censorship in American schools, Banned Bird Week seeks to inspire a new generation of ornithologists by raising awareness of the documented history of ornithology, the lives of America’s natural historians, and the meanings and cultural significance of English common bird names.
This action is a response to the recent announcement by the American Ornithological Association, an association of many American ornithologists whose predecessor was long recognized as the leading authority on English common bird names, that “in an effort to address past wrongs” they will no longer use the “exclusionary naming convention” developed in the 1800s of birds named after people.
“This decision by AOS... is, in my view, a huge mistake for a scientific society,” wrote Professor Kevin Winker, Curator of Birds at the University of Alaska Museum (and not affiliated with Banned Bird Week), in a public letter of resignation from the American Ornithological Society, where he once chaired the Committee on Bird Collections. “The politicization of our shared science and shared vocabulary is divisive and polarizing. This we know. What might be gained from it—we do not know… I’ve studied these issues more than most and feel strongly that there are better, less divisive, and more inclusive ways forward (see Winker 2022, Winker 2023a, b).”
“They’re throwing the bird out with the birdfeeder water,” said Dr. John Moran, who has studied the anthropology of settler conservation and collected oral histories of naturalists. “A mass cancelation is more chilling than removing individual names with justification because it’s a capricious display of the power to erase. And barely disguised in the AOS’s pledges of neutrality and inclusion is a sweeping moral condemnation of 19th-century ornithology that looks like a selective and presentist political allegory, which is a Maoist tactic.”
Undoubtedly, many people will choose to adopt the new names selected by the Society for its check-lists. Banned Bird Week will provide time and space for people to engage with the “Traditional” English common bird names used before 2024, whether or not they use them when they encounter birds at other times. Everyone is invited to learn the histories that those names provide public memory for: the historic narratives that contain triumphs and tragedies, moments of inspiration, revelation, and transcendence, and also, cruelties and exclusions.
Additionally, Banned Bird Week calls on Congress to “Defund the Bird Police:”
--Eliminate the National Science Foundation’s Division of Biological “Infrastructure,” which this year through the BIO-LEAPS program spent half a million taxpayer dollars allocated by Congress for the most crucial scientific research to instead fund social events for racially segregated birding clubs. No substantive biological research is funded by the DBI and this precious “research money” should go to actual scientific research.
--End Funding for Political Ornithology The NSF has stopped making grants for Political Science, and funding for Political Ornithology should be ended in the same manner. Congress should include language in the federal spending bill that directs NSF to avoid wasting federal resources on ornithology research, unless the NSF Director certifies it is research imminently vital to preventing species loss.
--Direct the Department of Education to develop curricula on the historical development of natural history, especially ornithology, and review instructional resources on the history of scientific naming.
--Direct the Library of Congress to appoint an Ornithologist of Congress to compile the Federal Traditional English Common Names Bird List and keep the list updated as changes to scientific naming occurs; including the continuation of naming practices when new species are named for science using the conventional naming system; and to allocate funds for public dissemination, education, and research related to the Federal Traditional English Common Name Bird List, including grants for field guides that use the List. If possible these costs will be adjusted for in the federal budget by reduced costs (see above).
--Relatedly, direct all federal agencies to use the Federal Traditional English Common Names Bird List and incentivize state agencies using federal funding to make the same adoption.
Banned Bird Week is excited for Nov 6-10 as the week is introduced to the public. We look forward to developing greater programming and capacity for a successful Banned Bird Week 2024, dates TBD, where Americans from all walks of life can come together to learn the history of ornithology and celebrate birds!