this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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[–] glimse@lemmy.world 55 points 2 years ago (2 children)

List the bird names you cowards

[–] mo_ztt@lemmy.world 20 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This has some explanation. TL;DR get ready to be underwhelmed. This was based on some earlier efforts e.g. one in Sweden that changed bird names containing "neger" (negro), "kaffer" (a racial slur), or "zigenarfågel" (gypsy bird), but the stuff they've been able to find in North America is, well:

  • Oldsquaw (a slur)
  • Inca Dove (historically inaccurate, no overlap with Incas)
  • McCown’s Longspur (McCown was a confederate)

Maybe there were more they didn't mention but my guess is that there's a reason they're writing the story while dancing around what names are actually being changed.

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago (20 children)

Aw man, I thought I was gonna find out there's birds with old person shit like what my grandma used to call Brazil nuts lol

I guess that's a good kind of disappointment to have

[–] Dkarma@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

If anyone is wondering

N word toes

[–] GONADS125@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Not as messed up as Midwesterners calling stones sticking out of the ground risking dulling the mower blades n-word heads...

Couldn't believe that one when I heard it used by a racist country bumpkin dumbass.

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm from the Midwest and I have never heard that. Goddamn that's a bad one lol

[–] GONADS125@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Maybe it's specifically the Ozarks?

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Could be! Or maybe just a more rural thing. I grew up on the border of a major city and while it was generally frowned upon, I was no stranger to a lot of charged terms.

It (embarrassingly) took me until my 20s to realize the phrase I used to say something was poorly cobbled something together meant "rigged up like a black guy did it" - I assumed it was some ancient English word.

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[–] glimse@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Yep. Caused quite a stir at Christmas one year!

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[–] null@slrpnk.net 18 points 2 years ago

Tits and boobies come to mind.

Sorry, what were we talking about? Birds?

[–] AlPastor2560@lemmy.world 20 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I must say, I will appreciate more descriptive names when trying to identify certain birds.

[–] Deceptichum@kbin.social 15 points 2 years ago

I must say, if they rename the tit or the booby I shall hereby declare a state of war.

[–] ParsnipWitch@feddit.de 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Many Latin and Greek names of birds are descriptive. For example what people often call the "tit" bird is actually Parus major, which you could roughly translate into "a bit bigger". And they are the biggest of the tit birds.

And another "tit" actually is called Lophophanes cristatus. Which roughly means "showing the comb (lophophanes) with hood (cristatus)".

[–] AlPastor2560@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

I never knew that. That’s pretty cool.

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[–] asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago (12 children)

I couldn't find a single example of a racist bird name in that article. You'd think they would give one.

[–] populustree@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

ok what bird said the n word

[–] BzzBiotch@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

Twas a Southern Black Tit but it was talking to its homey.

[–] SkybreakerEngineer@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Papa ooma mow mow

[–] Someology@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

Good tactic to make everyone need to buy new editions of bird guide books.

[–] I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

You actually seem to have got it.

Here's a better source that suggests that they are interested in changing birds named after people, rather than birds named after slurs. It's linked in this article. I really hope that shames op. We need to be better.

Whether or not those people were bigots, they were probably white and male. Same as the anatomists that named the lady parts.

There's just a tradition of the first person to scientifically describe a "thing" getting to name it.

It's not great, but people that get to travel the world describing species and knowing enough to scientifically describe lady parts, etc are not poor people, at least until post war science. They still would have been mostly white and male, but they wouldn't have had to be as much independently wealthy.

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[–] tanja@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

But which bird will be renamed to X?

[–] Smoogs@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

The titters

[–] Vandals_handle@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

I believe if species being renamed were known and named by Indigenous peoples, that name is the proper name to use. These organisms were not discovered by western science any more than the continent was discovered by westerners. Not only would it be a small sign of respect but would help protect Indigenous language and culture.

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