About

Bird Names for Birds (BN4B) General Info:

BN4B Roles:

  • Jordan E. Rutter (she/her) 
    • Initiative Co-founder
  • Gabriel Foley (he/him) 
    • Initiative Co-founder
  • Jessica “Jess” McLaughlin (she/they) 
    • Historical biographies project co-lead
  • Alex Holt (he/they)
    • Historical biographies project co-lead

Main Goals of BN4B: 

  • Remove all eponymous English common bird names*
    • *eventually, it’s understood that the names won’t be changed overnight
  • Create or modify naming process so it is accountable, Equity-Diversity-Inclusion (EDI) based, and involves all stakeholders
  • Raise awareness about the issue, the history of ornithology/nomenclature/historical individuals/etc, and how this issue relates to EDI in the bird community

BN4B Initiative Key Points and Messaging: 

  • The only official mouthpiece of BN4B are the official accounts as identified above.
    For official stances, statements, direction, etc confer with the official BN4B website, accounts, and spokespeople.
    Otherwise posts, comments, use of the hashtag or phrasing (Bird Names for Birds), etc are representative of the individual(s) only. Every individual has the right to post what they want and how they want on their personal accounts (social media, website, etc).  
  • Support, amplify, and contribute to the community conversations taking place today.
  • The voices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color as well as other underrepresented community members on this issue should be listened to and supported as frequently as possible. While we want to prevent the work from falling onto these community members, it is critical to reaching our second goal (an EDI based process) that their thoughts and opinions be listened to without reservation.