Birds of the World: Recommended English Names facts for kids
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| Author | Frank Gill and Minturn Wright |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Birds |
| Publisher | Christopher Helm / Princeton University Press |
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Publication date
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2006 |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | ix + 259 |
| ISBN | 978-0-7136-7904-5 |
| OCLC | 69484497 |
Birds of the World: Recommended English Names is a paperback book written by Frank Gill and Minturn Wright. They wrote it for the International Ornithologists' Union. This book tries to create one standard set of English names for all bird species.
The idea for the book started at the 1990 International Ornithological Congress. It has an 11-page introduction about naming birds. After that, there is a long list of bird names and a 46-page index. The way the bird families are listed follows the Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. The book's cover shows a picture of a helmet vanga. This bird lives only in Madagascar.
The book also has a website called the IOC World Bird List. This website provides updates to the information in the book.
Contents
Why Standardize Bird Names?
Since the time of Carl Linnaeus, living things have had special scientific names. These names are usually in Latin or Greek. Scientists and hobbyists around the world use these scientific names.
But for birds, people also use many common, everyday names. These common names can change often. They also vary a lot from one place to another. For example, one bird might have many different common names. Or, one common name might refer to many different birds. This can be confusing!
So, there was a need to make these common names more consistent. This means having the same name for a bird no matter where you are in the world.
Early Attempts at Standard Names
In the late 1800s, the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) tried to standardize English bird names. Their work covered birds in the United States and Canada. The most recent version of their list covers North America down to Panama. But this still left out about 80% of the world's bird species. Also, their list sometimes caused disagreements.
Many authors created lists of birds from around the world. But none of these lists focused mainly on making names standard. Because of this, English bird names were very messy. It was hard to know which name to use.
The IOC Project Begins
In the late 1980s, the International Ornithological Congress (IOC) wanted to create standard common names for major languages. They published standard names for French birds in 1993. Standard Spanish names came out in 1995.
But English names were much harder to agree on. This project took more than fifteen years! Even the authors knew that getting everyone to agree on every name and spelling would be tough. They saw their book as just the first step in an ongoing process.
The English names project started in 1990. The IOC chose a group of important bird experts, led by Burt L. Monroe, Jr.. This work turned out to be much harder and took more time than they thought. When Monroe passed away, the project stopped for a while.
In 1994, the project started again. Frank Gill and Walter Bock revived it. Gill asked Minturn Wright to help organize the process. Gill and Wright then became the main leaders of the new committee.
Who Wrote the Book?
Many experts worked together to create the standard bird names. This effort was led by a special committee of the IOC. This committee had smaller groups for different regions of the world.
Frank Gill and Minturn Wright were the main authors of the book. They also led the overall project. Frank Gill is a professional bird expert who has studied birds all over the world. Minturn Wright is a lawyer and a birdwatcher who was interested in how names are chosen.
Many other experts and volunteers helped with this huge task. They worked to create the rules for naming and then applied them to all the bird species.
Rules for Naming Birds
The committee also had to create rules for spelling, using capital letters, and other details. These rules helped make the names consistent. Here are some of the main rules:
- Capital Letters: Official English names for bird species use capital letters. For example, "Canada Goose" or "Ross's Gull".
- Names of People: If a bird is named after a person, the name uses an apostrophe and 's' (possessive form). For example, "Ross's Gull".
- No Special Marks: Names do not use special marks like accents (diacriticals).
- Spelling: The book tries to find a balance between British and American spellings.
- Place Names: Geographical names can be a noun or an adjective. But they must be consistent for that place. For example, "Canada Goose" (using "Canada" as a noun) but "African Piculet" (using "African" as an adjective).
- Compound Words: Words made of two parts (like "Eagle-Owl") follow rules to make them easy to read.
- Hyphens: Hyphens are used as little as possible. But they are used when two names are joined that are already bird species or families. For example, "Eagle-Owl" or "Wren-Babbler". They are also used if the combined name would be hard to read, like "Silky-flycatcher".
The committee started by looking at names already in use. If a name had been used for a long time or by many people, they usually kept it. They did not change it just because it seemed a little bit wrong. For example, words like "warbler" are used for many different bird groups, even if they are not related. These names were kept.
However, very local names were often replaced with more formal, established names. Names that could be seen as offensive to many people were changed. Many old geographical names were also updated.
The most important rule was this: Each bird species should have only one English name that is used all over the world. And this name must be different from all other bird names.
The final book, published in 2006, had a long list of species. It also had a detailed index. The book came with a compact disk. This disk had computer files listing all 10,068 species and information about where they live.
What Happened Next?
The book sold well. But it quickly became clear that updates would be needed. This was especially true as new bird species were discovered.
The authors had said their book was a "first edition." In 2009, the IOC decided not to print new versions of the book. Instead, the list of English bird names is now published online. You can find it on the IOC World Bird List website. This website also shows how widely the list is being used.
