How the Catbird came to be renamed the Gray Catbird.

A modern bird name fairy tale: or how the Catbird came to be renamed the Gray Catbird.

James K. Sayre

Having a life-long interest in birds and birdwatching, I periodically look at new bird books when they show up in the local library. Mr. Kenn Kaufman has produced an interesting new book entitled, Birds of North America (Houghton Mifflin, 2000). He has painstakingly scanned and organized thousands of photographs of birds to provide a useful new format for identifying them. While thumbing through this book, I discovered to my dismay that several traditionally named American birds had been renamed.

The Catbird, Dumetella carolinensis, a fantastic mimic and one of the favorites of backyard birdwatchers in eastern and central North America, has been recently renamed by the American Ornithological Union as the Gray Catbird. The only other Catbird native to the western hemisphere is the Black Catbird, Melanoptila glabrirostri, a resident of coastal part of the Yucatan peninsula in southeastern Mexico. Our Catbird winters in the Yucatan, as well as in other parts of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. So it is possible that these two Catbirds could be in the same habitat during the winter months. One supposes in this modern era of political correctness, that it would be arrogance on the part of us Norte Americanos to call our Catbird as the Catbird.

To further muddy the world-wide Catbird picture, there are three more species of Catbirds that live in eastern Australia. These Catbirds are in the Bowerbird family. They are respectively, the Green Catbird, Ailuroedus dentirostris, the Spotted Catbird, Ailuroedus melanotis and the Tooth-billed Catbird, Ailuroedus dentirostris. These three Catbirds are not directly related to the two species of Catbirds in our hemisphere: our Catbirds are members of the Thrush family.

As the say at the old ballgame, "You can't tell the players without a scorecard." In the world of modern birdwatching, you can't tell the names of the birds, without the most recent edition of the American Ornithological Union Check-list of North American Birds (1998) and its most recent Supplement (2000).

The professional American ornithologists have wreaked havoc with many traditional common bird names in recent years. The Baltimore Oriole, Icterus galbula, had been renamed as the Northern Oriole and also absorbed the Bullock's Oriole, Icterus bullockii. Now it has been given back its original name, Baltimore Oriole and is once more separated from the Bullock's Oriole.

The Flicker, Colaptes auratus, the American bird with the most traditional folknames (over one hundred and fifty by my count), was renamed as the Northern Flicker. There are several other examples of this propensity to rename: the Marsh Hawk, Circus cyaneus is now the Northern Harrier. The Sparrow Hawk, Falco sparverius, is now called the American Kestrel. The traditional plain Roadrunner, Geococcyx californianus, has been promoted to be the Greater Roadrunner. There is a Lesser Roadrunner, Geococcyx velox, a very similar bird which lives in Mexico. Recently, the traditional Plain Titmouse, Parus inornatus has been split and transformed into the Oak Titmouse, Baeolphus inornatus and the Juniper Titmouse, Baeolphus griseus.

I suppose that some might consider it selfish and narrow-minded to want to have traditional names of common American birds remain unchanged. However, I prefer to think of this as a version of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy. I believe that professional ornithologists should confine their name-changing activities to the scientific (Latin) names for the birds. They should leave the "common" name to us common folk and tradition.

My book, North American Bird Folknames and Names (Bottlebrush Press, 1996) has recorded over eight thousand traditional old bird names for the over five hundred species that reside in North America. More information is available at www.bottlebrushpress.com. I think that these old bird names are an interesting part of a rapidly disappearing Americana.

End.

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Web page last updated on 7 May 2003.