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00:19I used to work at the National Audubon Society. I was a lobbyist there for a
00:23little while. I helped organize bird walks with members of Congress and
00:27congressional staff. I took a lot of pride in wearing that polo that had
00:31Audubon's name on it. And as I got to know the guy, that brand on my shirt felt
00:39like a brand on my skin when I learned that he enslaved my ancestors. What's in
00:45a name? The question is really worth asking. Does changing these names now 200
00:50years later really matter?
01:10Oh, that's a great shot. Can we go tighter on that golf?
01:24That bird has a Napoleon complex. That is the Bonaparte skull. And it's actually named
01:30after Napoleon's cousin, Charles Lucien Bonaparte. Sorry, I mixed up my old white tyrant.
01:37There are 5% of English bird names that need to be changed immediately. And of those names,
01:43the one that sticks out to me the most, Townsend's Warbler. It brings up a lot of questions. Why
01:48change these names? Who will choose the new names? Will everyone even accept 150 new bird
01:54names? I mean, 150 species is a lot of birds. This is my first time leaving the United States,
01:59and I love that it's for birds. And there are so many beautiful birds in this country. And I'm
02:05really glad that I have a local guide that can lead the way. Tykee, how many birds have you managed
02:09to find this year? Oh, plenty. Arvon's Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, hoping to get Townsend's Warbler.
02:16Townsend, while he was a celebrated ornithologist and expert on birds, was a grave robber. He is often
02:23depicted as a well-meaning naturalist, but what they conveniently omit is that he desecrated the graves
02:29of indigenous peoples collecting skulls to dabble in a little pseudoscience just to affirm his own
02:37racial biases. Townsend's Warbler is not the only example of that, right? There are so many birds
02:42named after problematic people. To have a little bird that has been here forever, that's so beautiful
02:49and so important in the ecosystem and does an incredible migration and a journey, to have to hold
02:55that name and carry that around is insulting. Its name just feels so heavy. It's just named after a guy
03:04who's like kind of an asshole.
03:15There are so many guys heading that way. Let's go have a look.
03:23As a local, I bet you see a lot of Townsend's Warblers.
03:26I feel like I used to see a lot more than I do now. You know, I really feel like
03:33birds such as
03:35Townsend's Warblers are on the decline. You know, they might not be listed as endangered,
03:39but it doesn't mean that their population is not struggling.
04:05This is a good spot. I've seen them here before.
04:22They're definitely here. I can hear them.
04:26Oh, what's that? Floss alarm.
04:30Sorry. American Goldfinch. Yellow. But not our guy.
04:35In all the time that I've been birding, I have never seen a Townsend's Warbler in real life.
04:40Me neither. Oh, really?
04:44I have been trying to see the Townsend's Warbler for years, and I have been unsuccessful over and over.
04:52I'm optimistic, but I'm also a realist, so I'm not getting my hopes up.
05:04You know when you're in the car with a friend and that song comes on and you're dying to know
05:08what it
05:08is and you pull out the Shazam app to identify? That's what I always tell people that the Merlin
05:14app is like. It's like Shazam, but for birdsong. If there's multiple birds singing in highlights,
05:19which ones? Yeah, that is the kinglet. Oh yeah. And the chickadees.
05:26These bird names, like the hundreds and hundreds of birds that are named after
05:33these people, are they all just monsters from the 1800s?
05:38Oh, they're not all terrible people, but a lot of folks have acts. Where do you draw the line,
05:44right? And I think it's easier just to rename them all than to pick and choose.
05:49Um, would you have your journal? Let me show you.
05:55So, we know Townsend's history. Who else is there?
06:00Bachman Sparrow. These adorable introverts use tools. Yes, tools. Like tiny feathery MacGyvers,
06:06prying pine cones open for snacks. Unfortunately, their name honors John Bachman, slave owner and a
06:13man who spent his life trying to prove scientifically and spiritually that enslaving black people was
06:19justified. Clark's Nutcracker. Every fall, these birds stash hundreds of thousands of pine seeds,
06:25then forget most of them. Their accidental gardening creates entire forests. Despite this
06:30iconic forgetfulness, they're named after William Clark, of Lewis and Clark. This guy was an enslaver
06:36and the enthusiastic executor of the infamous Indian removal policy.
06:40Hammond's Flycatcher. Totally badass. They're also territorial. And males actually get into
06:46aggressive physical fights mid-flight by locking claws or beaks while in the air.
06:53Instead of a name that says, I'm an aerial MMA fighter, they're stuck with the honorific of William
06:59Alexander Hammond. American Civil War era surgeon general who collected the skulls of non-white people
07:05to support his view that white men had superior brains and mental traits.
07:11Scott's Oriole. This bright yellow bird spends its life protecting yucca plants and building intricate
07:16nests worthy of an architectural digest cover. And yet, it's named after the guy responsible for the
07:22Trail of Tears. A genocide where thousands of indigenous people were killed or forcibly displaced.
07:27So not only does he have this beautiful Oriole dedicated to him, there's even a monument in Washington,
07:33D.C. erected of General Winfield Scott on his horse.
07:44What's that?
07:49Oh.
07:54Come on, buddy.
07:58They say patience is a part of birding, right?
08:00Essential part of birding.
08:06It's hard to enjoy the benefits of nature when these encounters with birds
08:11serve as reminders of ancestral trauma.
08:15So if I'm looking at the Townsend's Warbler and I'm so excited to see a Townsend's Warbler for the
08:21first time and then in that moment where Townsend's Warbler is right in front of me and I think about
08:26who Townsend was and then my heart sinks and that joy gets tainted or stolen from me because I knew
08:35that
08:35Townsend didn't like people who look like me. These spaces can be more inclusive and not just carved out for
08:44old white British men wearing Tilly hats. Do I see myself represented in the birding community?
08:51Yeah. Maybe not as a gay man, but like in general, yeah.
08:54It can't just be me and people who look like me and sound like me who are doing conservation.
08:58That won't get us anywhere. It hasn't got us anywhere. We're in major decline.
09:02Birding means so much, especially when you're just getting started and your first question is,
09:06what's that bird and how did it get here? The endeavor that I have invested my life into just
09:12for it to come to this name that means nothing to nobody but five people. Everybody has a story about
09:18birds, but not everybody has space to share that story. And as an environmental educator, I felt
09:23that it was my responsibility to make space for folks to share those stories.
09:27I went through a lot of postpartum anxiety and being outside in nature and birding really helped
09:33me through all of that. And to now be able to share birding with my daughter is one of the
09:38greatest
09:39joys of my life. And to see how happy it makes her when she sees a bird and she points
09:42it out,
09:43it's so incredible. And to give her that nature and that outdoor experience that I didn't have growing
09:48up is really, really special. So I'm going to try not to get emotional, but it's really important.
10:00It's really important for me to know that as she's growing up, there's a safe and inclusive space for
10:08her in the birding world, for her to keep that joy that she has right now. And so for me,
10:15the significance of these bird names changing means a more inclusive future
10:21future for our future little birders, like my daughter.
10:47I'm so excited to introduce you to my friend Papakia and she's from Wasainwich Nation and is using bird
10:54names to teach kids their Sunchatan language. Oh, that's excellent. I can't wait to meet her.
11:00Hi. Hi, it's so nice to meet you. Pleasure. I'm Papakia. I'm Tykee. So nice to see you.
11:07What are you looking at? I had heard the Hualish earlier. No way, really? Yeah.
11:13That bird there is named after William Swainson, Swainson's thrush, who's a naturalist from the UK.
11:19It's not always been that. In the Sunchatan language, that bird, we called that the
11:24Hualish and that's the salmonberry bird. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've never actually even known it as its
11:31English name. What were you saying? It's the Swainson's thrush? Swainson's. But I love that you
11:35don't know its English name. That's great, honestly. Hualish? Yeah, Hualish. Hualish.
11:41So she has a specific role and job here in Husainwich and with her song, she ripens the berries.
11:48Oh. So she'll go from shrub to shrub and she'll add the color to each berry. And that's really
11:53important for us here because the salmonberry or alila is a really staple food to our people here.
11:59It must be so exciting to hear it being like, ah, the berries, it's time. We're good to go.
12:04Yeah, it's a really exciting time. I love harvesting food. So it helps me get myself ready and prepared for
12:09the harvest season too. Changing bird names is not a performative endeavor, not by any means. It's about
12:17improving bird names. It's about knowing better and doing better. It's the fact that these bird
12:22names connect people to the greater effort of environmental progress. When these names alienate
12:29people, we are losing allies in the collective fight for environmental progress. It's about time
12:34that we do better by birds and people. It's just this very basic part of being a human to hear
12:41birds,
12:42birds, to see birds, to slow down and notice a bird. I think hearing a bird is a lot like
12:49hearing
12:49your own heartbeat or hearing the Earth's heartbeat. You have to slow down and just watch.
12:56As they consider these new names, I hope that they weigh and consider more importantly,
13:01how these names can reflect how these birds present in nature.
13:05In the UK, we have blackbirds. They're black. We have razorbills, because they have a razor bill.
13:13Sparrowhawks, because they're a hawk that likes to eat birds like sparrows. And we have
13:18birds that are named after the things they do, the places they live. And we gave those birds,
13:25in my opinion, appropriate names. North American birds seem to have been treated like trophies.
13:30What does a Swainson such tell you about it? It tells you that a guy named William Swainson
13:37found it or had a friend who liked him enough to name a bird after him. It doesn't tell you
13:41anything.
13:42Her name is actually an onomatopoeia. It's a hwoholish. So we named her after her song,
13:48and that's what we would hear is the hwoholish, hwoholish, hwoholish, hwoholish, hwoholish.
13:54Oh, incredible. It just makes me think that, you know, Townsend Warbler
13:57would have had a name prior to colonization that also would have, you know, represented something
14:03about it. So about its song or where it lives or the job that it does. We're still hoping to
14:09see
14:09Townsend's warbler, but I think birding isn't always about seeing the bird. Sometimes it's about
14:14sitting in what it means if you don't, and what it means if you're too late. A bird name can
14:19tell you
14:19about its habitat, its history, its sound. These are the things that we know we will lose when we
14:27say this bird's name, when we are fighting for its protection. We want the marsh wren to have a marsh
14:34to be in. We want the kingfisher to have fish. We want the seagull to have a sea to gull
14:40over. It means a lot
14:42that warblers have trees too horrible in. These names speak to the actions and speak to the habitat
14:49and history that we share with these birds. People who have watched birds for any amount of time
14:55can tell that there are less birds and you're seeing birds change their behaviors. You're seeing birds
15:01come at different times of the year. They are leaving at different times of the year. We're finding dead
15:06birds seeing some really big changes and some really devastating things out in the field.
15:14The Eskimo curlew is a heartbreaking recent example of that. I'm not fluffing anybody's feathers on the
15:20fact that Eskimo is an offensive and outdated term that Inuit communities find derogatory.
15:26But this moniker does beg the question, what's in a name? Does an offensive bird name matter if we never
15:33see the actual bird? There have been no confirmed sightings of this species since 1963. Their voices
15:42sounded like the distant jingling of sleigh bells. But now all you hear is the silence they left behind.
15:53And yet they are one of the birds listed by the American Ornithological Society whose name
15:58will soon be changing. I think a world void of birdsong, that silence would be so eerie.
16:16You talk about how the marsh wren was difficult because it's like deep in the in its own habitat in
16:22the marsh. What makes it difficult to get the Townsend? The Townsends is difficult because
16:27they like the cover of the canopy. They don't like being near the ground very often. And so they
16:34love that high cover. I mean, I guess when you're in the penthouse, hard to, you know, go to the
16:40basement, be with the ground dwellers. Right? You can't blame them. But that means I'm pointing my
16:46camera up towards the sky. The bird's probably going to be silhouetted against the sky, or else
16:53everything's going to be really bright. And it's not going to look very good. So there's the artistic
16:57side to filming as well, right? You don't just want any shot. Right. You want a shot. You don't want
17:03a
17:03cloaca shot. Like just like hole, like bird hole shot. You don't want that. Exactly. You don't want that.
17:11Some people can identify birds by cloaca. Not me, but just, I was going to say. Who are these people?
17:23There's a surprising silence. There's nothing. Absolutely silent. And then suddenly one starts,
17:29and then something else starts. You know, the creeper will start, and then the nut hatch
17:33starts, and then the chickadee starts. I don't know the science. I wish I could use the science
17:37behind it, if there's like actually evidence. But I just noticed that it just takes one or two to just
17:42kind of like break through the silence, and then they're all just going for it.
17:45Nature is a symphony, and we get to enjoy the orchestra.
17:53Oh, there it is. Townsend's Warbler. Somewhere.
18:32Nice. Yeah, there it is.
18:37That is wild. It's not the first time I've gone looking for it, but it is
18:41the first time that I've had success. That's beautiful.
19:09Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:10Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, ha, ha, ha.
19:22And there he goes. And that's a wrap.
19:26Yeah. Well done.
19:28I told you we'd get it.
19:29It goes long enough. Yeah.
19:31You have a little faith.
19:53One part of me thinks biologists who spend their whole life studying these animals should be in
19:57charge of naming the birds because they know their behaviors. And then the other part of me thinks
20:02we should just leave it up to kids. So maybe like a committee of half really smart like scientists
20:09and biologists and half five-year-olds.
20:14I don't know what I would rename the Townsend's Warbler. That would be a question for my daughter.
20:19And she would probably say black and yellow. Cue the song. Black and yellow, black and yellow.
20:26We can't get rights to that song.
20:30Community conservation is the way that we bring back bird populations.
20:34And in order to get people from all parts of your community, they have to feel like they are included.
20:41Bird names is one way of doing that.
20:43By renaming all of these species, we're just making it easier for people to get excited about birds.
20:54When I had an opportunity to work on the American Ornithological Society's English Bird Names Committee,
21:00we looked at the question of what happens next? Who should be naming these birds next?
21:06And one of our recommendations was a group of folks from diverse backgrounds that represented
21:12north and south of the equator, different age groups, different educational backgrounds,
21:18different professions, because these are all of the folks that interact with bird names.
21:23So earlier you asked what's in a name. It can be a compass for culture, geography, history.
21:30It could be a handshake or a slur. A name is a story. So the question we must answer now
21:36is,
21:36are we still proud of the one we're telling?
21:38We don't mind.
21:40Welcome.
22:05Welcome.
22:15Transcription by CastingWords
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