Close scrutiny of birds shows that there are large and small differences between them. Scientists have arranged all living things, including birds, in a system that indicates how they are related and the order in which they evolved. There are hierarchies of resemblances and differences. One of the liveliest aspects of ornithology is the ongoing research that tries to ferret out the true relationships of groups of birds and whether certain forms should be considered distinct species or only subspecies. The system we use today to name all plants and animals was developed by a Swedish naturalist named Carolus Linnaeus over 200 years ago. He realized that common or colloquial names were unreliable for purposes of permanent classification. Even today the word "robin" indicates one bird to an Englishman and a different species to an American. Common names often cause confusion. That is why, back in 1758, Linnaeus gave each bird a name made up of two words, usually derived from Latin or Greek. The first word is the name of the genus, or group of closely related species, and the second word is the particular species. The genus and species are combined to form the scientific name. Each creature in the animal world has a unique scientific name shared by no other. That is why, in the list posted on the Audubon Web site, we included all of the bird's scientific names. Whenever in doubt check the scientific name.

The English name of each of our birds is also given in the list. There are rules governing the capitalization and hyphenation of birds' names. No one who just knows birds casually is expected to either remember or figure out unaided how birds' names are correctly written in English. Therefore, you can always get them right by consulting the list.

It might be helpful to go over a few of the general rules of written bird names. When writing your own name you always capitalize your first and last names, e.g., Sam Spade or Lucy Brown. When writing the English name of a bird species, you should always capitalize its first and last names, e.g., Scarlet Tanager or Winter Wren. This avoids confusion with other modifiers in the sentence. For example, "the secretive, tiny, Black Rail..." If you are referring to unspecified birds use lower case letters, e.g., "those herons over there," or "that sparrow on the ground." If a species has a three-word unhyphenated name, all three words are capitalized. For example, "the graceful American White Pelican..." Many birds have compound or hyphenated "first" or "middle" names. Only the first letter of the compound name is capitalized: Red-throated Loon, or Long-billed Curlew. However, if a bird has a compound "last" name, then both parts of the compound name are capitalized: Eastern Screech-Owl or American Golden-Plover.

To assure accuracy we will be updating the posted list whenever the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) Checklist Committee issues supplements announcing recent name changes. The Web address is: http://www.audubon.org/bird/na-bird.html.

How to Use the List

You can save the list on your hard drive and refer to it whenever you need to know the correct spelling or form of a bird name. Add these names to your spelling dictionary so your documents can be spell-checked.

To Receive a Printout of the List from the Web Site, for those who don't have access to the Web, contact: NAS Chapter Services Office.