Hi Brian

I have huge sympathy with your comments about the new British bird names, but the world moves on. My own view was that the scientific names meant that there could be no confusion over which species a person was referring to (and this worked very well when I have been working with Italian bird ringers both here and in Italy, and with others in Senegal). However, it seems that the users of the English language spanning the globe wanted to have names that meant that each species had a separate, specific, English name - to differentiate, for example, Eurasian Robin from American Robin. I hate the changes but have had to accept that the names are here. Look through the latest BOU checklist and you will see many more examples of name changes to birds we know so well by simple names.

For me the problem is - when I eventually move on to R6 and import data with current English species names, will it be an easy process to transfer existing data to have the new names (that I need for reports, etc)?

Over the years, the new species names will appear in field guides in the shops. British Birds uses the new names and has done for a couple of years. We can't even blame the EU for this one - it is English imperialism (or is it American....?). Anyway, the names are here and we will have to get used to them, even if it takes some of us longer than others.

All the best, Ian   :(

Hi Ian,

Hmm, interesting. Following on from your email I had a look at the Collins Bird Guide (2001) and indeed that had started to use these new names by putting the European or Common etc in brackets before the simple common name.

I fully agree with what you say regarding communications with other (non-English) countries. Whenever you want to say about a species they will invariably ask what is its scientific name? The problem comes that we are not taught the scientific names today and if we have no contact with non-english we are not inclined to learn them. OK, a bit of a general statement, but of many people today I believe this to be true.

However, there is always the problem of the scientific name changing!!!

So yes, I guess we have to just start to change... how exciting!

Cheers

Brian

We're going to be using the new names in the bird reporting system system we're developing. Most experts, like Ian, don't particularly like the changes, but understand the need for them, so it wasn't hard for us to argue the case for using the new names.

Hi John/Ian,

Yes please to the Excel spreadsheet. Although we are going to have to get use to it, it would be good in the interim to have something for quick reference and lookup.

Is it worth you putting it for download on this site (File uploads) for others too?

Many thanks

Brian