2021 new name

Thick-billed Longspur: the new name for McCown's Longspur

Thick-billed Longspur is the new name for McCown's Longspur, a small bird of the shortgrass prairie. The AOS renamed it in 2020, and eBird followed in 2021. It is the same bird.

Updated

Two Thick-billed Longspurs on open prairie, one on a rock with a black cap, a black patch on the breast and chestnut on the wing, the other plain and streaky brown
Thick-billed Longspurs, from John Cassin's book of western birds, which calls them McCown's Bunting. George G. White, William E. Hitchcock and J. T. Bowen, John Cassin's Illustrations of the Birds of California, Texas, Oregon, British and Russian America (1862)

What changed

WasMcCown's Longspur Rhynchophanes mccownii
NowThick-billed Longspur Rhynchophanes mccownii

Nests on the shortgrass prairie of western Canada and the northwestern US. Winters farther south, as far as northwestern Mexico.

Why the name changed

The bird was named in 1851 after John P. McCown, a US Army officer with an interest in birds. He later became a general in the Confederate army in the Civil War.

In 2019 the AOS turned down a first request to rename it, and promised to review its rules for such names. It then wrote new guidelines, which say an English name can be changed if it causes enough offense. In August 2020 its committee voted, unanimously, for a new name.

The AOS pointed to a heightened awareness of racial issues, and to Confederate symbols being retired across the country.

The new name describes the bird itself. Its thick bill sets it apart from the other longspurs, male and female, all year round. The committee also looked at “Shortgrass Longspur”, after the prairie where it nests.

Only the English name changed. The scientific name is still Rhynchophanes mccownii.

Who decided, and when

  • American Ornithological Society (AOS): its committee voted to rename it Thick-billed Longspur, and published the change in January 2021
  • eBird and the Clements Checklist: its 2021 taxonomy update (eBird had no update in 2020)
  • AviList, the shared world checklist: agrees, with the same name

Which bird is it?

There is nothing new to tell apart: McCown's Longspur and Thick-billed Longspur are the same bird.

What it does to your list

A new name only: your McCown's Longspur now counts as Thick-billed Longspur.

eBird had no taxonomy update in 2020, so eBird lists kept the old name until its next update, in August 2021.

Check your own list. Drop your eBird download or type your birds: the free checker shows which of them this and other recent changes touched.

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