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Why are common names of birds capitalized? (1 Viewer)

Mysticete

Mysticete

Well-known member
United States
Out of curiosity, does anyone know why this is so, and when it started? I suppose one element is that common names of birds have been standardized to an extent not seen in mammals, but I find it curious that all of the "standard" seem to be lower case for mammals in journals, while in many bird journals (Auk, etc), common names are capitalized.
 
A notable high-profile exception in the UK is the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, with over a million members), which steadfastly refuses to adopt leading capitals for common names - to the irritation of many mainstream birders.

Personally, I think leading capitals are useful, making it clear that a particular species is concerned. eg, otherwise 'little owl' could mean either Athene noctua, or an unspecified small owl sp (or perhaps a juv large owl sp ;))...
 
Capitalization War! :D

Usage is varied enough that it's a matter of personal preference, as long as you aren't in the situation of needing to follow the style policies for a publication. I do hate it when people put "hot" species in all-caps.
 
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yes...it was the style policies that were the reason for my comments, especially in a paper that was largely going to be used to revise a portion of an existing checklist
 
I’ve often wondered about the historical background to this also, but now it’s just a matter of individual choice & house style. Personally I always capitalize bird names but never those of plants or other animals: “House Finch” just looks good to me on the page while “House Mouse” & “Virginia Creeper” (except for the Virginia part) just don’t.
 
I think there might be a Germanic influence. In Danish historically (100 years ago?), and I believe in German even later, nouns were usually capitalized. Has bird taxonomy been more influenced by native German speakers than mammal taxonomy?

(One other curiosity: in Danish today, the name of the country is capitalized, but the name of its language is not; so it would be "Danmark" but "dansk" (second word local for Danish)).

Niels
 
Mysticete said:
Out of curiosity, does anyone know why this is so, and when it started? I suppose one element is that common names of birds have been standardized to an extent not seen in mammals, but I find it curious that all of the "standard" seem to be lower case for mammals in journals, while in many bird journals (Auk, etc), common names are capitalized.
Click to expand...

Thanks for asking a question which I've wondered about!
 
I have a sneaking suspicion it dates back to the start of populist birdwatching and the reluctance of many to utilise the scientific names. The vernacular names are more noticable using upper case letters to start each part. Personally I prefer to see vernacular names with initial capitals, particularly in non-scientific areas.

Chris

BTW Pinyon Jay or pinyon jay or even Pinyon jay ??????? ;)

c
 
chris butterworth said:
I have a sneaking suspicion it dates back to the start of populist birdwatching and the reluctance of many to utilise the scientific names. The vernacular names are more noticable using upper case letters to start each part. Personally I prefer to see vernacular names with initial capitals, particularly in non-scientific areas.

Chris

BTW Pinyon Jay or pinyon jay or even Pinyon jay ??????? ;)

c
Click to expand...

I suspect that it goes back further than the start of populist birding (which I would put circa 1970 - soon after the arrival of colour TV in the UK, and the nature programmes that followed). Looking at my "Birds of Devon", published in 1895, species' names are capitalised and I guess this would go back well before then. (Mind you, some changes have occurred, e.g. Yellowhammer back then was Yellow Hammer!).

But I think Richard K hits the nail on the head when he says it's about precision. Capitalised, there is no doubt that the writer is referring to a specific species.

David
 
I am not sure about how the capitalization/non-capitalization thing evolved, but I personally just prefer the Mourning Dove, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron approach. This is how I generally type the species names.

For whatever reason, I find that I do not carry this over to flora and mammals. Kind of curious!
 
Thinking a bit more about the " precision" point how about this: Around here, black-headed gulls are common gulls, whereas common gulls are scarce, although not as scarce as other black-headed gulls. Confused? You will be.
;)
 
Never actually thought about this because I always assumed that using the capitals in say a field guide was similar to capitals in the chapter of a book, just to give emphasis and make it stand out. Personally I write the english name like the scientifice name, with a capital on the first word only and avoid hyphens altogether.

Yellow crowned night heron
 
chris butterworth said:
I have a sneaking suspicion it dates back to the start of populist birdwatching
Click to expand...

I should have made it clearer, sorry. I didn't mean the latest round of populist birding - which probably did start at the end of the 70's - but the original move away from either killing birds for scientific reasons or killing birds per se. This was probably about the end of the 19thC when the RSPB got started and there were many more similar groups with names like "The Tweetybird League" and " Our Feathered Friends Appreciation Society" and other cringe-worthy stuff. Each produced a magazine and each had to grab the eye of the public so highlighting the names made sense. As for early "British Birds", that evolved from "The Zoologist" a magazine that was, in many ways, unashamedly populist.

Chris
 
njlarsen said:
I think there might be a Germanic influence. In Danish historically (100 years ago?), and I believe in German even later, nouns were usually capitalized. Has bird taxonomy been more influenced by native German speakers than mammal taxonomy?
Niels
Click to expand...

In German nouns are still capitalised
 
And then again should it be Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron or Yellow-crowned Night-heron.

The last one for me - but I think we may have been here before ;)
 
Amarillo said:
In German nouns are still capitalised
Click to expand...

As they were in English until the end of the 18th century.

But back OT, I just checked: Audubon capitalized common names in Birds of America (1827-38) so it looks like the practice goes back quite a ways, at least on this side of the pond.
 
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Hyphens...

Trystan said:
Yellow crowned night heron
Click to expand...
chris butterworth said:
Is that a yellow Night Heron wearing a crown, or a Night Heron with a yellow crown?
Click to expand...
fugl said:
Or even a heron in moonlight (yellow-crowned night)? Capitals are mostly just a matter of taste & convenience, but hyphens really matter!
Click to expand...
In the absence of hyphens, adjectives (and adjectival nouns) generally apply from the noun backwards: yellow [crowned [night [heron]]]. So yellow crowned night heron would describe a night heron that's crowned and yellow. Only one hyphen is necessary to ensure the correct meaning: yellow-crowned night heron. [Notwithstanding the fact that AOU additionally uses hyphens to create group names (eg, night-heron) in an attempt to indicate close relationships between species (where possible within the limitations of existing common names). But that's a different can of worms...]

Similarly, Olive Tufted Flycatcher doesn't need any hyphens because, working back from the noun, it's clearly a tufted flycatcher that's olive (not a flycatcher with olive tufts); but Olive-tree Warbler requires a hyphen to prevent interpretation as a tree warbler that's olive.
 
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