Months later, the members came to the realization that all eponymous names were problematic. “They imply possession of a species,” Nol said. “They are overwhelmingly from a particular time and social fabric, they are almost all White men, few women, and women were almost all first names. Our main goal was to increase the birdwatching public."
While many of the eponymous birds are losing the names of racists and slaveowners, it should be noted that Alexander Wilson, a weaver who lived most of his life in poverty and was forced to emigrate after his satirical poetry enraged a British capitalist, seems to be an outlier from this group.