On November 1, the American Ornithological Society announced that all English bird names named after people within the geographic jurisdiction it manages will be changed, with the initial effort set to tackle 70 to 80 bird species present in the United States and Canada, starting in 2024.

“There is power in a name, and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today. We need a much more inclusive and engaging scientific process that focuses attention on the unique features and beauty of the birds themselves,” said AOS President Colleen Handel.

The decision stems from the organization noting that historic names have been exclusionary to some groups of people, also sometimes having ties to people with a racist or misogynistic past.

“Exclusionary naming conventions developed in the 1800s, clouded by racism and misogyny, don’t work for us today, and the time has come for us to transform this process and redirect the focus to the birds, where it belongs,” said Judith Scarl, the AOS Executive Director and CEO.

While official English names for birds will be impacted by the effort, scientific names will remain the same.

In Colorado, here’s a list of 53 birds that may be impacted by the mass name change among the 500-plus species that have been documented in the state:

• Ross’s goose
• Gambel’s quail
• Clark’s grebe
• Vaux’s swift
• Rivoli’s hummingbird
• Anna’s hummingbird
• Costa’s hummingbird
• Baird’s sandpiper
• Wilson’s snipe
• Wilson’s phalarope
• Sabine’s gull
• Bonaparte’s gull
• Ross’s gull
• Franklin’s gull
• Forster’s tern
• Cooper’s hawk
• Harris’s hawk
• Swainson’s hawk
• Lewis’s woodpecker
• Williamson’s sapsucker
• Couch’s kingbird
• Cassin’s kingbird
• Hammond’s flycatcher
• Say’s phoebe
• Bell’s vireo
• Cassin’s vireo
• Steller’s jay
• Woodhouse’s scrub-jay
• Clark’s nutcracker
• Bewick’s wren
• Bendire’s thrasher
• Swainson’s thrush
• Sprague’s pipit
• Cassin’s finch
• Lawrence’s goldfinch
• Smith’s longspur
• Cassin’s sparrow
• Brewer’s sparrow
• Harris’s sparrow
• LeConte’s sparrow
• Nelson’s sparrow
• Baird’s sparrow
• Henslow’s sparrow
• Lincoln’s sparrow
• Bullock’s oriole
• Scott’s oriole
• Brewer’s blackbird
• Lucy’s warbler
• Swainson’s warbler
• Virginia’s warbler
• MacGillivray’s warbler
• Grace’s warbler
• Wilson’s warbler

Read more about the American Ornithological Society name change effort here.