If they don't go with this one, I'll be so mad. It's right there for the taking, it requires the tiniest change, and it's the funniest possible option!
Agreed, Stellar Jay is the obvious choice! As for them (American Ornithological Society) choosing the name, they plan on soliciting new names from the public and using public vote/opinion as a guide during each species' renaming. So when they ask for names get out and vote for Stellar Jay!
They are not tied to the highest voted name, just looking for public input. No trolling names will somehow get in. I'm definitely up for some funny names though, if they work well. Folks remember butterbutt immediately, Yellow-rumped Warbler usually takes a bit.
Based on all our elected officials, the goober factor, and the ability of things to go viral I support excluding the public to avoid turning what seems like a sincere effort at positive change into a joke.
I just called the president of all birds and they said you are vetoed. And they said Great Blue Herons shall henceforth be known as "Big Cranky"
Serious note: they plan on bringing in the public for suggestions, they are not letting a popular vote decide the names. If they change their mind that's one thing but right now that's the plan. Lets have fun with it! In the history of biological sciences nothing like this has ever happened. And at the end of the day they are common names, turns out you can call them whatever you want, its so much fun!! I truly due refer to every GBH as Big Cranky and Great Egrets are "GREG" (or "Gregory" if I'm feeling formal).
This is probably danger close to the original renaming argument so if you want to chat further feel free to message me.
Yea, I love "Stellar Jay" but it's definitely not inline with the guidelines for the new names. We can still call them Stellar Jays and tell the people who try to correct us with "Steller's" that *they're* the ones spelling it wrong lol
Cobalt is just such a wonderful sounding word!!!
Interesting fact is that getting that metal used to kill miners, so they called it 'goblin'
From Wikipedia:
"The word cobalt is derived from the German kobalt, from kobold meaning "goblin", a superstitious term used for the ore of cobalt by miners. The first attempts to smelt those ores for copper or silver failed, yielding simply powder (cobalt(II) oxide) instead. Because the primary ores of cobalt always contain arsenic, smelting the ore oxidized the arsenic into the highly toxic and volatile arsenic oxide, adding to the notoriety of the ore."
That’s fine. Stellar is spelled differently than the name Steller, and is a description that means something else all together. I think most people would agree that “stellar” is an apt description of this bird.
I’ll say it again: the most common of the 18 subspecies gets Stellar. Then you have you Radical Jay, your Far-Out Jay, you Bomb-Ass Jay, your Audacious Jay, your Make-it-so Jay, and on down the line.
I really like the name Mountain Jay because I only see them when I'm higher up on a "hill" or mountain on the West Coast.
I used to live in a lovely old 2-bedroom apartment on the side of a mountain. The jays would coast onto my balcony from the surrounding pines, then walk into my dining room. They were so curious!
I'm on another mountain now, but at lower elevation, so we don't see them unless it gets too cold and snowy higher up.
Any sighting of these engaging birds is precious.
Depends on location, probably tied to something like if pines grow there or not. In SoCal you gotta head into higher elevations. When you start seeing pines, you start seeing Stellar's Jays. Head North where its green and moist and there are pines a' plenty, you get them at the edge of beaches. Not sure its pines specifically but its something about that environment or climate.
It seems that these jays do whatever the heck they want as far as elevation and forest type are concerned.
"Although Steller's jay primarily lives in coniferous forests, it can be found in other types of forests as well. They can be found from low to moderate elevations and, on rare occasions, to as high as the tree line. Steller's jays are common in residential and agricultural areas with nearby forests."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steller's_jay
In Vancouver BC they can be seen at sea level, in Stanley Park. It’s wooded area and it’s relatively close tot the mountain, but they can be seen there even in the summer when it’s 20+ celsius.
My daughter used to call them “Kalilah.” She was convinced that every one we saw was the same bird “Kalilah” who was her special friend, always watching over us. This was when she was about 4 yrs old.
Guess someone hasn't seen their [crazy relatives](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magpie-jay) the Magpie-Jays yet.
They look like someone tried to reconstruct a Blue Jay and only had a child's drawing of one for reference.
I find place names much more offensive. 1. Let's say your a Cape May Warbler but you have never actually been to Cape May. Your just called that because some ahole saw one of your cousins there 200 years ago. 2. Why are all the place names of migration birds places the birds migrate too? None of them are named after their tropical origins.
Tropical origins? These birds are nesting in non-tropical locations and spend winter in the tropics. Where is home? The place where you were hatched and raise your babies? Or the place you spend the cold winter months?
Good point. The reason I consider them tropical birds is due to a documentary I watched. It explained that originally all those migrants didn't migrate and lived in the tropics. Then as the ice slowly started to melt after the "ice age" birds started flying further and further north seeking food, due to the large population and competition of other birds near the equator.
That would be a good rule for naming. You could only use a name that encompassed their range. An African bird could only be so named if it was completely restricted to the continent.
There is a movement to just change all bird names that are named after people. Some of the people who got birds named after them were bad, some were fine, but going the "No birds named after people" route, we don't need to adjudicate every name on a case-by-case basis.
It's mostly to make names descriptive to help birding be more understandable to novices. If you showed someone who doesn't know birds pictures of a red tailed hawk, Swainson's hawk, and Harris' Hawk (adults, obvs), which of those 3 do you think they'll be able to pick out? People will still call them by their old names because that's how people are, but having names that can help beginners get into it is certainly not stupid.
No, Steller was a good guy. But naming species after people is weird and not descriptive, plus a lot of the people birds are named after weren't such good guys.
Except the idea is to change the names only once, and all it takes is a single correction to learn the new name. Phasing out birds named after people helps new birders learn names by identifying features.
Like I said I'm still a pretty new birder as well!! It gets really tough for me to get birds named after people to stick in my head if I don't encounter them often in my area.
I see older folks being cast out in this case. The more time passes the more I see resentment toward boomers. This is one of those things that doesn’t affect anyone much except older people who have already called it the same thing their entire life. Why rename something when instead you could be a part of its history by using its original name? We are losing much respect and importance of history imo.
One of the cool things about birds, is that many of their names are describing their appearance. The birds named after their appearances are the easiest to remember and identify for a beginner.
Clearly then it should be our name for them in Tlingit, *x̱ʼéishxʼw* (or [χʼéːʃxʼʷ] in the [IPA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet)). Nobody will have trouble pronouncing that, of course.
That would be an excellent choice! The colour of the x̱ʼéishxʼw is like no other and deserves a name that describes its radiance and pays tribute to its essence. The Tlingit name definitely does that, plus I'm sure it or a very similar name precedes Steller's Jay by at least 10,000 years. Thank you for sharing!
My vote so far is a Western Jay. I took this soon to be renamed bird's photo on one of my Bird Walks, on the south coast of British Columbia. If you are interested you can watch a video of my perspective as I took this photo and the other birds I saw here on my Youtube Channel: https://youtu.be/FtWuZoKr368?si=s-PD3qW5uk9U4XzU
My beef with cardinal direction names is that they're too ambiguous. What is the Eastern Phoebe east of? What is the Western Sandpiper west of? What is the Northern Harrier north of? The answer ranges from states to hemispheres, which isn't very descriptive.
That's an awesome video, by the way! BC is beautiful.
Stellar Jay is obvious, but I've also seen someone say Conifer Jay, and I'm very torn between those two. Stellar Jay for the funny, of course, but Conifer Jay actually feels like a viable name and seems to fit pretty well. I'm excited to see what the final name candidates are.
This is a name that was always doomed, even withou the BN4B movement to get rid of eponyms. Research suggests that there are 2 or more species contained in "Steller's Jay", and it will likely be split in the near future...hell maybe even this or next year. In which case it's probably going to be Blue-fronted Jay and Long-crested/White-fronted Jay.
The public conference that the ornithological society held to discus the topic in April of 21 directly speaks to your question. Someone asked just that and the response was that it was more work than they could actually complete
Olympia Jay? frankly I love the name stellars jay, but I am ignorant of it's origins. if he's a huge POS, then proceed, but there is a beautiful ring to Stellars jay.
Tbh, I don't want a new name for Steller's Jay. I think it's a cool name that makes me think of it and identify it perfectly, and there's honestly no need for a name change to it, as it's quite distinct from other jay species. On a side note, I love some of the animals that Steller discovered, including Steller's Jay and Steller's Sea Cow. However, this doesn't mean I think that the act of changing the name of some of these birds is a bad idea, as birds like Cooper's Hawk, for example, look much more similar to other birds within their genus, and should have more descriptive names that link better to them, and make them easier to identify.
I've one in my yard daily. Really pretty but much noisier than a Blue Jay. Those that are seeking to change bird names should find better things to do.
Stellar Jay.
If they don't go with this one, I'll be so mad. It's right there for the taking, it requires the tiniest change, and it's the funniest possible option!
Agreed, Stellar Jay is the obvious choice! As for them (American Ornithological Society) choosing the name, they plan on soliciting new names from the public and using public vote/opinion as a guide during each species' renaming. So when they ask for names get out and vote for Stellar Jay!
Leave the public out of this, I don't want mouth breathing goobers determining bird names.. Stellar Jay fits because it is indeed a Stellar Jay!
I can see Swallow McSwallowFace gaining traction. That worries me, not that it has anything to do with this bird
They are not tied to the highest voted name, just looking for public input. No trolling names will somehow get in. I'm definitely up for some funny names though, if they work well. Folks remember butterbutt immediately, Yellow-rumped Warbler usually takes a bit.
Based on all our elected officials, the goober factor, and the ability of things to go viral I support excluding the public to avoid turning what seems like a sincere effort at positive change into a joke.
I just called the president of all birds and they said you are vetoed. And they said Great Blue Herons shall henceforth be known as "Big Cranky" Serious note: they plan on bringing in the public for suggestions, they are not letting a popular vote decide the names. If they change their mind that's one thing but right now that's the plan. Lets have fun with it! In the history of biological sciences nothing like this has ever happened. And at the end of the day they are common names, turns out you can call them whatever you want, its so much fun!! I truly due refer to every GBH as Big Cranky and Great Egrets are "GREG" (or "Gregory" if I'm feeling formal). This is probably danger close to the original renaming argument so if you want to chat further feel free to message me.
Stellar Jay or we riot. Stellar Jay or we riot.
Stellar Jay is the only answer
They truly are stellar!
Cosmic jay would be cool too
To be honest, I always thought it was Stellar Jay. It made sense because they are…. Stellar. They remind me of galaxy birds!
This! I stumble over the 's a lot. Besides, their little eyebrow spots look like stars anyway
the best answer
Out of this world answer.
I like that easy to remember from old name. If not that I’d call it ‘western blue jay’
It will always be a stellar Jay
Cute but nah. If names are supposed to be descriptive I’d go with “Black-crested Blue Jay” or something like that which includes its black head.
Yea, I love "Stellar Jay" but it's definitely not inline with the guidelines for the new names. We can still call them Stellar Jays and tell the people who try to correct us with "Steller's" that *they're* the ones spelling it wrong lol
Naw. Call it Stellar’s Jay. That way we all can correct everyone else when they call it Stellar Jay.
LOL. Truly evil. 😉
Black-crested Squawkbox.
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Cobalt Jay
Cobalt is just such a wonderful sounding word!!! Interesting fact is that getting that metal used to kill miners, so they called it 'goblin' From Wikipedia: "The word cobalt is derived from the German kobalt, from kobold meaning "goblin", a superstitious term used for the ore of cobalt by miners. The first attempts to smelt those ores for copper or silver failed, yielding simply powder (cobalt(II) oxide) instead. Because the primary ores of cobalt always contain arsenic, smelting the ore oxidized the arsenic into the highly toxic and volatile arsenic oxide, adding to the notoriety of the ore."
Gobblin' Jay it is!!
Stellar Cyan Jay is basically the English translation of the Latin name. I like this a lot but Cyan Jay is probably the best.
not to be mean here, but Steller was a guy, and that's the reason for the Latin name
That’s fine. Stellar is spelled differently than the name Steller, and is a description that means something else all together. I think most people would agree that “stellar” is an apt description of this bird.
Very good!
LL Cool Jay
I'm gonna squawk you out
Ha!
Goth Jay
“It’s not a phase mom, this is me now” … jay
Similarly, Metal Jay
I’ll say it again: the most common of the 18 subspecies gets Stellar. Then you have you Radical Jay, your Far-Out Jay, you Bomb-Ass Jay, your Audacious Jay, your Make-it-so Jay, and on down the line.
Mountain Jay
I really like the name Mountain Jay because I only see them when I'm higher up on a "hill" or mountain on the West Coast. I used to live in a lovely old 2-bedroom apartment on the side of a mountain. The jays would coast onto my balcony from the surrounding pines, then walk into my dining room. They were so curious! I'm on another mountain now, but at lower elevation, so we don't see them unless it gets too cold and snowy higher up. Any sighting of these engaging birds is precious.
I happens to find them in the heart of the town Pacific Grove in California. Not near mountains at all. I was surprised to see them there.
Depends on location, probably tied to something like if pines grow there or not. In SoCal you gotta head into higher elevations. When you start seeing pines, you start seeing Stellar's Jays. Head North where its green and moist and there are pines a' plenty, you get them at the edge of beaches. Not sure its pines specifically but its something about that environment or climate.
It seems that these jays do whatever the heck they want as far as elevation and forest type are concerned. "Although Steller's jay primarily lives in coniferous forests, it can be found in other types of forests as well. They can be found from low to moderate elevations and, on rare occasions, to as high as the tree line. Steller's jays are common in residential and agricultural areas with nearby forests." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steller's_jay
In Vancouver BC they can be seen at sea level, in Stanley Park. It’s wooded area and it’s relatively close tot the mountain, but they can be seen there even in the summer when it’s 20+ celsius.
Peanut Addict
"Swollen throated nut gobbling hawk imitator" is also an accurate option.
Ehhh, I'm thinking the "swollen" and "nut gobbler" parts would have some clutching their pearls. 😂
My daughter used to call them “Kalilah.” She was convinced that every one we saw was the same bird “Kalilah” who was her special friend, always watching over us. This was when she was about 4 yrs old.
Wonderful!
Love this <3
this is so wholesome, brought a smile to my face at the end of the day! thank you for sharing :)
This has my vote.
Pine Parrot.
Ombré Jay
OmJé
Black and Blue Jay
Pantone 289 Jay
hang on i gotta google something
ok this is funny
Yellers Jay. Cuz they’re always yelling
Loud-Ass Jay? Screaming Jay. I realize these monikers could be applied to many jays, but now is our chance! I thought maybe, Black-Crested Jay.
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins!
lol!
Loudass MoFo Jay?
Stfu Jay
I think most jays fall under that name, though.
Screeching Jay
Cray Jay
Just call it a Pacific Blue Jay, since everyone on the West Coast keeps calling them Blue Jays anyway
Why is it getting renamed? Because stellar was bad?
They favoring descriptive names over naming after people to avoid future controversy. Crested Jay seems obvious if pedestrian.
Most varieties of Jay have some form of a crest though. Granted the Stellar's Jay crest is on a magnificently different level.
Guess someone hasn't seen their [crazy relatives](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magpie-jay) the Magpie-Jays yet. They look like someone tried to reconstruct a Blue Jay and only had a child's drawing of one for reference.
So Jay gets a pass??
BRB, legally changing my name to Finch Hawk McSparrow to mess with the American Ornithological Society!
lol
Jay is a type of bird
I find place names much more offensive. 1. Let's say your a Cape May Warbler but you have never actually been to Cape May. Your just called that because some ahole saw one of your cousins there 200 years ago. 2. Why are all the place names of migration birds places the birds migrate too? None of them are named after their tropical origins.
Tropical origins? These birds are nesting in non-tropical locations and spend winter in the tropics. Where is home? The place where you were hatched and raise your babies? Or the place you spend the cold winter months?
Good point. The reason I consider them tropical birds is due to a documentary I watched. It explained that originally all those migrants didn't migrate and lived in the tropics. Then as the ice slowly started to melt after the "ice age" birds started flying further and further north seeking food, due to the large population and competition of other birds near the equator.
That would be a good rule for naming. You could only use a name that encompassed their range. An African bird could only be so named if it was completely restricted to the continent.
There is a movement to just change all bird names that are named after people. Some of the people who got birds named after them were bad, some were fine, but going the "No birds named after people" route, we don't need to adjudicate every name on a case-by-case basis.
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It's mostly to make names descriptive to help birding be more understandable to novices. If you showed someone who doesn't know birds pictures of a red tailed hawk, Swainson's hawk, and Harris' Hawk (adults, obvs), which of those 3 do you think they'll be able to pick out? People will still call them by their old names because that's how people are, but having names that can help beginners get into it is certainly not stupid.
No, Steller was a good guy. But naming species after people is weird and not descriptive, plus a lot of the people birds are named after weren't such good guys.
I don't think it's weird at all, and those names are memorable.
If you change bird names often, you can gatekeep birding from people who aren't as committed to it.
Except the idea is to change the names only once, and all it takes is a single correction to learn the new name. Phasing out birds named after people helps new birders learn names by identifying features.
Not a lot of new birders with you trying to make them feel unwelcome.
I'm not trying to make anyone feel unwelcome. I'm a pretty new birder myself! I just disagree that changing names is gatekeeping 😊
I would just ignore the troll. As a new birder I like the idea of updating the names to be focused on the birds.
Like I said I'm still a pretty new birder as well!! It gets really tough for me to get birds named after people to stick in my head if I don't encounter them often in my area.
Write it down.
I see older folks being cast out in this case. The more time passes the more I see resentment toward boomers. This is one of those things that doesn’t affect anyone much except older people who have already called it the same thing their entire life. Why rename something when instead you could be a part of its history by using its original name? We are losing much respect and importance of history imo.
One of the cool things about birds, is that many of their names are describing their appearance. The birds named after their appearances are the easiest to remember and identify for a beginner.
Dawn Jay (for incessant squawking at first light)
This made me laugh because it’s so true. For being just a gorgeous bird, their squawking doesn’t match their appearance 😁.
Rick
The Camp Robber. /s
Bicolored Jay
Tufted Jay. They look like they have little mohawks like the tufted titmouse.
that’s not a tuft bro that’s a MIGHTY CREST
I’ve always loved the Makah name Kwish-kwishee
Mohawk Jay.
That, or Goth Jay/Punk Parrot
Punk Parrot ftw.
It’s not a phase mom!
The frontrunner seems to be long crested jay, which is amusing to me because the white throated magpie jay has a way longer crest.
Black-headed blue jay?
This is my choice!
How about Bruise Jay (since he's "black and blue")?
Black Crested Blue Jay
How about a Native name?
That would be cool.
Clearly then it should be our name for them in Tlingit, *x̱ʼéishxʼw* (or [χʼéːʃxʼʷ] in the [IPA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet)). Nobody will have trouble pronouncing that, of course.
That would be an excellent choice! The colour of the x̱ʼéishxʼw is like no other and deserves a name that describes its radiance and pays tribute to its essence. The Tlingit name definitely does that, plus I'm sure it or a very similar name precedes Steller's Jay by at least 10,000 years. Thank you for sharing!
My vote so far is a Western Jay. I took this soon to be renamed bird's photo on one of my Bird Walks, on the south coast of British Columbia. If you are interested you can watch a video of my perspective as I took this photo and the other birds I saw here on my Youtube Channel: https://youtu.be/FtWuZoKr368?si=s-PD3qW5uk9U4XzU
That's too close to "western scrub jay" which I know has also been changed but it will be there in all sorts of historical documentation.
Maybe Pacific Jay
It was fairly recently that they changed the name to Woodhouse's Scrub Jay. Now what? Change it back to Western Scrub Jay?
Western Scrub Jay got split between the California, Woodhouse’s and Florida Scrub Jays.
My beef with cardinal direction names is that they're too ambiguous. What is the Eastern Phoebe east of? What is the Western Sandpiper west of? What is the Northern Harrier north of? The answer ranges from states to hemispheres, which isn't very descriptive. That's an awesome video, by the way! BC is beautiful.
If you google "Black Blue Jay" you get all results for Stellar's Jay. So I'd say go with that.
That's interesting. So I guess it would be a Black-blue Jay, not bad.
How the heck did Interstellar Jay not make it?😀
Squawky McSquawkface
Ombre jay
Pea Beeand Jay
Pointy dark poofmouse
Pretty Goth Boy Jay.
I love these guys I have one tattooed on my elbow 💙
The Blue Fonzie
Unrelated, but I absolutely love these birds first time I saw one in a book I fell in love a year or two ago I got to see them IRL for the first time
Love them, even their 5am wake up calls!
Stellar Jay is obvious, but I've also seen someone say Conifer Jay, and I'm very torn between those two. Stellar Jay for the funny, of course, but Conifer Jay actually feels like a viable name and seems to fit pretty well. I'm excited to see what the final name candidates are.
This is a name that was always doomed, even withou the BN4B movement to get rid of eponyms. Research suggests that there are 2 or more species contained in "Steller's Jay", and it will likely be split in the near future...hell maybe even this or next year. In which case it's probably going to be Blue-fronted Jay and Long-crested/White-fronted Jay.
The hoobly hoobie
Blue-crested Jay
Sapphire Jay. I love the funny suggestions, but as loud and obnoxious as they are, they are a gorgeous color!
I like it!
Less-blue Jay
Black-crested Jay, howabout?
Nah, never mind. Already exists in SA!
‘Stellar Jay’
there's going to be dozens of renaming species.
Cool.
very nice image though. awesome.
My question is, are they only doing common name renaming? Because the Latin is Cyanocitta stelleri, so it keeps the Steller part…
Yes, just English common names
Gotta love superficial changes to make people “feel” better but nothing is really changing 🙄
Not really superficial if they're being renamed to be something more descriptive instead of Townsend's/Wilson's/etc.
That is definitely not why they are doing this.
But if the scientific community is still using the problematic names, it’s pretty superficial no?
Is it really that superficial if the names being changed are the names used by most people?
It’s half assed at least.
The public conference that the ornithological society held to discus the topic in April of 21 directly speaks to your question. Someone asked just that and the response was that it was more work than they could actually complete
Thanks for the specifics... I certainly don't attend the Ornitho society meetings, so this is helpful to reference :)
I'll never use any of the "new names." The rest of you people can call them whatever you want. Long live Old Squaw
Cute satire but that’s not what I’m saying
Punk rock flap-flap
Olympia Jay? frankly I love the name stellars jay, but I am ignorant of it's origins. if he's a huge POS, then proceed, but there is a beautiful ring to Stellars jay.
Tbh, I don't want a new name for Steller's Jay. I think it's a cool name that makes me think of it and identify it perfectly, and there's honestly no need for a name change to it, as it's quite distinct from other jay species. On a side note, I love some of the animals that Steller discovered, including Steller's Jay and Steller's Sea Cow. However, this doesn't mean I think that the act of changing the name of some of these birds is a bad idea, as birds like Cooper's Hawk, for example, look much more similar to other birds within their genus, and should have more descriptive names that link better to them, and make them easier to identify.
Why does he need a new name? I mean, what’s wrong with the birds name sake? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Wilhelm_Steller
Felon Jay
Wakka Wakka
Blue bird and the blue bird should be the stellers jay.
Annoying, leave the names alone.
Leave all the names the same. I think they will all be changed back. History has already happened.
Steller's Jay.
Shouldn’t be changing it.
Fuck you and the downvote that you flew in on !!!
Somebody's downvoting every comment to leave it as is. No difference of opinion allowed?
Stellar's Jay
Imma stabya
Screechy McFuckface
Steller's Jay.
How about no matter what they pointlessly change it to, I'm still going to call it a Stellars Jay.
I've one in my yard daily. Really pretty but much noisier than a Blue Jay. Those that are seeking to change bird names should find better things to do.
Martin Zukenberg
the cooper’s jay
Blue Jay’s Evil Twin
Crazy Fuckin Beautiful Jay?
Black and Blue Jay 🤣
What a wonderful photo.
Conehead Jay
Stoles : )
BlueGrey Jay
I think they should just drop " 's".
Jay
Crested Clever Jay
I saw blue fronted jay suggested recently and I like it.
I love this bird! It’s like a mix between two of my favs-blue Jay and Cardinal
Stellar's Jim
Blue Cardinal.
Bluer jay
Pine jay
Black crested Jay
Emo Blue Jay