The names of some birds in Swedish have been changed by the Swedish Ornithological Society over concerns that they could sound racist.
The society has just compiled a complete list of bird names. Its employees have been receiving numerous questions from translators and bird watchers, who want to know the exact names of birds.
"We haven't had an official list of what all the birds in the world are called in Swedish until now, we just had an unofficial list put together about 10 years ago," Anders Wirdheim from the Swedish Ornithological Society told the Local. “We decided to compile a list and while we were doing that we decided to change the names of any birds that could have stirred up a debate,” he added.
Among the rechristened birds are all which include the word ‘’neger’’ (negro), for instance negerfinken. They changed it to the Swedish “svart,” meaning “black.”
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