NYC Audubon Society announces name change. Here's why.
NEW YORK -- The NYC Audubon Society has a new name. The group will now go by the NYC Bird Alliance.
The board of directors voted in March 2023 to drop "Audubon" from its name, and the organization chose from 250 suggestions.
The New York City chapter now joins dozens of others across the country that have made the switch from "Audubon Society" to "Bird Alliance."
"Our new name reflects a commitment to inclusion that is authentic to who we are as an organization. Our name is changing, but our commitment to bird conservation is not. The perils faced by birds—from habitat loss and climate change to collisions with buildings and threats from rodenticide—are enormous; it will take all of us to advocate and act on their behalf," the organization said in a statement. "As NYC Bird Alliance, we will continue to build the work and impact that has made a difference for birds in our city for more than four decades. We believe that our new name will invite even more New Yorkers to join us, and make us even more effective in our work."
Who was James Audubon?
The 19th Century naturalist and illustrator John James Audubon rose to fame through paintings he created of wild birds in the 1820s and '30s. But he also owned, sold and bought slaves and held racist views against Black and Indigenous people.
The New York City chapter voted to drop his name over concerns his racist legacy was holding the group back from reaching a broader, more diverse community.
"Once you know about John James Audubon's past, you can't un-know it," NYC Chapter President Karen Benfield told CBS New York last year.
Avid bird watcher Christian Cooper, who experienced a a racist encounter while birding in Central Park back in 2020, has been a Society board member for nearly a decade. He previously said the decision to change the name is a step in the right direction.
"As a Black person, you find out that a society is named after someone who owned slaves, who made their living selling slaves, who defiled Indigenous graves, who was a promoter of slavery and racism, that's not exactly an inducement for you to get involved in that organization, and that's the problem," Cooper said last year. "We are trying to reach out to diverse communities of all sorts in all five boroughs -- Black people, Latino people, Asian people, white people, rich people, poor people."
During our May 2023 interview, Benfield said there were no people of color on the chapter's board in 2015, but they represented 40% of the board, with a goal of getting to 50% by 2025.
Meanwhile, the National Audubon Society has voted to keep the Audubon name.