Birds Named After People

This is a list of birds found in North America north of Mexico that are named after someone, usually a famous ornithologist or other naturalist. Most of these names are simple possessives, but a few are unusual, such as Inca Dove (mistakenly named for the Incas of South America as opposed to the Aztec of Mexico), Montezuma Quail (for the Aztec leader), and Blackburnian Warbler (seemingly color-related, but actually named for a pre-American Revolution British naturalist, Anna Blackburn). Among the hummingbirds, the Calliope (our smallest bird) is named for one of the muses of ancient Greek mythology, and the Lucifer Hummingbird is technically named for its radiant throat color, but misreadings of the Bible turned the name into a shorthand for the Devil, so I've included it here.

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