Thursday, March 15, 2018

Great Blue Heron or great blue heron?


Last week, Daughter #2 and I went for a walk along a bridge over a marsh. Daughter #2 spotted a Great Blue Heron. It was a cold, blustery day but that didn't seem to bother the heron. I was lucky enough to get this photo before he flew away to the safety of a tall tree. 

Later, in looking up the habits, diet, and other particulars about bird, I noticed that most references did not use capital letters for the name of the species though some did. Hmmm. 


The Great Blue Heron is a magnificent bird. Shouldn't his name be capitalized? I found a blog post, http://penelopedia.blogspot.com/2010/12/bird-names-to-capitalize-or-not.html, which went into great detail concerning this topic. The truth is some folks do not capitalize bird names, but the International Ornithologist's Union is of the firm opinion that bird names should be capitalized. 


So I'm with the International Ornithologist's Union. Give this amazing bird capital letters for his name. 



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