ARE SCIENTIFIC NAMES PERMANENT?
Unfortunately for us, even scientific names are not always absolutely unchanging and undebatable. For example, during recent years specialists lumped two bird species, the Yellow-shafted Flicker and the Red-shafted Flicker, into one species. Before the two flickers were lumped, the Red-shafted Flicker’s scientific name was Colaptes cafer. Now that it is considered the same species as the Yellow-shafted Flicker, it is known as Colaptes auratus, which was the Yellow-shafted Flicker’s name all along. The Yellow-shafted Flicker’s name was chosen for both because it was published first. At this early stage, don’t worry too much about scientific names. Just know that they exist, notice them in your field guide, and be ready to use them if you ever become really serious about knowing any particular group of plants or animals — especially if you travel to other lands, where common names will be almost useless.
