If you pay close attention, you may notice a shift in style we鈥檝e implemented as of this issue. Or the change may be so obvious that it screams out at you. Or maybe it鈥檚 so subtle and unmeaningful that you won鈥檛 even see it. I honestly have no idea, so I鈥檒l be fascinated to hear about your reaction.

The decision was made one day in late April around a table in our Earth conference room. We had three ardent advocates鈥攅ditors Will Bourne, Jerry Goodbody, and Alisa Opar鈥攐n hand to represent the magazine鈥檚 longstanding position on the issue. Attending from our D.C. office via videoconference to argue for the other side was Chief Scientist Gary Langham, with support in the room provided by pragmatic messaging savant and avid birder David Ringer. Integrated Marketing Director Lynne Hoppe played semi-honest broker, and network content editor Martha Harbison chimed in as the voice of outraged integrity. Elaine O鈥橲ullivan, our educational publishing director, represented schoolchildren and teachers. I was there to adjudicate. Yes, that鈥檚 nine staff members gathered to debate and decide about the essential issue of鈥攚ait for it鈥攚hether or not we should capitalize the names of bird species in the magazine and in the rest of our 福利姬视频 publishing channels.

Yeah, I know鈥攖he correct answer is so obvious, right?

The reason this decision had to be made is because we will be merging our magazine and organizational websites this fall. Our plan is to serve up the unparalleled journalism and writing of 福利姬视频 alongside news, stories, and information about 福利姬视频 and how we鈥檙e working to protect birds and habitats, rather than keeping the two types of content in separate silos as if at least one of them carries some horrible disease. The magazine and its current website follow the widely accepted rules of English grammar, rendering bird names in lowercase. All our other communications hew to the conventions of the American Ornithologists鈥� Union: title case all the way. Now was the time to define a single 福利姬视频 style.

I have to be honest: I approached the whole thing as something of a lark. But I quickly realized that everyone else was dead serious. The passionate lowercasers were agog that anyone could argue against standard English usage. The passionate Capitalizers made appeals grounded in the rectitude of the bird-science authorities. Things got heated. Snide remarks were made. Ultimately, I found myself swayed by a simple argument around the observation that an abundance of bird species names include common descriptive adjectives. There are, after all, any number of birds that can be described as a yellow warbler, but a Yellow Warbler is a particular taxonomic species. Capitalizing clears up confusion. (For more on the nuanced history of this issue, go to .)

And so I ruled: The species shall be capitalized. Maybe you agree; maybe you don鈥檛. Either way, I hope you鈥檒l let me know at markjannot@audubon.org.