American Ornithological Society
United States ornithological organization
The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its members are primarily professional ornithologists, although membership is open to anyone with an interest in birds. The society publishes the two scholarly journals, Ornithology (formerly The Auk) and Ornithological Applications (formerly The Condor) as well as the AOS Checklist of North American Birds. The American Ornithological Society claims the authority to establish standardized English bird names throughout North and South Americas.
In 2013, the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) announced a collaboration with the Cooper Ornithological Society, streamlining operations through joint meetings, a shared publishing office, and a reorientation of their journals. By October 2016, the AOU ceased its independent status, merging with the Cooper Ornithological Society to establish the unified American Ornithological Society.
History
The American Ornithologists' Union was founded in 1883. Three members of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, Elliott Coues, J. A. Allen, and William Brewster, sent letters to 48 prominent ornithologists inviting them "to attend a Convention of American Ornithologists, to be held in New York City, beginning on September 26, 1883, for the purpose of founding an American Ornithologists' Union, upon a basis similar to that of the "British Ornithologists' Union." The addressees were selected mainly because of their "scientific standing, but somewhat with regard to geographical representation, it being desirable to make the gathering as catholic and non-sectional as possible." Twenty-five responded to the letter and 21 were present at the first meeting.
The founding convention was held in the library of the American Museum of Natural History on September 26, 1883.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “American Ornithological Society” as united States ornithological organization. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as united States ornithological organization. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q465985. VIAF identifies the subject as 127152988. The Library of Congress control number is n50063586. Authority coordinates are 41.866, -87.617. 6 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2016, 2013 and 1883.
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This entry incorporates text from “American Ornithological Society” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.