As a current technical editor and a ex-English professor,
I'd like to put in a brief word about the rule of capitalizing
bird names.

Scott Richardson has it just right: the RULE is the house
style of the publication you are interested in. If the
publication's editors don't have a preference, then you
can choose to capitalize bird names in the AOU style or not.
But be consistent. Editors work themselves up about lapses
of consistency.

I've just scanned back issues of _Natural History_ and
_Audubon_. Neither periodical uses capitals for bird names.
I, on the other hand, like to think of the established English
names as proper names. It's a purely personal and aesthetic
preference, but I like the look on the page of *Yellow Warbler*
rather than *yellow warbler.*

--Cheers, Jim Lyles
jrlyles at maildwatcm.wr.usgs.gov