Great Northern Loon?!

[Matthew Strimas-Mackey]

A recent Wikipedia search for Common Loon redirected me to Great Northen Loon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_loon

According to Wikipedia:

The species is known as a Common Loon in North America and the Great Northern Diver in Eurasia, its current name is a compromise proposed by the International Ornithological Committee.

Anyone have any further information regarding this name change? Is it new? My understanding is that we tend to use the AOU names here and I think they still call the bird Common Loon. Does IOC overrule AOU?

In any case, considering Common Loons breed almost entirely in Canada I don't see why we should be compromising with the Eurasian name.

I'd love to hear others thoughts on this and on differences in common bird names between the various governing bodies in general.

[GStuart]

We can avoid all common name problems entirely if we can just remember the Latin.  

Gavia immer it is, then...

[Matthew Strimas-Mackey]

Yes, I know that that is one benefit of Latin names. TheY also more useful for understanding relationships between species, e.g. knowing the scientific names tells us that there will be some similarity between Dendroica warblers. The reality, though, is that Latin names are rarely used except in specialized circumstances. Besides, Latin names have no flair.

I'm just curious if the next version of Sibley or Peterson's will list Great Northern Diver rather than Common Loon.