Incorrect bird names (1 Viewer)

[Zheljko]

Not in English, but we also have problems specifying bird names to beginner or one-time birders.
Wood Pigeon (golub grivnaš) has the most commonly misunderstood name. It should mean "pigeon wearing wrist jewelry" of traditional kind nobody wears anymore, so it gets misunderstood as grivaš "having a mane". Redstart translates as "redtail" which seems easy enough but due to similarity of words for fin and feather it always becomes "redfin" the first time (people think crvenperka means red feather when it actually means red fin, and it is a valid name for a small red-finned river fish).

On the personal level, I type in my field notes in remarks on my cell phone, and if I type too fast that combination of strokes gives a different letter, for example ut becomes v, so today I had gugv (gugvka instead of gugutka for collared dove) and žvon (žvonogi galeb instead of žutonogi for yellow-legged gull). Also detlić (GSW) becomes ftlič more often than not.

 

[Ian Lewis]

A friend I travelled with many years ago referred to 'Icy Globis' and 'Fragnificent Maggotbirds'.

One woman on my trip to Southern Argentina years ago thought that the adjective 'austral' in a bird's name was in fact 'awful' (e.g Austral Parakeet) Imagine the fun we had when we found the next flight was on 'Austral Airlines'

I have heard many, many mispronunciations of bird names, both accidental and deliberate, but I can't recall them all at the moment. Maybe later.

ian

 

[West End Birder]

Goodness me, I've started an International thread!

Most amusing, thanks.

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

I'm reminded of another few:

On the first birding tour I went on the guide told us a story about a client who called phalaropes "Fart-a-farps." That name always stuck with me. He also told me the same client called ptarmigans "Pipsquacks" but that one didn't take for me.

On a trip to Kenya a few years ago we started calling Augur Buzzards "awful buggers" because every raptor we saw was just another buzzard.

I also think of scoters as "scooters" because I mis-read the field guide when I first started out. Now it's just fun to call them that.

 

[West End Birder]

In the US on holiday we always called them Turkey Twizzlers after that horrid Bernard Matthews food

 

[Dave Ball]

I've always liked the bird which feeds by hammering its bill into custard tarts - the Green Pudwrecker

 

[Sangahyando]

For 'Lion Buzzard', read Buitre Leonardo. That's the Spanish name for a griffon vulture.

Shouldn't it be "Buitre leonado", though, without the r?

On a similar note, one of my bird guides is a translation of an English book on (Western) European birds. Apparently, the translator was unfamiliar with most, if not all, European bird names, which means that many "German" bird names in the books are actually literal translations of their respective English names. The same thing keeps happening in German newspapers - they just can't seem to bother with research regarding species names. Nearly all of them are wrong nowadays, even really basic stuff such as polar bears (being called "Polarbär" instead of the correct term Eisbär). A few months ago, there's been a piece in a major German newspaper on the "afro-siberian Knot" stopping further excavation of the Elbe river. I don't even know where those morons got the "afro-siberian" part of the name from and what it's supposed to mean, but they refused to change it.

 

[Barred Wobbler]

Shouldn't it be "Buitre leonado", though, without the r?

On a similar note, one of my bird guides is a translation of an English book on (Western) European birds. Apparently, the translator was unfamiliar with most, if not all, European bird names, which means that many "German" bird names in the books are actually literal translations of their respective English names. The same thing keeps happening in German newspapers - they just can't seem to bother with research regarding species names. Nearly all of them are wrong nowadays, even really basic stuff such as polar bears (being called "Polarbär" instead of the correct term Eisbär). A few months ago, there's been a piece in a major German newspaper on the "afro-siberian Knot" stopping further excavation of the Elbe river. I don't even know where those morons got the "afro-siberian" part of the name from and what it's supposed to mean, but they refused to change it.

You're right. I wasn't checking my spelling as I typed.

 

[Lamp64]

When I was coaching kids rugby a few years ago a number of birders suddenly arrived and started viewing the golf course across the road. I sent a couple of the under 12s to see what they were watching. A few minutes later they rushed back to tell me that they had been watching Winston"s Fanny Rope, shortest twitch i've ever been on!

 

[robinm]

I recall from an old BF thread someone saying he was once mistaken for saying a bird was a Grape Lover.

 

[Nightjar61]

Grady gret for Great Egret.

Dave

 

[Larry Lade]

The best one I have heard was the "Red-bellied Goosebeak" for "Rose-breasted Grosbeak"!

 

[robinm]

I knew I'd find it eventually - http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=66751

 

[punkskaphil]

On my first birding tour abroad the guide (English wasn't his first language) mentioned a Reeded Beardling. I was too new to birding at the time to understand why everybody was having a good chuckle about it.

 

[Nutcracker]

Worst of all because it appears in so many official lists . . .

"Cinereous Vulture" for [Eurasian] Black Vulture.

'Cinereous' means ash-coloured, i.e., pale greyish-white, NOT black. Totally wrong for this bird.

The cause is a US imperialist who decided that Europe's Black Vulture had to be renamed so that they could keep 'Black Vulture' for their bird. But they didn't know their Latin and mixed up cineraceus (ash-coloured) with fuligineus (soot-coloured). Why do we have to put up with this?? :storm:

 

[Sangahyando]

Worst of all because it appears in so many official lists . . .

"Cinereous Vulture" for [Eurasian] Black Vulture.

'Cinereous' means ash-coloured, i.e., pale greyish-white, NOT black. Totally wrong for this bird.

The cause is a US imperialist who decided that Europe's Black Vulture had to be renamed so that they could keep 'Black Vulture' for their bird. But they didn't know their Latin and mixed up cineraceus (ash-coloured) with fuligineus (soot-coloured). Why do we have to put up with this?? :storm:

Yeah and a couple others. I've noticed that the Collins guide, of all things, uses weird English names that seem to be a random mix of the respective British and American names ("Great Northern Loon", anyone?). It also adds random "Eurasian" or "European" prefixes to the traditional English names of common birds.

 

[string boozel]

A friend if mine met a couple in Canada who were apparently watching Fal-a-ro-pees instead of Phalaropes, I think that I prefer their version.

James.

 

[Larry Lade]

One time coming home from birding I mentioned to my wife that I had seen three Eared Grebes. Somewhat astonished, my wife asked in all seriousness, "Where was the third ear?" Confusion comes in many guises!

 

[MJB]

One time coming home from birding I mentioned to my wife that I had seen three Eared Grebes. Somewhat astonished, my wife asked in all seriousness, "Where was the third ear?" Confusion comes in many guises!

Your wife wasn't a fan of Burns and Allen by any chance, was she? Say Goodnight Gracie!
MJB

 

[Phil Andrews]

One time coming home from birding I mentioned to my wife that I had seen three Eared Grebes. Somewhat astonished, my wife asked in all seriousness, "Where was the third ear?" Confusion comes in many guises!

If you Americans had stuck to Black-necked none of this would ever have happened