birdboybowley
Well-known member.....apparently so ;)
Mew Gull is N American species, now split from our Common, so in this case not a good illustrative point.
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What Bird Names Would You Change? (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter bongofury
- Start date
Ben88
Well-known member
Golden Swamp Warbler is a much better name for Prothonotary Warbler. It describes the bird perfectly, and it's what Audubon called it. The etymology of the current name is confusing: http://birdaz.com/blog/2013/03/07/the-prothonotary-warbler-you-sure-about-that/.
Interesting article--thanks for the link. But why on earth anyone would wish to get rid of a name with such a fascinating history escapes me. Who cares if the etymology is "confusing"?
LabradorDuck
Well-known member
Agreed. "Golden Swamp Warbler" seems too long for a name, anyway. For some reason, I find two-word names optimal in most cases. One-word names sound like they should either be colloquial terms or broad categories, while three-word names sound clunky and over the top (hyphens help sometimes, but not always). Two-word names are usually just right. Is this leakage from the Latin nomenclature, or is it really just some Goldilocks thing?
Interesting, but is it as matter of how the name sounds or of how it looks on the page? "Pileated Woodpecker" (2 words, 6 syllables) vs "Golden Swamp Warbler" (3 words, 5 syllables)? As for one-word names, some of them are among my favorites: "Sanderling", for example, and "Dunlin", evocative as they are of sandy beaches and muddy foreshores. And then there are "Ruff" and "Smew" and "Goosander", wonderful names all in their different ways.
Robert Wallace
Well-known member
The good news is that by and large we ignore change. Who in the UK uses barn swallow, Northern Gannet etc ...? I was amused when Bryan Nelson an ornithologist that I greatly respect and admire, produced after many years a second edition of "The Gannet" and renamed it "Atlantic Gannet" in contrast to "Northern Gannet" the latest name in the field guides.
Me? I still call lapwings, peewits and little grebes, dabchicks! The latter in respect of Enid Blyton.
I think Bald Eagle is a demeaning name for such a magnificent bird. Something like Imperial White-crowned Eagle would be more fitting.
Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com
Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com
Geoff WORCS
Well-known member
mippits ! mippits ! what muppet came up with that !
Something with "Imperial" in its name, is just what we don't need as our national symbol at this point in our history. Besides, it would be such a cliche, an "imperial eagle" of one kind or another having been the symbol of half the empires of Europe from Roman times onwards.
I agree. It's a fine name.
Richard Klim
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But it's not a 'true' eagle. 'Bald Fish-scavenger' would be more accurate.
Only joking - I don't want to spoil the US-UK special relationship.
I'd call a Great Tit a Green Tit just because its almost a green bird
david kelly
Drive-by Birder
But it's not a 'true' eagle. 'Bald Fish-scavenger' would be more accurate.
Only joking - I don't want to spoil the US-UK special relationship.
Actually, I think Jefferson shared your disdain and wanted the Wild Turkey as the symbol of the newly fledged United States.
David
It was Franklin not Jefferson and much as I admire the man I'm not at all unhappy that he lost that one!
chris butterworth
aka The Person Named Above
But it's not a 'true' eagle. 'Bald Fish-scavenger' would be more accurate.
Only joking - I don't want to spoil the US-UK special relationship.
Vulturine Sea-eagle?
Chris
Hang on. It's an American bird so ...... Condoresque Sea-eagle. Descriptive, places it in the correct group of raptors and fulfills the N. American need for newly minted words.
c
Hang on 2. In line with words like 'mollusk' etc it would be 'Condoresk'
c
MJB
Well-known member
Perhaps it was no coincidence that in the USA in the 1930s when an aircraft prototype was produced and the test pilot thought it handled badly, he would say "It's a Turkey" (in its flying ability)...?:eek!:
MJB
Richard Klim
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MJB
Well-known member
Yeah, Seen them in several states. it's generous of those with delusions of grandeur or with superiority complexes to identify themselves so publicly - it enables the rest of us to keep well out of their way. I wonder if there is such a thing as a scope sticker with messages like that?:t:
MJB
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