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Longest and shortest IOC bird names (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter rylirk
- Start date
There's one in my avatar that's shorter than those!
James Jobling
Well-known member
Griseotyrannus aurantioatrocristatus.
Jim LeNomenclatoriste
Je suis un mignon petit Traquet rubicole
Markus Lagerqvist
Well-known member
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StuartReeves
Local rarity
Jim LeNomenclatoriste
Je suis un mignon petit Traquet rubicole
What's Ou ?
Per wikipedia:
The ʻōʻū (pronounced [ˈʔoːʔuː][2]) (Psittirostra psittacea), is a species of Hawaiian honeycreeper
The bird is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being critically endangered, but there are no recent records, and it may be extinct.
Markus has it.
Shortest:
Emu 3
Kea 3
Tui 3
Mao 3
Ou 2
Longest (by number of characters):
Prigogine's Double-collared Sunbird 35
Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher 33
Black-and-white Shrike-flycatcher 33
Rufous-vented Paradise Flycatcher 33
Middendorff's Grasshopper Warbler 33
Fulvous-chested Jungle Flycatcher 33
Streak-breasted Jungle Flycatcher 33
Chestnut-bellied Mountain Tanager 33
Black-and-chestnut Warbling Finch 33
Prigogine's Double-collared Sunbird is still the longest even if you only count letters.
Shortest:
Emu 3
Kea 3
Tui 3
Mao 3
Ou 2
Longest (by number of characters):
Prigogine's Double-collared Sunbird 35
Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher 33
Black-and-white Shrike-flycatcher 33
Rufous-vented Paradise Flycatcher 33
Middendorff's Grasshopper Warbler 33
Fulvous-chested Jungle Flycatcher 33
Streak-breasted Jungle Flycatcher 33
Chestnut-bellied Mountain Tanager 33
Black-and-chestnut Warbling Finch 33
Prigogine's Double-collared Sunbird is still the longest even if you only count letters.
mark clements
New member
what about one I have heard all of my life:
quick get the guidebook its over there in that bush small brownish and oh its flown away now
still dont know its binomial :t:
but seriously I had just typed in emu as my 3 letter marvel when I found out about Ou
H
quick get the guidebook its over there in that bush small brownish and oh its flown away now
still dont know its binomial :t:
but seriously I had just typed in emu as my 3 letter marvel when I found out about Ou
H
Snapdragyn
Well-known member
The name "Ou" is only shortest because of the Anglocentric refusal to recognize the glottal stop as a sound and the 'okina as a letter. The proper spelling should be 'O'u, for four letters (yes, letters), leaving a tie between the 3-letter names for proper winner.
Sangahyando
Well-known member
Alternatively you could come up with an English name for the species.
PS pretty sure the shortest scientific species name is Ia io. It's not a bird, though.
As James stated, Griseotyrannus aurantioatrocristatus takes the prize for longest latin name. Only 1 character longer than the Prigogine's Double-collared Sunbird
Crowned Slaty Flycatcher Griseotyrannus aurantioatrocristatus 36
Silver Gull Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae 31
Strong-billed Woodcreeper Xiphocolaptes promeropirhynchus 31
Red-billed Scythebill Campylorhamphus trochilirostris 31
Cactus Wren Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus 31
There are 12 latin names with only 9 characters in, mostly European birds, interestingly enough:
Alagoas Curassow Mitu mitu 9
Red-footed Booby Sula sula 9
Corn Crake Crex crex 9
Common Crane Grus grus 9
Little Auk Alle alle 9
Western Barn Owl Tyto alba 9
Eurasian Eagle-Owl Bubo bubo 9
Cinnabar Boobook Ninox ios 9
Long-eared Owl Asio otus 9
Common Swift Apus apus 9
Scarlet Macaw Ara macao 9
Eurasian Magpie Pica pica 9
Crowned Slaty Flycatcher Griseotyrannus aurantioatrocristatus 36
Silver Gull Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae 31
Strong-billed Woodcreeper Xiphocolaptes promeropirhynchus 31
Red-billed Scythebill Campylorhamphus trochilirostris 31
Cactus Wren Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus 31
There are 12 latin names with only 9 characters in, mostly European birds, interestingly enough:
Alagoas Curassow Mitu mitu 9
Red-footed Booby Sula sula 9
Corn Crake Crex crex 9
Common Crane Grus grus 9
Little Auk Alle alle 9
Western Barn Owl Tyto alba 9
Eurasian Eagle-Owl Bubo bubo 9
Cinnabar Boobook Ninox ios 9
Long-eared Owl Asio otus 9
Common Swift Apus apus 9
Scarlet Macaw Ara macao 9
Eurasian Magpie Pica pica 9
dantheman
Bah humbug
Thought there were American English names already - a bit of controversy though??
--
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_evening_bat
What does the latin actually mean though? - presumably it can't just be nonsense, even if it was named thus as a bit of fun.
MJB
Well-known member
Now if one argues that a space is an absence of a character, all your selection totals should read 8...
MJB
Sangahyando
Well-known member
I guess. I just thought it's a bit much to ask of English speakers to abide by Polynesian spelling when conversing in what is (supposedly) English. Might as well demand the proper Umlauts in every loanword from German, Turkish, Hungarian, Swedish... or the spelling of Arabic words with a "3" to represent the 'ain (to which, I guess, the letter Snapdragyn was alluding to is identical).
Io is a mythological figure and also a moon of Jupiter named after said character (which I'm guessing you already knew).
edit - apparently Ia with a long "a" is Ancient Greek for "voice" or "scream".
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dantheman
Bah humbug
Cheers, I did know that many moons ago (
), but had forgotten. And moon-scream pretty appropriate for a bat, I guess it could be argued.There was a thread on here a year or two back about the Hawaiian bird names - if no-one comes up with it I might try later. Basically - I think it was that because people couldn't learn or remember the names, they were essentially not being given appropriate conservation coverage on mainland USA because no-one could relate to them ... hence the proposed English names?
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James Jobling
Well-known member
The "Moon-scream" Bat.
"Ia, a young woman of classical times. Like many women of those times a bat is essentially flighty. This name, which seems to have been selected chiefly on account of its brevity, is the shortest one ever applied to a mammal." (Palmer 1904, Index Generum Mammalium, Pt. I, p. 345).
"Ia, a young woman of classical times. Like many women of those times a bat is essentially flighty. This name, which seems to have been selected chiefly on account of its brevity, is the shortest one ever applied to a mammal." (Palmer 1904, Index Generum Mammalium, Pt. I, p. 345).
Larry Sweetland
Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
We've lost a couple of good'uns, now called different things, eg
Chinese Rusty-cheeked Scimitar Babbler
Lesser Scaly-breasted Wren Babbler
Chinese Rusty-cheeked Scimitar Babbler
Lesser Scaly-breasted Wren Babbler
