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What Bird Names Would You Change? (1 Viewer)

All of the New World robins (except for American and Rufous-backed) have been renamed thrushes, part of an AOU update a few years back.
 
Sandwich Tern and Dartford Warbler surely deserve a name change. After all these birds are not confined to Kent. Any suggestions?

Si.

I would throw Kentish Plover into the same mix - perhaps in a British context Dawlish Plover or Ferrybridge Plover is more appropriate.
 
The New World warblers could use an overhaul, especially all those species with misleading place names: Connecticut, Kentucky, Nashville, Tennessee, and Cape May Warblers. Some possible alternatives: Masked Warbler (Kentucky), Orange-cheeked Warbler (Cape May), Gray-hooded Warbler (Nashville), and Invisible Warbler (Connecticut) ;) Oh yes, and Louisiana Waterthrush- maybe Southern Waterthrush (meh, boring but accurate), River Warbler, Stream Warbler, etc.

And the Orange-crowned Warbler should be called the Drab Warbler. Or Field-markless Warbler :t: Prairie Warbler = Scrub Warbler. and Palm Warbler = anything else! maybe Spruce Warbler, Boreal Warbler, Rufous-capped Tail-pumper?

Of course this is all in good fun, a name is a name and not a description- however I do really dislike the recent name AOU name change of Common Moorhen following the split of the New World and Old World forms... Common Moorhen in the old, Common Gallinule in the new. Why? Seems unnecessarily confusing, why not just boring ol' American and Eurasian Moorhens? Or even American vs. Common Moorhens (since the "Eurasian" species also occurs in Africa).
 
After seeing a Purple Swamphen...not really the most fitting name for a bird at all.

Now to me that is a name that is not very flattering at all. How about Greater green backed Moorhen LOL

Never seen a purple bird yet LOL

Regards
Kathy
x
 
I will second that black-headed gull is probably the biggest misnomer in English. Chocolate-headed gull sounds like a good alternative (with a slight change to the proposal from D)

Once that has been accepted, we could then rename mediterranean gull to Black-headed, so that it fits with both the rest of Europe and with the scientific name ...

Niels
 
Ring-billed Duck for Ring-necked.

This. If you haven't seen a Ring-"necked" Duck, then let me say that near invisible brown neck collar is downright hard to see. Compared to the white bands on the bill, it's like trying a specific star in the sky.
I keep calling them Ring-billed by accident as well. Change the name and it will not be an accident anymore.

And Ovenbird, I don't think the Cape May would be the same with a name change! Nor would any of those others.
 
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Baldpate for American Wigeon. Much more interesting than the boring (& shamelessly derivative) modern name.
Timberdoodle for American Woodcock. Infinitely more interesting etc etc.
 
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I'd prefer a return to the evocative eponyms that have been suppressed in several Eastern Palearctic species names...
  • Severtzov's (not Chinese) Grouse
  • Temminck's (not Japanese) Cormorant
  • Hume's Groundpecker (how can such a characterful species be reduced to 'Ground Tit'?!)
  • Severtzov's (not White-browed) Tit-warbler
  • Kozlov's (not Tibetan) Babax
  • Père David's (not Plain!) Laughingthrush
  • Sukatschev's (not Snowy-cheeked) Laughingthrush
  • Biet's (not White-speckled) Laughingthrush
  • Prince Henri's (not Brown-cheeked) Laughingthrush
  • Ludlow's (not Brown-throated) Fulvetta
  • Hodgson's (not White-throated) Bushchat
  • Theresa's (not Afghan) Snowfinch
  • Adams's (not Tibetan) Snowfinch
  • Roborovski's (not Tibetan) Rosefinch
  • Kozlov's (not Tibetan) Bunting
 
Probably change Shag to something else - on the few occasions I've mentioned its name to non-birder friends, there's normally followed up lots of bad jokes!
 
I would really like to rename pretty much every North American bird with AMERICA in front of it.
American Robin
American Crow
American Coot
American Wigeon
American Black Duck
American White Pelican
American Kestrel
American Oystercatcher
American Avocet
American Woodcock
American Tree Sparrow
American Goldfinch

and any others I may have missed........if the name is taken use something besides American as a descriptor!

And anything with Common in its name that I have yet to see.............must not be too common then.
 
I found out this thread very interesting, but be careful to change names of birds. In Spanish they have recently changed some names and now there are horrible names for many birds like Dupont's Lark and Common Buzzard that are difficult to say and remember or are simply ugly names.
Some species of birds named as "common" are not really as their name says, so it is interesting to renamed them.
From my point of view. It is already hard to know every name in English, so please don't change so many of them... I'll have to study them again!!

www.barcelonabirdingpoint.com
 
I would really like to rename pretty much every North American bird with AMERICA in front of it.
American Robin
American Crow
American Coot
American Wigeon
American Black Duck
American White Pelican
American Kestrel
American Oystercatcher
American Avocet
American Woodcock
American Tree Sparrow
American Goldfinch

and any others I may have missed........if the name is taken use something besides American as a descriptor!

And anything with Common in its name that I have yet to see.............must not be too common then.

Why is using 'American' such a bad descriptor for some of these really 'classic' North American species? Should we also change all birds that are named after a continent? 'Australian' or 'Asian' etc.

Carlos
 
I think people are getting it all wrong with those species called common or garden. Common orignally was not as in plentiful but birds of the common - ie the Common Gulls that were paddling for worms on the common land used to graze wildfowl. Obviously this has later been corrupted for other species for the most regularly occuring. Garden doesnt relate to your garden or my garden but his lordships gardens where the species was first discovered i.e. garden warbler. All makes sense!
 
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