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What Bird Names Would You Change? (1 Viewer)

chris butterworth said:
Chris

Oh, and change Chickadee to Tit in line with the rest of the world ( I know those in the colonies consider the word Tit to mean only one thing - or two - but, come on. We are all adults now - aren't we??????? )

C

I'm not including myself in that last statement, by the way ;)

C
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Chris,

Only if you people in Palearctic are willing to change your 'divers' to 'loons'...

Carlos
 
Peregrine falcon - why not just peregrine?
Semipalmated sandpiper and plover - everyone calls them semi sand/sandpiper and semi plover, something shorter is needed
Red-bellied woodpecker - So many people call them red-headed woodpecker, maybe zebra woodpecker
Caspian Tern - found on every continent!
All the species named for a single location - philadelphia vireo, a bunch of warblers
American redstart- American orangestart
 
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Reuven_M said:
Semipalmated sandpiper and plover - everyone calls them semi sand/sandpiper and semi plover, something shorter is needed
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Webbed Sandpiper / Plover? A bit over the top for those barely visible webs, but that's one way of recognising them... (Half-webbed sounds decidedly odd).
 
bkrownd said:
'red-bellied woodpecker' should be renamed 'red-capped' or 'vermillion-capped' woodpecker. On the lighter side, 'kinglets' should be renamed 'cuties' - e.g. ruby-crowned cutie. Japanese white-eye should be renamed 'tittering little cowardly bastards'.
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All good stuff, but 'vermilion' surely - nothing to do with 7-digit numbers...:-O
MJB
 
I absolutely agree with Richard regarding those evocative eponyms.

I've always disliked 'Accentor' and would replace it with 'Dunnock' for all except Alpine Accentor.

As for 'Common' I'm not convinced with the proposed link to common land as suggested by Hotspur. Common also has the meaning 'ordinary' or even 'undistinguished' and I think this is the meaning here rather than 'frequent.
 
John Cantelo said:
I've always disliked 'Accentor' and would replace it with 'Dunnock' for all except Alpine Accentor.

As for 'Common' I'm not convinced with the proposed link to common land as suggested by Hotspur. Common also has the meaning 'ordinary' or even 'undistinguished' and I think this is the meaning here rather than 'frequent.
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I like the Dunnock idea, why not for Alpine though?

And lets replace "Common" with "Pleb" in all cases.;)

James
 
chris butterworth said:
OK............................ but.................... Sparrows are Passer, Warblers are Old World, Blackbirds are Turdus merula and................. ;););)

Chris
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Ok, so we'll call our sparrows buntings... however, we get to keep using warblers because... well, quite frankly... ours are so much nicer. So the old world birds get to be 'Sylvias' or 'Acros' or whatever you are already calling them. Plus, all your warblers are a heterogeneous hodgepodge of different bird families, anyways, so it makes perfect sense to me to make a big rehaul.

Don't you like the ring of Dartford Sylvia or Clamorous Reed-Acro or even Cetti's Cettia?

Carlos
 
John Cantelo said:
As for 'Common' I'm not convinced with the proposed link to common land as suggested by Hotspur. Common also has the meaning 'ordinary' or even 'undistinguished' and I think this is the meaning here rather than 'frequent.
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My understanding has always been that "Common Gull" & "Common Sandpiper" were so named because, unlike most other gulls and sandpipers in the UK, they were "common" inland as well as on the coast.
 
There was a time when Lear's Macaw was changed to the blander Indigo Macaw, i'm glad to see it's been changed back!

Same with Chestnut-eared Finch for Zebra Finch which has again been changed back now the Timor subspecies has been re-lumped with the Australian subspecies.
 
fugl said:
My understanding has always been that "Common Gull" & "Common Sandpiper" were so named because, unlike most other gulls and sandpipers in the UK, they were "common" inland as well as on the coast.
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I think that's right.

I have to say that 'Common Gull' is not the most apt name, but it is far better than the plain ugly 'Mew Gull'!
 
jacana said:
I think that's right.

I have to say that 'Common Gull' is not the most apt name, but it is far better than the plain ugly 'Mew Gull'!
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Agreed not a very euphonious name, but it is an interesting one, since "mew" is simply an archaic word for "gull". "Mew Gull", therefore, equals "Gull Gull", i.e. the "ordinary" or "common" gull, the one that most people not living on the coast saw most frequently. I for one would be very sad to see quirky names of this sort disappear, however "ugly".
 
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