Avian misnomers (1 Viewer)

[alanc]

40 Spot Pardalote
Wikipedia. The wings are black with white tips, appearing as many (closer to 60 than 40) discrete dots when the wings are folded

This seems to me to be over-complicated nonsense. Given it's current range, what's wrong with a simple "Tasmanian Perdalote"?

cheers alan

 

[opisska]

Yeah, the problem isn't necessarily to few spots, but either too few or too many, depending on what counts as "spot". We loved the name though, it's fun to say and it contributed to our willingness to look for it! Incidentally, we saw it before its close relative, the Spotted Pardalote, which however is also a little sub-optimal, as being 40-spotted is also being spotted, right? So that should be something like "at most 39 or at least 41"-spotted Pardalote?!

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

Semipalmated Plover and Sandpiper; surely the webs are much less than half sized!

 

[pianoman]

Turtle Doves look nothing like Turtles.

LOL I assumed it was because some of their markings were Tortoiseshell-like if you squint

 

[pianoman]

Garden Warbler, Blackcap (female), maybe Black Kite and Bluetit are also pushing it a bit.

I heard that Blue Tit comes from "Bleue-tete" in that its head is blue (well the crown anyway). I can hear the QI klaxon sounding...

 

[Th. Stegmann]

Have we actually looked at the name Sandwich Tern yet?

Ok, named after the type location: Sandwich, Kent, UK and therefore probably scientifically named T. sandvicensis. Which is again very confusing, as all other XY. sandvicensis-birds are named after their distribution on Hawaii (formerly Sandwich Island), where the Sandwich Tern is not even remotely found.

Not to mention that nowadays probably 99.9% of the people get an appetite when they hear the word "sandwich" rather than thinking of a small place in the south of England.

With one slice of bread less and if the Tern were described in the German Wadden Sea, where it breeds, it would probably now be called "Butterbrot Tern"... 🤪

 

[MJB]

Could it be that the reason that so many English names of birds were 'stabilised' in the late 19th- to early 20th-century have anything to do with the 'Stabilisers' being familiar with Lewis Carroll's** 1871 Through the Looking Glass?

' "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all." '

Discuss
MJB
**Aka Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

 

[opisska]

Not to mention that nowadays probably 99.9% of the people get an appetite when they hear the word "sandwich" rather than thinking of a small place in the south of England.

We go birding mostly hungry, because it's typically early in the morning and we aren't wasting sleep by making breakfast. The dreamy looks and a sigh of "sandwich" upon seeing the respective tern have become basically compulsory

 

[alanc]

We go birding mostly hungry, because it's typically early in the morning and we aren't wasting sleep by making breakfast. The dreamy looks and a sigh of "sandwich" upon seeing the respective tern have become basically compulsory

Thank God we don't see a Bacon Blackbird or Sausage Swift

Now up to #49

 

[Farnboro John]

Have we actually looked at the name Sandwich Tern yet?

Ok, named after the type location: Sandwich, Kent, UK and therefore probably scientifically named T. sandvicensis. Which is again very confusing, as all other XY. sandvicensis-birds are named after their distribution on Hawaii (formerly Sandwich Island), where the Sandwich Tern is not even remotely found.

Not to mention that nowadays probably 99.9% of the people get an appetite when they hear the word "sandwich" rather than thinking of a small place in the south of England.

With one slice of bread less and if the Tern were described in the German Wadden Sea, where it breeds, it would probably now be called "Butterbrot Tern"... 🤪

Sandwich estate has an impressive list of rarities to its credit (not to mention a temporary population of Southern Emerald Damselflies a few years ago that some of us ticked) and is known to many British birders - also for its entry prices......

I guess we must thank our long line of amateur naturalists and aristocratic patrons for getting ahead of Germany in the describing and naming stakes!

John

 

[Th. Stegmann]

We go birding mostly hungry, because it's typically early in the morning and we aren't wasting sleep by making breakfast. The dreamy looks and a sigh of "sandwich" upon seeing the respective tern have become basically compulsory

Oh yes, you are absolutely right! I remember countless frustrating seawatch early mornings in the late 80s at the North Sea coast, where I had no breakfast, got rained on and blown through for hours in the cold without seeing anything exciting (except maybe Sandwich Terns...). The best part always was returning home and finally having an extended breakfast!

Ironically, the Sandwich Tern is called "Brandseeschwalbe" in German. Brand = fire, Seeschwalbe = Tern. Colloquially, in German "einen Brand haben" (to have a fire) means that you are very thirsty (!) (... for example after a spicy or salty meal).

Thus, one must distinguish: Watching Sandwich Terns leaves you either hungry or thirsty, depending on your native language. Nasty birds!

 

[ignicapilla]

Indigo bunting - much closer to blue than indigo
Goldcrest and Firecrest - pretty much the same colored crest

 

[Gladiator96]

Mute Swan

 

[Xenospiza]

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."

That describes me when I need to explain a technical issue with my car or bike in English or German.

One of the few birds that may be named after a partly German location is Pomarine Skua (the German and Polish names are better, because they probably know a sighting is unlikely there). So it fits nicely into this thread, as does Arctic Skua really...
(I really like the sound of the German name for the latter "Schmarotzerraubmöwe" [parasitic robber gull], but it is not optimal when you need to call it out when seawatching).

The Dutch names of the four northern skuas get my vote for being the least imaginative in the world: "great", "middle", "little" and "least"...

 

[Andy Adcock]

Thank God we don't see a Bacon Blackbird or Sausage Swift

Now up to #49

We'll have to settle for Edible-nest Swiftlet.

 

[jurek]

Could it be that the reason that so many English names of birds were 'stabilised' in the late 19th- to early 20th-century

It is interesting how creation of official lists of bird names and bird name commitees, or the stabilitzation, is harmful. It prevented the natural evolution of language towards shorter, easier and more logical names of birds. Which do exist and are used, but are called nicknames. In a normal field, these nicknames would become official bird names and factually wrong and clumsy names would become obsolete. Old bird names are not more worth preserving than anybody still trying to talk 19. century English. Bird names were made up at the time where ornithologists knew much less about birds, often studied only skins or copied other books.

So we are stuck with wrong names, like a bird occuring worldwide called Sandwich Tern, and long-forgotten cultural references, like Coal Tit, which is named after a 19. century cosmetics powder.

 

[Farnboro John]

We'll have to settle for Edible-nest Swiftlet.

Butcherbird?

John

 

[opisska]

Thank God we don't see a Bacon Blackbird or Sausage Swift

Now up to #49

Curlews and whimbrels are one letter from being "doughnuts" in Czech, which makes us consistently drool over them as well

 

[alanc]

54 so far............................


cheers alan

 

[Andy Adcock]

54 so far............................


cheers alan

To a starving birder, surley nothing is better than Muttonbird?