Bird Nerd: What’s in a name?
IN SWEDEN THERE is a saying:
“God made the plants and animals, Linnaeus named them.” In the 1700s, Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus promoted his so-called Binomial System for assigning scientific names to species. It was adopted worldwide and remains the universal system for applying scientific names to plants and animals.
In the binomial system each species is given a name that consists of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages. The first part is based on the genus to which the species belongs, while the second part identifies the species within the genus and often describes a habit or physical characteristic of the species in question. The latter can also be inspired by mythology, names of prominent people, or are simply a derivative of the species’ popular (common) name or nickname.
While a species will only have one scientific name, most have more than one common name.
In Australia, the common names of several bird species, such as wren, chough and robin, have been derived from the common names of birds found in
Britain. This can be quite misleading because, in many cases, the birds are not related to their namesakes, despite bearing a superficial resemblance or sharing similar habits.
Certain Australasian robins (genus Petroica) do bear a resemblance to the northern hemisphere
European robin Erithacus
rubecula, although they’re not closely related.
The scarlet robin, Petroica boodang, flame robin, P. phoenicea, and redcapped robin, P. goodenovii, all have a red breast, similar to the European robin, and all forage on or close to the ground for insects and other invertebrates (the European robin also eats fruits, seeds, carrion and small vertebrates). The European robin has brown upper parts and wings and both the male and female are similar in appearance. The scarlet, flame and red-capped robins all have some red on the breast, but it is much brighter and more extensive in males. The females are generally brownish above, while the males are dark grey to black with a contrasting white wing stripe. The redcapped robin, as the common name suggests, has a red crown.
The scarlet robin is found in south-eastern (including Tasmania) and south-western Australia, and on Norfolk Island. The flame robin occurs in south-eastern Australia, from southern Queensland, south to Tasmania and to just west of the South Australian border. The red-capped robin is found in all mainland states and territories.