Daft bird names
WHEN I wrote last week that marsh tit doesn’t inhabit marshes, I started thinking anew about some of the silly names birds have in English.
Take the geographical ones for a start.
No Dartford warbler would be seen dead in the Kentish town of that name, neither would you seek a Kentish plover in Kent. (unless you have a great deal of patience).
Sandwich terns may well be seen around the bay of that name, but there seems no special reason why they should be so named.
The same can be said of Sardinian warbler, which is common throughout the Mediterranean.
As for Slavonian grebe, the whereabouts of ‘Slavonia’ is unclear, but it probably isn’t anywhere near the Russian/ Scandinavian breeding area of the species.
Then there are the names based on obscure characteristics – short-toed eagle, for one (do they have short toes?)
They eat snakes, which is reflected in the Spanish and German names.
Incidentally, larks and treecreepers are also blessed with the short-toed description.
The ring-necked duck’s name has always puzzled me – I can find no vestige of a ring around its neck – and I’ve seen quite a few!
And how about the blackheaded gull?
Their head is never black, they just get a brown hood in the breeding season, whilst their cousins the Mediterranean gulls (in Spanish Gaviota cabecinegra) have a jet-black head.
The Spanish call the blackheaded gull Gaviota reidora (laughing gull) – and that name is given by the Americans to another species! Confused? You should be.
The prize for the silliest name of all must surely go to the hen harrier – they may well harry hens on occasion, but it seems unlikely to figure in their normal lifestyle.
Ornithological history is reflected in the plethora of British bird names which contain the name of some figure in history – occasionally famous, like the great wood-engraver of the eighteenth century Thomas Bewick, and a whole host of other figures too numerous or obscure to mention.
French too has its share of silly names, going for flowery ones like Circaéte Jean-le-Blanc (short-toed eagle), and Hibou Grand Duc (eagle owl), whilst the Germans love to string words together, thus we get names like Bog en schnäblig erst randläuf er( curlew sandpiper) Languages are fun!