Black-headed Gull, the species that has obvious brown hood, better be named after latin name, e.g. Lake Gull.
3 Likes
I vote yes on that.
All flycatchers should probably be known by their calls. or their neat hairdo
Welcome to the forum, @williamharmonlds!
1 Like
9 Likes
I bet a Dessert Iguana would go well with an Eastern Milk Shake (= Milk Snake; I actually saw that typo in a peer-reviewed paper on Lampropeltis snakes).
Correction: the drink/snake was actually a New Mexico Milk Shake. Even better!
15 Likes
You’d have to get someone else to do the naming. There’s a rule (or a convention anyway)against naming it for yourself.
Think of poor Euxoa mimallonis, saddled with the common name of Sordid Dart Moth. I mean, really, Sordid. Anything is better than that!
1 Like
I’d change the name of Purple Finch to Raspberry Red Finch because they are not purple!
8 Likes
I would like to adjust the names of several Gull species in such a way, that the German and English names are matching. I mean, look at this mess:
| English name | German name (translation) | Scientific |
|---|---|---|
| Lesser Black Backed | Herring Gull | fuscus (=black  ) |
| Herring Gull | Silver Gull | argentatus (=silver) |
| Silver Gull | Silver-headed Gull | novaehollandiae |
| _______________ | ||
| Yellow-legged Gull | Mediterranean Gull | michahellis |
| Mediterranean Gull | Black-headed Gull | melanocephalus (=black head) |
| Black-headed Gull | Laughing Gull | ridibundus (=laughing) |
| Laughing Gull | Aztec Gull | atricilla |
| ________________ | ||
| Caspian Gull | Steppe Gull | chachinnans |
| Steppe Gull | Baraba Gull | barabensis |
| ________________ | ||
| Sabine’s Gull | Swallow Gull | sabini
|
| Swallow tailed Gull | Fork-tailed Gull | furcatus (=forked) |
As you can see, with the exception of Sabine’s and Lesser Black-backed, the German translation is more often closer to the literal translation of the scientific name.
12 Likes
You know hardly any of the animals named after people weren’t the discover right? The AOS (American Ornithologic Society) had an argument with a scientist because he wanted to change the common name of the McCown’s Longspur, not scientific which is mccownnii just English name, because the person who described in 1851, George N. Lawrence, named the bird after Captain John Porter McCown. The captain happened to be a Confederate major general in the Civil War. The reason why Lawrence named the bird as such was beause, "It gives me pleasure to bestow upon this species the name of my friend, Capt. J. P. McCown, U.S.A.” (quoted in Choate 1985)
And to add to that, the arguer who demanded the name change said it was necessary to prevent “oppression from races of color”.
The AOS responded with pretty much saying, if you were to look up any person who has a biological organism named after them, you would find at least one thing from every single person that you’ll find dishonorable. And changing the common names of all species named after someone will result in backlash from birders. To show an example, remember when Oldsquaw was changed to Long-tailed Duck? I’ll leave it at that since I probably went over the top with this one and have been blunt about it. I’m just saying you’re not going to get far with changing the common/scientific names of animals when they are named after someone.
4 Likes
What was the reason to rename Oldsqauw?
With birds I see lots of intentions in the american society about renaming everything that’s called after someone.
1 Like
Squaw is a derogatory word. It’s also why the formerly-called squawfish and squawbush were renamed.
6 Likes
Ah, it sounded right like Skua, not the best choice of the name.
What is wrong with Skua? Genuine question.
I didn’t mean that Skua is a bad word, quite the opposite.) Though I have no idea about its etymology.
4 Likes
You all do know that the topic is “humorous”, right? Although it is kinda funny when someone starts to pick apart a joke for it’s inaccuracies…
5 Likes
Ok - I just assumed it was a word from a place I didn’t know. Skuas are rotten things that come from a different world!! I belong to the Facebook Bird Identification Page. Have you ever seen the photo of a Skua with it’s head inside the eyesocket of a dead sea lion?
1 Like
Ah, I think I see - did you believe squaw sounds like Skua? Squaw is now a derogatory name given to Indigenous NA people. It sounds like '/skwô/.
Sorry, this was meant for melodi_96, not @kiwifergus
1 Like
lol… they are part of a cycle of nutrients that many other organisms are likely to depend on!
5 Likes
I read it like that, I know how squaw sounds as it’s similar to Russian word used in some translated books.
Skuas are superb, talknig about eyesockets the first image in my head was one of Giant Petrel covered in blood. :D That’s definitely my kind of birds.
3 Likes
That should be “Misidentification”. A group of bird lovers with no respect!!
4 Likes