If you could rename an existing species

Nature Talk
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Oops. I think you meant “Flycatcher” but I admit Flycatcher is too general. Maybe, “Pajaro” (pronounced Pakharo) (the Spanish word for Bird) for general Tyrannidae, Flycatcher (along with Chat, Robin, Wheater) for Muscicapidae (the scientific name literally means “Flycatcher”), and Monarchs for Monarchidae:

Terpsiphone: Paradise Flycatcher to Paradise Monarch

Any ideas?

Well, Tyrannidae is the largest bird family on Earth, so maybe each genus with at least one special name must be probagated as the basal name for all species in the genus (Fork-tailed Flycatcher and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher to Fork-tailed Kingbird and Scissor-tailed Kingbird, because most other Tyrannus sp. are ”Kingbirds").

If a species/genus uses the word Tyrant (which is utterly inaccurate about these innocent birds), we can replace it with… Any suggestions? In my opinion it should be Pajaro, from the Spanish word for Bird.

If an entire Tyranninae genus has “Flycatcher” within its name we can replace it with Hawk-Pajaro. An example would be the Piratic Hawk-Pajaro, not Piratic Flycatcher

The subfamily Elaeniinae has many tyrants and names derived from “Tyrant”, which can be replaced with Pajaro or whatever anyone says (As in “Pajarulet”, "Rush-Pajaro, or “Pajaro”). The "Flycatchers in the subfamily can be renamed as “Pajaro” or whatever as well. This excludes special names Elaenia, whose common name is Elaenia, the Antpipits and Tachuris.

Fluvicolinae, can be plainly called Pajaros too.

An example would be Willow Pajaro, not Willow Flycatcher, and Vermilion Pajaro and Spectacled Pajaro, not Vermilion Flycatcher or Spectacled Tyrant.

How can this be improved?

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During the summer they’d still be called red-winged blackbirds. During the winter they’d be called “weird orange-throated barred finch things”

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My only thought here would be to change the name from gnatcatcher to something else, as that already describes a group of birds.

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Ok, then bugophages (wups joking)

I’d call them Anteaters (oops forgot about the mammal)

Bugsnatchers? Too colloquial.

Better just call everything Pakharos

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Narrow-barred Spanish mackerel, probably something alongside “giant tiger mackerel” or “tiger kingfish”

It doesn’t even live in Spain or any Spanish-speaking country for that matter, so it’s already a misnomer

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Also found in my backyard. They’re common in many parts of SW U.S.

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On the same note of confusing binomials:
Savannah Sparrow: Passerculus sandwichensis to Passerculus savannarum. It does not occur in the Sandwich Islands (that is, Hawaii), which most taxa with sandwichensis in their names do.

It is spelled “Pajaro.” And if we are going to go that route, I should point out that the Gray Flycatcher is called Pitirre in some Spanish-speaking countries – onomatopoeia based on its call.

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I thought of one: Magnificent Frigatebird. It may look magnificent to human eyes, but if you were to ask the other birds, they would say, “More like piratebird!”

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My bad, had no Idea :). I’m instantly editing the post.

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Straw-headed Bulbul -
Pycnonotus zeylanicus to Pycnonotus melodicus

This bulbul is not found anywhere near Sri Lanka, so I decided to name it after the very reason it is Critically Endangered; its song.

Same goes for Laughing Kookaburra - Dacelo novaeguineae to Dacelo gigas.

It is not found in New Guinea, so I named it after its large size; larger than the House Crows (Corvus splendens) I see everyday, which is INSANE and I have trouble wrapping my head around it. Despite this, I have seen something similar: Stork-billed Kingfishers (Pelargopsis capensis, requested earlier to be renamed Pelargopsis cyanopterus) is 35 cm, only 5 cm smaller than the average crow.

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But is it found in New Guinea?

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Wups typo, I meant New Guinea. No it is not. And it is found in Northern New Zealand.

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Some suggestions from family:

Anna’s Hummingbird to Winter Hummingbird

Brewer’s Blackbird to Pale-eyed Blackbird or Yellow-eyed Blackbird

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Common paddlefish to not-so-common paddlefish

Piping Crow to Peeping Crow

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Black-masked Lovebird to Burglar-masked Lovebird

If you check out their photos you will see why :)

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All species named Thick Knee, Burhinus. Maybe rename following a pattern like Peruvian Thick Knee to “Peruvian Beauty named by some saggy butt ornithologist”. And those bulges are its ankles.

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Burhinus already has a perfectly good alternative name: Stone Curlews.

Actually, I would get rid of criminal references in animal names, if they refer only to appearance or markings. How many kinds of fishes have been called “convict fish” for having black and white stripes? These fishes did nothing wrong! The only criminal references I might leave in are for behavior that other animals might think of as criminal, such as the Piratic Flycatcher terrorizing other flycatchers so as to steal their nests.

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I would rename all species that are whose common name contains the word “Common” because those vernaculars are driving me insane. At least add a descriptive to the name. example: Common bobtail squid (Sepietta oweniana) should instead be called “Round finned bobtail squid”

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Would you also apply that to the binomials? Lapsana communis, Juniperus communis, Ricinus communis, Commelina communis…

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How being common is not descriptive?