This isn't everywhere. In German, many birds have pretty unique names: Amsel, Spatz, Kuckuck, Uhu, Eule and so on.
this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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My favourite example of a straight-to-the-point animal name:
There's a species of turtles. Goofy looking fellas with big heads. So what are they called? Big-headed turtles. OK, but surely the Latin name is sensible? No, it's megacephalum. Totally a band name.
Petition to rename this the black-bodied yellowbird
Gotta shout out birdle for all the bird-loving wordle fans out there.
That's really cool! But those hints don't help when I have no idea what order a bird is in 😆
Wanna guess?
Most likely something like Big Titted Sloppy Blowjob Tramp, knowing how perverted some bird watchers are.
bubblegum ice cream flavored bird
Pink breasted bluey chirp
I WOULD say that Lemmy jokes are on point today, but all the ones I've saved and sent to my family group chat are from the same Picard Maneuver lol
You got a good taste in jokes!
We’re actually all just alts of The_Picard_Maneuver
Happy to help! Lol
Ornithologists should hang out with astronomers. They do the same naming scheme with telescopes. They've named some classics like the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST).
Edit: a word
Not to mention "The Big Bang", and " Spooky Action At a Distance"
Spooky action at a distance is how Einstein called quantum entanglement. That is the official name.
Don't forget the Very Large Telescope, the Extremely Large Telescope, and the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope.
H+M = A?
Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope to be technical.
It's the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope; the person you're replying to left out "Aperture" by mistake.
Five Hundred Meter Spherical Telescope (FAST)
Where does the 'A' come from?
The phonetic "faiv"?
Bird names are either this or "yellow-boobied titcock" and there's no in-between
Purple-headed purplebird...
White-bellied purple tit
You mean white breasted purple tit.
White titted purple booby
I hate that either of these names could be right.
Fr though that's a cool bird
Saw this kickass bird at the lake one day. Went home and looked it up.
red-winged blackbird
C'mon!
Field biology professor at my alma matter did a study on red-winged blackbirds where they put black paint over the red spots. The females didn't really care, but the other males would beat the shit out of the test birds.
Animal behavior is funny
I wonder how that benefits them in terms of evolution.
Brighter colors indicate health like their ability to successfully gather food which builds up the pigmentation, as well as fitness in avoiding predators. If you see bright bird it is very likely its a male, the stronger the signals, the more attractive they are as a potential mate
The benefit is that strong red patches scare off other males, small patches get you clobbered, and no one is mating with the bird that just got his shit rocked.
I prefer a more scientific name like Birridious Amadeus Maximus, Master of the Armies of the North, Loyal Servant to the One True Emporer.
Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus
Ursus Arctos Arctos
Orcinus orca
Pica pica
Chuuuuuuuuu!
"What are we going to call this railway line? It goes from Hammersmith to the City"
“… we’ll call it the Gliecksbaden Line, that should clear up any confusion.”
Black vultures, for me.
We have some that hunt through the dumpsters at work when deli does toss-out. I felt rather dumb assuming they had a fancier name.
Pretty neat birds to watch, though. I lost some time while they strutted about, pretty much ignoring my existence once I had tossed all our old bread.