Most fowl names are as simple as they arrive. The Blue Jay is blue. The Fish Crow hangs out close to water. The Yellow-rumped Warbler, nicely, you get the thought. However then you definitely stumble throughout a reputation like Tinkling Cisticola, and all of the sudden you’re unsure should you’re birding or studying the solid record for a Monty Python sketch.
Whether or not they’re outdated, unlucky, weirdly particular, or simply downright goofy, these actual fowl names make us marvel: What had been ornithologists ingesting the day they signed off on this?
Listed here are 13 of the silliest, most questionable fowl names from all over the world, names so unusual, you’ll swear we made them up (we didn’t).
1. Tinkling Cisticola
Feels like a soda. Or one thing you say to excuse your self from dinner. Native to sub-Saharan Africa, this little brown fowl has a reputation that feels extra like rest room humor than fowl ID.
2. Fluffy-backed Tit-Babbler
Actually, the place can we even start? That is both a fowl or a particularly area of interest insult from a Victorian novel. Present in Southeast Asia, it’s an actual species with a reputation that makes birders giggle uncontrollably.
3. Smew
This duck appears prefer it belongs in a Japanese anime, and its title sounds just like the noise you make when sneezing underwater. A Eurasian diving duck associated to mergansers, the Smew is elegant, however perpetually saddled with this comic-book sound impact of a reputation.
4. Go-Away Chook
Think about naming a species after how annoying it sounds. That’s the case with this African turaco, whose raspy name resembles somebody yelling “go away!” Actually, we’d pay further for a yard fowl that warns off undesirable company.
5. Tough-faced Shag
Australia and New Zealand actually let their freak flag fly with fowl names, however this one? It’s… unlucky. “Shag” is British slang, and pairing it with “rough-faced” does the poor seabird no favors.
6. Satanic Nightjar
No birdwatcher forgets their first Satanic Nightjar. Native to Sulawesi, this ominously named nocturnal fowl has eerie purple eyes and a raspy name. Was “Barely Sinister Nightjar” already taken?
7. Widespread Poorwill
May we get slightly encouragement right here? This North American nightjar appears like a Dickensian orphan. Even its kinfolk have it higher — not less than the Whip-poor-will will get a cool onomatopoeic title.
8. Tropical Boubou
It appears like a smoothie order at a tiki bar. Native to sub-Saharan Africa, the boubou is a shrike-like songbird whose title is as enjoyable to say as it’s to listen to: “BOO-boo.”
9. Hoary Puffleg
A South American hummingbird that appears like a Tolkien character’s foot ailment. “Hoary” refers to its frosty look, whereas “puffleg” is… self-explanatory? Both manner, this title feels higher suited to a Seventeenth-century medical textbook.
10. Lesser Noticed Woodpecker
Think about being outlined not simply by what you might be, however what you’re much less of. “Lesser Noticed” sounds just like the birding world’s model of a backhanded praise. Nonetheless, it’s an actual species, simply smaller and tougher to seek out than the Nice Noticed Woodpecker.
11. Kentish Plover
This poor little shorebird isn’t even reliably in Kent anymore. British birders typically joke that it must be renamed the “Previously-Kentish Plover.” It’s the avian equal of somebody nonetheless calling themselves a New Yorker 10 years after transferring to Florida.
Honorable Mentions:
- Bananaquit – a sugar-loving fowl with a reputation that appears like a failed power drink.
- Macaroni Penguin – carrying a yellow feather crest prefer it’s 1776.
- Dickcissel – we’re not even touching that one.
Ultimate Ideas
Chook names are alleged to be scientific, descriptive, and useful. However typically, they’re simply plain bizarre. And truthfully? That’s a part of the enjoyable. Whether or not you’re scanning the timber for a Zitting Cisticola or telling your pals you noticed a Tough-faced Shag, simply bear in mind, you’re not making it up. You’re birding.
