Przevalski’s Pinktail is known as after an individual, and a extremely controversial one at that. For instance, he as soon as stated one thing like “Solely underneath Russian steerage can these backward tribes be elevated from their primitive state to true civilization” about another folks, considerably wealthy, significantly coming from a Russian, however perhaps much like what Putin would say about Ukrainians. So, these fowl names derived from individuals are controversial, to say the least.
Happily, it’s not fairly the identical for chemical substances. A number of birds are named after chemical substances, and a few chemical substances are named after birds. That is what this publish is about.
Chicken names derived from chemical substances largely take their cue from the colour of particular chemical substances.
For instance, Indigo is a blue natural compound obtained from the leaves of some crops. Its correct chemical title is [2(2′)E]-[2,2′-Biindolylidene]-3,3′(1H,1′H)-dione, which is a bit tougher to pronounce than indigo.
Indigo
Shamelessly, some birds simply adopted this chemical as a part of their names, most likely with none considered potential copyright violation. So, we have now the Indigo Bunting in addition to 16 different fowl species with “indigo” of their widespread title as listed by the HBW.
A equally fashionable chemical, a component, to be particular, is sulfur.
The formulation is just too easy to indicate right here (principally simply an S), however the yellow colour has been the inspiration for a lot of fowl names resembling
- Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
- Sulphur-breasted Myzomela
- Sulphur-breasted Warbler
- Sulphur-bellied Bulbul
Sulphur-breasted Warbler
or (for the extra scientific-minded)
- Emberiza sulphurata (Yellow Bunting)
- Pitangus sulphuratus (Nice Kiskadee).
Yellow Bunting
Much less attention-grabbing are these names that refer each to chemical parts and colours – I’ll solely give just a few examples:
- Golden Pheasant
- Silver Pheasant
- (there isn’t any Bronze Pheasant – and whereas there are a lot of species with “bronze” of their names, this isn’t a chemical ingredient or compound)
- Copper Pheasant
- Leaden Honeyeater
- Cobalt-winged Parakeet
- Ferruginous Hawk (from “ferrum”, Latin for iron, chemical image Fe)
Golden Pheasant
A number of scientific names additionally reference chemical parts and/or related colours, resembling
- Gallinula chloropus (Frequent Moorhen – the chloropus signifies that the fowl has yellow-green or chlorine-colored toes)
- Jacamerops aureus (Nice Jacamar – aureus means golden)
- Larus argentatus (European Herring Gull – argentatus means ornamented with silver)
Frequent Moorhen
It will get a bit extra attention-grabbing with the Verditer Flycatcher.
Verditer Flycatcher
Verditer is a blue or inexperienced inorganic artificial pigment, chemically fundamental copper carbonate. It was manufactured within the sixteenth century as a substitute for the dearer azurite and malachite pigments. Blue Verditer is Cu3[OHCO3]2 whereas inexperienced verditer is Cu2[(OH)2CO3]. (And sure, you possibly can see that the WordPress theme 10,000 Birds is utilizing was not designed for chemical substances – I’ve no clue methods to get it to grasp the idea of subscripts).
The Malachite Sunbird and the Malachite Kingfisher each get their title from malachite, a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral with the formulation Cu2CO3(OH)2. So, just like the Verditer Flycatcher, these names are based mostly on copper compounds.
Malachite Sunbird
Malachite Kingfisher
There are fairly just a few extra birds named after minerals, based mostly on the colour of the minerals:
- Lazuli Bunting: Lapis lazuli is a deep blue metamorphic rock
- Vermilion Flycatcher: Vermilion is a vivid reddish-orange pigment
- Carmine Bee-eater: Carmine is a uncommon mineral with a deep crimson colour
- Emerald-spotted Wooden-Dove: Named for the iridescent inexperienced “emerald” spots on its wings. There are additionally many “Emerald” hummingbirds (e.g., Cuban Emerald, Glittering-bellied Emerald).
- Amethyst-throated Sunangel: Amethyst is a purple number of quartz
- Ruby-throated Hummingbird: The male’s gorget is good, iridescent crimson, like a ruby. The Siberian Rubythroat is one other instance.
- Sapphire Flycatcher: Named for the deep blue, sapphire-like plumage of the male.
- Citrine Wagtail: Citrine is a yellow-orange number of quartz
- Opal-crowned Manakin: Named for the iridescent, multi-hued crest, harking back to an opal.
- Berylline Hummingbird: Beryl is a inexperienced mineral, becoming for a inexperienced hummingbird.
However naming doesn’t solely go a method, from chemical substances to birds, but additionally the opposite method round. A number of chemical substances, significantly these related to particular birds – are named for them. To be honest, these usually are not the “correct” scientific names which might be based mostly on their formulation, however as such names are sometimes lengthy and clumsy, the bird-derived names are used way more steadily.
Take Turacin, a copper-based crimson porphyrin pigment, and Turacoverdin, a inexperienced copper-based pigment additionally discovered solely in Turacos.
Purple-crested Turaco
Livingston’s Turaco
Or Psittacofulvins. This can be a group of pigments solely present in parrots, which they synthesize internally. The title is a mix of the Latin phrase for parrot (Psittaco) and the phrase “fulvin” (a gaggle of yellowish pigments). Psittacofulvins are pigments that give parrots their attribute crimson, orange, and yellow colours.
The saddest such instance is a chemical named Starlicide (3-chloro-4-methylaniline). This chemical is particularly named as a result of it kills its most important goal species, European Starlings, although it additionally kills different birds. It really works by inflicting uremic poisoning and organ congestion, resulting in loss of life inside 8-48 hours after ingestion.
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