What’s in a name?

I have a sister in the UK who calls me a ‘twitcher’. I disagree and say a twitcher is someone who travels at great expense to various parts of the world (or continent, or country, or region or perhaps your back-garden) to tick another species of bird, to make lists, to achieve your own special target. I say I stopped being a twitcher when I reached 700 species and became just a ‘birder’. Nowadays I find my interest in listing birds by area, which contributes to the information about the distribution of birds which goes into a big computer in Cape Town for use by ornithologists, and contributes to the little distribution maps you find in all commercially available Birding Guide books. This makes me an ‘atlaser’, which they rather grandiosely call citizen scientists.

But to me it just means we love birds.

There are over 950 species in this country (and counting). About 10% of all species occur here, and many of them travel backwards and forwards every year free of man-made controls – no need for visas. But we do have to give all these birds names which are accepted internationally, and it is interesting to note some of the strange habits/features that have influenced the granting of names to these birds. I have selected 16 local species of birds with interesting names.

In this article I have used the Roberts Bird Guide, Second Edition, which rather decently gives some good examples.

Many names are taken from obvious physical appearances

1. Hamerkop

Afrikaans word meaning ‘Hammer-head’ in reference to its crest.

2. Crombec

Bent beak, in reference to curved bill.

3. Green Twinspot

Each breast and belly feather has a pair of white apical spots.

4. Common Waxbill

In reference to bright red bills of certain species, resembling red sealing wax.

Sometimes these physical features are quite obscure and quirky

5. Red-billed Quelea

From medieval Latin qualea for a quail, in reference to quail-like plumage.

6. Red-throated Wryneck

From wry (bent or twisted) and neck, in reference to peculiar habit of twisting neck when held in the hand.

Some bird’s names are onomatopoeic renderings of one of its calls

7. Southern Boubou

Onomatopoeic rendering of one of its many different calls.

8. Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird

From repetitive, percussive calls, putatively similar to tinker’s hammer on an anvil.

9. Jackal Buzzard

The calls of this buzzard recall the cries of a jackal.

Behaviour sometimes earns a species a name

10. Speckled Mousebird

Derived from the rodent-like behaviour of creeping through vegetation.

11. Marabou Stork

From the Arabic for a hermit or monk, in reference to aloof behaviour.

When names cross language barriers, strange things can happen

12. Southern Fiscal

From Dutch word fiskaal for a tax collector whose duties also included that of hangman. Hence other popular names like ‘Jackie Hangman’ and ‘Jan Fiskaal’ in reference to hanging prey on thorns etc.

13. Lemon Dove

Possibly derived from these doves feeding in orange (Afrikaans: lemoen) orchards adjacent to forest in the Western Cape; not a reference to plumage coloration or diet.

14. Neddicky

Corruption of the Zulu word iNcede for any small, brown bird. The quintessential LBJ (little brown job).

If a species has a favourite food source, that food source becomes part of the name of that species

15. African Olive Pigeon

Derived from the pigeon’s liking for wild olives (Olea species); nothing to do with plumage coloration.

Adapting technical names for parts of the bird can get complicated when they use foreign languages as well

16. Burchell’s Coucal

Shortened from French words for cuckoo (coucou) and lark (alouette), in reference to lark-like hind-claws.