birding-aus

names

To: Helen Larson <>
Subject: names
From: Denise Goodfellow <>
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2017 05:54:17 +0000
Well said Helen


Denise Lawungkurr  Goodfellow
PO Box 71
Darwin River, NT, Australia 0841
043 8650 835





On 25 Jan 2017, at 2:53 pm, Helen Larson <> wrote:

> It has been interesting reading the reactions to proposed changes to common 
> names! If this happens during changes to common/vernacular names, no wonder 
> us taxonomists who sometimes change scientific names (for carefully 
> documented reasons) get dumped on. Common names are for us to use among 
> ourselves. Fish might have masses of common names, but they only one 
> scientific name and only one official Australian Standard name (for marketing 
> and other industries). Isn't this the same for birds? I write down Willie 
> Wagtail during my morning bird count and will continue to do so no matter 
> what the "standard" name is. I could write down Rhipidura leucophrys but it's 
> longer.
>
> I talk about Giurus margaritacea to my colleagues, Snakehead Gudgeon to my 
> fish-keeping friends and Mudcod to my neighbours here in FNQ - and everyone 
> knows what I mean. On a recent trip to India - our guides used mostly old 
> books and I had a new version so we used the scientific names to disentangle 
> whether something was a Crested/Booted/Spotted/Snake eagle or not. The bird 
> is itself, we are just using labels for our convenience.
>
> Helen
>
>
> <')/////==<
>
> ________________________________
> From: Birding-Aus <> on behalf of Frank 
> O'Connor <>
> Sent: Tuesday, 24 January 2017 7:44:38 PM
> To: 
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] names
>
>
> It is still frustrating to see people who only think about what a
> bird is called in Australia, even if it has a much wider
> distribution, or if there is a different species with that name. This
> is what got us into this situation in the first place.
>
> We have to accept gerygone. There are far too many clashes with
> warbler. IOC has 18 species of gerygone. The following have clashes
> if warbler was used. 6 out of 18.
>
> Brown. Brown Parisoma was also called Brown Warbler and so it has
> just as much right to the name Brown Warbler.
> Grey. There is Black-throated Grey Warbler (and one or two others).
> Grey Gerygone would need to be called Australasian Grey Warbler.
> Fan-tailed. There is a Fan-tailed Warbler.
> Mangrove. There is a Mangrove Warbler.
> Dusky. There is a Dusky Warbler. This is actually on the Australian
> bird list with one or two records on Christmas Island.
> Yellow-bellied.There is a Yellow-bellied Warbler.
>
> The Jabiru is a totally different genus in South America. It occurs
> through south east Asia. Even if was split to Satin Stork, Australian
> Jabiru does not make sense as it is not related to Jabiru. Stork
> applies across a number of genera but they are all in the 'stork'
> family. It is not like 'flycatcher' where there are well over 100
> across several families. Djagana is a nice thought instead of Satin
> Stork, but my understanding is that each aboriginal language has a
> different name, and so why should Djagana take preference?
>
> Jacana by the way is Portuguese (might be Spanish?) as the type
> specimen was named from Brazil. So it should be pronounced 'yasana' I
> think, but I can't see that happening in Australia.
>
> Remember these are the recommended English names. So to be used in
> official publications and bird lists. There is nothing wrong with
> informally using Jabiru, Weiro, 28, Budgie, muttonbird, etc as long
> as the person you are speaking to understands what you mean.
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Frank O'Connor                          Birding WA
> http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au
> Phone : (08) 9386 5694               Email : 
>
>
> <HR>
> <BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
> <BR> 
> <BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
> <BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
> </HR>
> <HR>
> <BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
> <BR> 
> <BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
> <BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
> </HR>

<HR>
<BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
<BR> 
<BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
<BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
</HR>

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU