I don’t find Myzomela to be an especially easy or appealing name, although it apparently equates in meaning to honey sucker. Given that most members are apparently
called that and that Australia has only one of them, obviously we should follow the majority rule in our formal communications so that the connection to others of the genus is made.
As for Mark mentioning Dikkop. That is a strange one, as Dikkop literally means “thick head”. If it
sounds fantastic to Mark, it is still confusing if you wish to be confused, because the other group name is thick knee. Maybe stone-curlews are just plain thick. Another confusion
is our whistlers were also called thick heads, now kept in their genus name Pachycephala.
Philip
From: Mark Clayton [
Sent: Friday, 23 March, 2018 12:54 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] English bird name poll
Having seen quite a few of the Myzomela species in PNG (which is what they are called there) and elsewhere, I am quite happy to use
Myzomela. I still use "Spine-tailed Swifts" for White-throated Needletails and "Fork-tailed Swift" for the Pacific Swift when in the bush but in any written communication I will always use the latter in both cases. The same goes for the Common Myna
- it is not the Indian Myna as it is often wrongly called - unfortiunately CCMAG is not as easy or catchy to say as CIMAG which only perpetuates the wrong name. There are many other species where there are local names, for example who really
knows what a "Green Leek" is. I have seen this used for Superb Parrot, Red-rumped Parrot, various "green" lorikeets and even Budgerigars and the White-plumed Honeyeaters!! To be quite honest I would prefer Origma over Rockwarbler and Thick-kee for the stone-curleews,
Better still, the South African name for the species there is Dikkop which sounds fantastic.
What people will call things is defined by what field guides and or bird lists that they use which is where they generally learn species names. I use the IOC list which can at least spell "grey". I will use this list over Birdlife Australia's list and that
of Clements. David's suggestion that, like New Zealand where they are starting to use Maori names for birds, I have seen a book done many years ago published by CSIRO (Wildlife) using Aboriginal names for some Australian bird and mammal species, you would
not be able to spell, let alone remember those names!.
Ultimately the best thing to do is use the birds scientific name but most people wouldn't like that, but at least you do know EXACTLY what species is being discussed! Anyone seen an
Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus locally recently?
To answer Geoffrey's question, I don't think I have ever reported either a Scarlet Myzomela or Honeyeater on any official list.
That's my 2 bob's worth ..... err sorry, 20 cents worth.
Mark
On 23/03/2018 9:50 AM, Geoffrey Dabb wrote:
The English Names Committee is about to consider the ‘Myzomela issue’.
The question to members of this chatline is: do you prefer ‘Scarlet Honeyeater’ or ‘Scarlet Myzomela’ ?
The background is as follows. ‘Myzomela’ is the name of a genus of small honeyeaters. There are more than 30 species, most outside Australia. ‘Scarlet Honeyeater’ has been used in Australia, but ‘Scarlet Myzomela’ is used in global lists.
The main reason for choosing ‘Myzomela’ is the need for consistency across all members of the genus.
In eBird, under the option ‘English (Australia)’, both ‘Scarlet Honeyeater’ and ‘Scarlet Myzomela’ will work (at present). You will get similar results for the other 2 Australian myzomelas. However if you want to bring up, for example,
the Red Myzomela (a New Guinea species) you must use that name and not ‘Red Honeyeater’.
This is a serious attempt to sample birdwatcher opinion through this chatline. You may reply either to the chatline or to me directly. A minimum response will be in the form –
‘Honeyeater’
or
‘Myzomela’.
However, if you respond, I would also like to know whether you have ever reported an observation of a Myzomela species under any name and through any form of reporting.
At this stage, I shall not discuss the pronunciation of ‘myzomela’.
gd
