Gee, the Canberra mornings are cold, particularly on early morning dog walk. To warm things a little, below is from birding-aus. Certainly about birds and locally topical, but
probably OITASNOP (Of Interest To A Small Number Of People). Not everything of importance is OITALNOP.
From: Birding-Aus <>
On Behalf Of Geoffrey Dabb via Birding-Aus
Sent: Thursday, 17 July 2025 3:12 PM
To: 'Philip Veerman' <>;
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] The koel name tangle
Thank you Philip. Yes Phil G found a 'Carolina Duck' to go with the 'Maine Duck'. I might have mentioned one more we are going to grapple with. I see Phil's Birds of NG first ed uses 'Eastern Koel'. The story on this is so complicated
that it's hard to trace, but it's certainly current. See attached.
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus <> On Behalf Of Philip Veerman
Sent: Wednesday, 16 July 2025 11:48 AM
To:
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Australia Will Be There
It is curious to think of the role of what people "liked". I prefer Maned Duck because it is an interesting and somewhat descriptive name, whereas "Australian Wood Duck" is long, boring and being a common bird that will often be found,
long names waste space. It had not seemed necessary to call it "Australian Maned Duck". I am suspecting there isn't another duck elsewhere that shares this feature. Short names for common species is part of the reason why Galah is better than Rose-breasted
Cockatoo.
Sorry, I don't see how any relatedness of Australian Wood Duck to Carolina Duck (if it is not called "Carolina Wood Duck"), is relevant in the "Australian Wood Duck" name issue. Besides there are so many group names that are used for
unconnected groups.
So many different groups of birds that share the same group names of for example: bellbird, blackbird, broadbill, catbird, chat, chough, creeper, finch, flatbill, flycatcher, honeycreeper, magpie, marshbird, miner, nuthatch, robin, sicklebill,
sparrow, spinetail, thornbill, tit, thrush, vulture, warbler, wren.
Australian Tern is surely unhelpful for that one species, as there are many other species of tern here. Most terns have the same basic colour pattern so finding distinctive names are difficult.
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus [m("birding-aus.org","birding-aus-bounces");">] On Behalf Of Jason Polak
Sent: Wednesday, 16 July, 2025 3:06 AM
To: m("birding-aus.org","birding-aus");">
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Australia Will Be There
I've always liked "Australian Wood Duck" too. I don't think it's too ambiguous. It looks very different than the Wood Duck of North America as well. Also, there are quite a few ambiguities like that, such as the Robins of Australia versus
North America and Europe, the latter of which are thrushes. I think the history and idiosyncracy of the matter is rather cool too, which shows how the birds were named back in the day when people used visual similarities as guides.
Jason Polak
On 2025-07-15 2:48 a.m., Phil Gregory wrote:
> I used Australian Gull-billed Tern in my new edition of the Lynx New Guinea book, seems easy enough and Australian Tern is too generic.
> I dislike Maned Duck and would prefer Australian Wood Duck, do your
> homework and you can see it’s not related Many more to come I am sure
> but the prevailing local usage should be the go to name….
> Regards from Bogota en route to Quito
> Phil Gregory
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On 14 Jul 2025, at 10:08 pm, Martin Butterfield <m("gmail.com","martinflab");">> wrote:
>>
>>
>> I suspect this will be the first of (at least) a mini-series.
>>
>> Martin Butterfield
>> http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/ <http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/>
>>
https://mallacootaweatherwildlife.blogspot.com/
>> <https://mallacootaweatherwildlife.blogspot.com/>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, 15 Jul 2025 at 10:15, Geoffrey Dabb via Birding-Aus <m("birding-aus.org%20%3cmailto","birding-aus");:"> <>>
wrote:
>>
>> Those with no interest in English bird names, please read no
>> further. Of the English name changes that are in prospect following
>> adoption of the unified taxonomy, I might draw attention to a couple
>> that come from an unfamiliar direction. The curious ‘Australian
>> Tern’ is a relatively recent invention with no basis in usage. The
>> proposers rejected ‘Australian Gull-billed Tern’ because, from an
>> international viewpoint, an adjective (such as ‘Common’) would need
>> to be added for the northern species, now just the shorter
>> ‘Gull-billed Tern’. The name might excite the interest of North
>> American watchers, of which there are several subscribing to this
>> list, I notice. ‘I’m sure looking forward to seeing one of your
>> Australian Terns’, they’ll be saying. I do hope they will not be
>> disappointed if it looks familiar. ____
>>
>> __ __
>>
>> The unfortunate ‘Maned Duck’ had the distinction of being one of
>> the small number of recommended names rejected by popular vote in the
>> 1980s. However, it has renewed life, being the choice of those
>> seeking to promote a set of ‘international English names’.
>> Interestingly, as you can see from AviList , ‘Maned Duck’, in
>> defiance of the Australian preference, had been the choice of the
>> three global lists. ‘Australian Wood Duck’, internationally, would
>> suggest an association with the Wood Duck of America, which might
>> also have needed another adjective. However, our North American
>> visitors might experience some confusion here because the invariable
>> pronunciation is ‘Maine Duck’. AviList
>> https://www.avilist.org/checklist/v2025/
>> <https://www.avilist.org/checklist/v2025/> ____
>>
>> __ __
>>
>> Geoffrey____
>>
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