Re: Blackface

[John Leonard <>]

I agree with David, I don't think you can direct how people refer to birds. 

The relatively simple and unambiguous suite of  bird-names in
Britain derives from 1. the relatively small number of birds species to
begin with, 2. a long process of a single English name being
standardised in the literature (in many cases dating back to the C19),
3. the recent explosion of interest in bird-watching taking these
standardised official names out to all the new bird-watchers.

Australia has a larger number of species, a more recent history of
standardisation of names (which some would say hasn't been completed),
and a smaller number of birdwatchers.

On the other hand some English names are very poor: for example the
Black-faced Wood-swallow has a mask, and the Masked Wood-swallow has a
black face!

John Leonard

On 6/30/05, <m("environment.nsw.gov.au","David.Geering");"> > wrote:

I'm not sure how much the public are put off by names such as Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike.  There are a myriad of common names already in common usage out there (Blue Jay immediately comes to mind).  The bottom line is that it doesn't matter what you call a bird as long as the person you are talking to knows what you are talking about ( eg Jabiru vs Black-necked Stork)

I see no good reason to "dumb it down".  I've had quite a lot of experience taking out groups of novice or even non-birdwatchers and I can't say that pointing out a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike ever had any of them running away in horror.

I think we have it reasonable easy here.  There are some common names in usage overseas that would really test the novice.

Cheers

David Geering
Regent Honeyeater Recovery Coordinator
Department of Environment & Conservation
P.O. Box 2111
Dubbo  NSW  2830
Ph: 02 6883 5335 or Freecall 1800 621 056
Fax: 02 6884 9382



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-- 
John Leonard
Canberra
Australia
www.jleonard.net