Blackface

[Susan Knowles <>]

Some years ago the RAOU (as it then was) addressed the issue of common names and I wish they had done it more vigorously.  My personal dislike is gerygone.  I defy anyone seeing the name for the first time to have any idea of it's pronunciation.  Names like this seem designed to keep birding as almost a private club.

Susan Knowles

>     Many
> members of Birding-Aus also read Wingspan, and would have seen
> my article in the latest issue proposing that birders adopt
> abbreviated common name for birds. Most Australians are disconnected
> from nature, and I strongly suspect that ponderous common names are
> part of the problem. ?Black-faced cuckoo-shrike? is an example of
> a long, dull and ultimately meaningless name for a wonderful bird that
> everyone sees but most people don?t know, partly because its name is
> so complicated and technical-sounding. Every Australian does know
> kookaburras, emus and magpies, and they also could know the
> black-faced cuckoo-shrike if only it had a one-word name rather a
> tongue-twisting turnoff. Attempts to change common names always create
> controversy, so I am not proposing any formal change. What I am
> suggesting instead is that names of common birds be abbreviated in
> everyday use. ?Blackface? is ideal shorthand for this bird (it
> goes well with ?silvereye?), and this name could be used in
> everyday conversation, for example when talking to neighbours and
> children and people in the local park. Birding immediately sounds more
> exciting and accessible if we are heard talking about rainbows,
> emeralds and yellowfaces. Birders already talk like this among
> themselves, mentioning red-rumps and gang gangs, for example. I am
> suggesting that the full names still be used in books and reports, but
> that abbreviated names be used in less formal situations. What do
> birders think of this suggestion?
> Tim Low
>

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Susan Knowles