I'm currently reading Mark Obmascik's The Big Year [Free Press, 2004] (a
very enjoyable read, recommended to me by Jill Dening, which adds
considerably to one's understanding and enjoyment of the phenomenon of the
big year [in this case in the US] - as recently recorded so entertainingly
in this country by Sean Dooley). As I was reading of evening grosbeaks, bald
eagles, short-eared owls, black-and-white warblers, etc it reminded me of an
old question to which I realized I still don't know the answer: Why do we
birders write 'Pied Butcherbird' (including in our field-guides and our
intra-disciplinary literature) while in main-stream books the convention is
to write 'pied butcherbird' - without capitals? [And similarly for singing
honeyeater, red kangaroo, hump-backed whale, etc.]
>From first principles one might think the following should apply:
A butcherbird is a type of bird of which there are a number of distinct
species.
A pied butcherbird (descriptive) is a butcherbird which has black and white
colouring (which applies to a greater or lesser extent to 3 of our 4
butcherbirds).
A Pied Butcherbird is the distinct species Cracticus nigrogularis.
Writing 'I saw a pied butcherbird' seems to lack the same precision that is
conveyed by 'I saw a Pied Butcherbird.' This becomes even more obvious (and
potentially confusing) when one writes 'I saw a common tern.' Or 'I heard a
singing honeyeater.'
Having hopefully established the issue to readers' satisfaction, my question
to you all is:
Why is there a general publishing convention that common names of birds (and
other animals) are not capitalized (with its associated loss of precision)
and how did it come to be?
Richard NOWOTNY
Port Melbourne, Victoria
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birding-aus.blogspot.com
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