I agree with Philip Veerman's post- the confusing 'Jabiru' is just the tip of
the iceberg when it comes to Australian bird common names. I think settlers did
Australian birds a great diservice when they set about naming them after the
vaguely similar species of elsewhere but it was understandible. What I don't
understand is the way 21st century ornithology persists with these clumsy
confusing labels. A Red-capped Robin is not a robin in much the same way than a
Koala bear is not a bear. Mammologists have gotten over this dodgy inheritance
years ago- native cats are now almost universally renamed quolls, marsupial
mice are now dunnarts (or antichinus or psuedo antichinus or...) and porcupines
are now echidnas.
Australian birds such as shrike-thrushes, woodswallows, wrens, chats, magpies,
babblers and treecreepers are intrinsically awesome and don't deserve to be
encumbered by these clumsy, 2nd hand, confusing and often dreadful misnomers
(shrike-thrush particularly makes me cringe). These is a vast and rich source
of authentic names in the many Aboriginal languages of our continent- is it
outragous to suggest we consider this?
Mark Carter
Alice Springs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:15:24 +1100
From: "Philip Veerman" <>
Subject: Re 'Jabiru'
To: "'Tony Russell'" <>
Cc: "Birding-aus \(E-mail\)" <>
Message-ID: <>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Surely their proper name is the Australian Black Satin-necked non-jabiru
Stork. (joke)
Why doesn't some book author take the initiative to rename some bird
groups to simpler things, like rename the Cuckoo-shrikes as Cush e.g.
"Black-faced Cush" and likewise invent other new names, so we can
dispense with all those silly names like "Cuckoo-shrike" (not a joke).
After all, names are just labels, why not have distinctive ones that
don't give wrong impressions.
Philip Veerman
24 Castley Circuit
Kambah ACT 2902
02 - 62314041
==============================www.birding-aus.org
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