birding-aus

Birding Culture in "The Residence"

To: "'Laurie Knight'" <>, <>
Subject: Birding Culture in "The Residence"
From: Geoffrey Dabb via Birding-Aus <>
Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2025 09:45:39 +1000
Yes, Laurie, one of the better-sustained tv miniseries, very watchable, in by 
view. The birdwatcher hero is a pleasing change from the birdwatcher villain. I 
am thinking of the evil Stephen Norton in ‘Curtain’, the last case of Agatha 
Christie’s Poirot and the conspiratorial Tom Voze in the excellent, but not 
well-regarded, ‘Amsterdam’. 
 
More seriously, ‘Rail Babbler’ brings to mind a looming English-name issue. In 
Avilist this is ‘Rail-babbler’, inherited from the IOC-group methodology.  This 
followed a so-called bird-bird rule where a hyphen was to be used where the 
name was a compound of two bird names. That was already followed in Australia, 
with ‘Shrike-thrush’, for example.  Unfortunately, IOC failed to apply its own 
rule for three Australian species and gave us for the first time 
‘Shrikethrush’, ‘Shriketit’ and ‘Cuckooshrike’.  AviList now threatens to 
inflict those irrational formulations on a long-suffering public.  Cordelia 
Cupp and Hercule Poirot would never have done that.

-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus <> On Behalf Of Laurie 
Knight via Birding-Aus
Sent: Friday, 3 October 2025 9:45 PM
To: 
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Birding Culture in "The Residence"

The Residence is an interesting new comedy drama about the a suspicious death 
at the White House during a State dinner held for the Australian Prime Minister.

The twist to the series is that the central character is a prominent detective 
(Cordelia Cup) who happens to be a dedicated birder.  

She has a very keen eye for detail and during her initial nocturnal 
investigation she produces binoculars, a birding sketch book, a volume of Birds 
of the World and a birding checklist for the White House.

She uses the approach of a falcon sizing up a flock of prey to identify persons 
of interest in the case.

There is a humorous segment dealing with a bogey bird (referred to as a 
“nemesis bird”).  [I would be interested to know what the species of the bird 
that makes a close up appearance actually is].

If you have access to Netflix and enjoy references to birding behaviour by a 
respected character, you may well enjoy this series.

Watch for the Rail Babbler and make allowances for poetic licence.

Regards, Laurie
<HR>
<BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
<BR> 
<BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
<BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
</HR>


<HR>
<BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
<BR> 
<BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
<BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
</HR>
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU