>
> Bryan, almost everywhere Palm Warblers spend the winter there are palm
> trees. Common names really are fun. How did the grouse get the name
> "Spruce" but not any of the other many spruce-forest birds? Just one
> example.
>
> For the Canadians tuning in, you might be surprised at how often Canada has
> been commemorated. Figure out all the birds that have "canadensis" as a
> species name (not including the two mentioned by Alvaro Jaramillo as not
> even occurring in Canada!). I have't figured out how many "americana"
> there are, but I think it's fewer. And, as I wrote before, no
> "unitedstatesensis" at all. We didn't choose the most picturesque or
> usable name for our country. Latin Americans calls us "estadosunidosenses"
> when they're not saying "norteamericanos" (which I guess includes
> Canadians). This is only speculation, but I'll bet if the founding fathers
> had chosen a shorter, more picturesque, name for the country, there'd be
> plenty of common and scientific names commemorating it, because there are
> many, many bird species originally described from the U.S.

There are many birds named after localities within the states, like
Seiurus noveboracensis, Pheucticus ludovicianus, Pipilo (e.) oreganus,
Larus philadelphia, Larus delawarensis, etc. etc. I wonder how many of
the states are represented in Latin binomials? Are any Canadian provinces
represented in Latin names?
BTW, the term 'norteamericanos' does not usually include Canadians or
Mexicans just estadounidenses.

Alvaro Jaramillo
jaramill at sfu.ca