I often hear people yell out "Crane!" and when I look left, right, or above me, I see a Great Blue Heron flying off.

I agree with most of what Jim Flynn said. If it is someone that I am birding with casually, I usually won't correct them for calling a bird by it's old name. But I will correct them if they are using a name that is completely wrong (politely of course). While there may not be a difference between an Oldsquaw and a Long-tailed Duck other than a name change, allowing a birder to continue thinking that a Heron is a Crane is irresponsible. If someone offered you an apple, and you looked down and saw an orange, would you just let it go since there both fruit? To me, it's the same with bird names. They might all be birds, but they are different.

I have found that when leading field trips, I am often joined by new birders or birders with little experience who have joined me to learn new skills that will make them a better birder, which is great! To me, there is hardly a better way to learn how to identify new birds as well as learning their proper names than to bird with others who know more. Field trips in particular are a great opportunity to teach, even at the risk of some slight embarrassment. If you think about it, most people (even experienced birders) go on field trips to learn. They may be interested in a trip to learn about the birds themselves, or to learn about new places to find them.

You can never know it all. Hell, I never will. To this day when I am leading a trip, I learn new things about birds. It isn't always the humans that teach me something new, but I still get a rush when I go out on a trip and discover a new tool that helps me with identification.

Amy Schillinger
Renton WA
schillingera at hotmail.com




Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 04:46:26 +0000
From: merlinmania at comcast.net
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] RE: A plea for the correct use of the word "Merlin"






Bird names do change (although I would argue its not all that often), but the Merlin's name has not changed since at least the 70's or so when it was often known as the Pigeon Hawk. I think that is enough time for us to have adapted to that change.

On the same note I have heard people say "Redhead (or Red-headed) Duck", instead of just Redhead. As Bud observed with the use of "Merlin Falcon", it is often a beginner, or non-birder who says it. If I've just met someone while birding and hear them say such things I don't usually them - you never know how easily embarassed someone you have just met is. BUT - I think in a forum such as Tweeters where we come to learn about birds, such a correction is appropriate. I think Bud went out of his way to be kind about it, so let's just take it as a learning moment as I think it was intended.

P.S. I've also heard "Sora Rail" and any other number of redundancy names. Anyone else hear others?


Jim Flynn
Seattle, WA

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