Why Do Birds Have Such Strange Names?

Have you ever stopped to wonder why some birds have strange names?

Some bird names like the Blackbird I can understand being called that, because if you look, it's a Black Bird. Pretty simple isn't it.

Take the Cuckoo. This makes the sound "cook-who" and therefore it's also a pretty logical name.

Likewise, the Whippoorwill is named after it's song, which sounds like "Whip Poor Will".

It all makes perfect sense to me, and even the Mockingbird is an appropriate name for a bird that not only imitates other bird songs, but the sounds around it as well. There were several Mockingbirds where I lived in South Florida, that would imitate a car alarm. They wouldn't just get one car alarm sound however, they would go through the whole sequence of sound effects that some car alarms give off. It was really funny to listen to.

But not all bird names make sense to me, and I would love to know the origins of some of their names.

The Swift is a pretty swift little bird that darts about, but it's very similar to the Swallow, which to my knowledge doesn't make a noise like someone swallowing. So where did the Swallow get it's name from?

The Robin I assume is so named because of it's red breast, Robin being short for Robin Redbreast, which is more of a pet name, but it's still called a Robin and not a Redbreast, both in the UK and the USA, where the Robin is actually more like a Blackbird with a brown chest, rather than the British Robin, who is a chubby little fellow who has a very red breast.

But where on earth did the Pelican get it's name from? I am left to wonder if it's just so it could be so that people could remember if from the rhyme:

A curious bird is the Pelican
It's beak holds more than it's belly can

Some bird names really make me wonder though.

Take the Loon, as made famous in the movie "On Golden Pond", where Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda would go to their lake house every summer to listen to the Loons. It was so amusing to hear Katharine Hepburn cry out "Can you hear them? The Loons, the Loons..." which she said in a wonderful warbling manner.

It is thought that the North American name "Loon" is likely to have come from either the Old English word "lumme", meaning lummox or awkward person, or the Scandinavian word "lum" meaning lame or clumsy. Either way, the name refers to the loon's poor ability to walk on land.

Well there we have it, a good reason for calling a Loon a "Loon", but what about the Tit?

In the UK we have all sorts of Tits. There are Blue Tits, Bearded Tits, Coal Tits, Crested Tits, Great Tits, Marsh Tits and Willow Tits. The American Chickadee is also a kind of Tit, and apparently the name is thought to have come from the German "Tit" which means "small".

Definitely giving a bird a name like this has made many a schoolboy laugh, but not so much as the American Boobie!

The Boobie looks somewhat like a Penguin at first glance, and again you might wonder how it got it's name. Certainly it's a funny name, and actually from the way it walks, calling someone "a Boobie" could be an apt thing to do, even though it's still rude!

It is possible that the Boobie got it's name name from the Spanish slang term "bubi", which means "dunce", as these tame birds were noted for landing on board sailing ships, where they were easily captured and eaten.

The diary of Captain Bligh, the one who was cast adrift from The Bounty, tells of the crew staying alive by eating Boobies that had landed on their small boat. I bet you didn't know that did you?

The Bustard is another bird that has a comical name, with varieties like the Great Bustard, Little Bustard, Black Bustard, White Bellied Bustard, and Black Bellied Bustard.

I guess I don't need to add anything to how this bird's name might be used, but you still wonder how it got it's name in the first place.

Maybe, just maybe, a few hundred years ago (or more), a farmer was walking across the fields, when one of these birds dive bombed him, and left a nasty mess on his balding head.

It's quite easy to imagine the farmer yelling out after the culprit "come back here, you Black Bellied Bustard". Or words to that effect.

There are many more odd bird names, like the "Brown Trembler", the name alone makes you shudder... I dread to think where this got it's name from!

So do you have a favorite bird name that makes you laugh or that you find interesting, or maybe you know of the reason why some birds were given the names that they have.

If so, please leave a comment, the funnier the better.
　

Sources:

RSPB Tits

Wikipedia Boobies

Worlds Funniest Bird Names