Weird Bird Names

I sometimes wonder who on earth was given the role of naming birds.

I understand that there are a large number of birds in the world but sometimes their names do not seem to do them justice. For instance, why the African Wattled Lapwing is named as it is whilst the White Crowned Lapwing  has much larger wattles - this can cause some confusion at a waterhole.  And why does the African Pitta sound a rather dull and boring bird when, in my opinion, it is one of the most colourful birds seen in Africa. And as for the Broad Billed Roller, don't get me started, it has extraordinary lilac/purple underparts, but those aren't mentioned are they?  Its bill is not that broad really, but its lilac chest is something to sing about...

Then there are all the exotically named birds such as the African Paradise Fly Catcher, the Gorgeous Bush Shrike (which really is gorgeous) and the Greater Double Collared Sunbird, now they are named correctly. I think that after a while the person naming the birds got a little bit bored and resorted to naming them after their more obvious characteristics - the Red Winged Starling has red wings (although I would probably call them russet,) the Yellow Billed Stork is a stork with a yellow bill and the Long-tailed Paradise Whydah does in fact have a very long tail.

There are also some wonderfully named birds where you would have had to have taken something illegal to think of these names – the Secretary Bird which has some plumes sticking out of the top of its head which may or may not resemble a pen behind the ear, the Twinspots which have two white spots on every small feather but you would have had to captured them to find this one out and the Tambourine Dove has not a musical instrument in sight and does not sound like one either.

Whatever your thoughts on birds, Africa does actually bring it all to life, and once you have got your head around the unorthodox names you will become a twitcher - be proud of it!