Aussie Bird Names (1 Viewer)

[pete woodall]

There's now a pretty standard list of Australian Bird names that were standardised by Birds Australia (RAOU) and which are used in all the Field Guides, but a wide variety of names have been used in the past.

I'll give a few below that may provide a challenge to link to the current names. They're taken from "The Illustrated Dictionary of Australian Birds by Common Name" by Jim Macdonald. Jim was a former head of the Bird Department of the British Museum, he retired to Briosbane and sadly passed away a couple of years ago.

Please suggest the current names for:

Australian flower-swallow

Bank diamond

Betcherrygah

betting bird

black bell-magpie

black redbill

There's many more where these came from!

Cheers

Pete

 

[Edward]

Australian flower swallow - Mistletoebird?

Black-bell magpie - some kind of currawong? I'll say Pied Currawong (as it's the only one I've seen).

E

 

[SueO]

I have to think a bit on the others, but Betcherrygah (sp?) Is the Aboriginal name for Budgerigars. If memory serves, it means 'good bird'. 'Good' in a culinary sense. :-C Thanks for the fun, Pete.

 

[Xenospiza]

Black Redbill - Sooty Oystercatcher. Just couldn't think of any other black Australian bird with a red bill!

 

[Dimitris]

Bank Diamond: Diamond Firetail??

 

[Tannin]

Australian flower-swallow: Should be obvious, but I can't think what. Silvereye? Mistletoebird? Spinebill?

Bank diamond: Spotted Pardalote (a jewel of a bird that nests in banks)

Betcherrygah: the post above suggesting a budgie has to be right

betting bird: no idea

black bell-magpie: Black Currawong? Pied Currawong?

black redbill: I had no idea, but the Sooty Oystercatcher suggestion sounds right

 

[Dimitris]

Betting Bird: Crested Bellbird?

 

[Xenospiza]

I found Betting Bird by cheating (i.e. using Google): apparently it's a bird from which you cannot *bet* its location.
Curiously, a flower swallow is a Korean homeless child.

 

[pete woodall]

I'll close this off now by giving the identity (according to Jim Mcdonald) of the "betting bird". He gives it as the Long-tailed Nightjar, found in the northern parts of Australia, where it has a repeated "chop, chop, chop, ...." call.

Apparently bets are/were made on the number of times it would repeat the "chops" in a sequence. They say Aussies will bet on anything - I hadn't heard of this one before.

Cheers

Peter

 

[Tannin]

Buy you haven't told us if we were right!

(PS: is there a prize? I prefer the red flavour, but can drink the white flavour too. Or the amber-coloured flavour with bubbles in it at a pinch.)

 

[Edward]

Buy you haven't told us if we were right!

(PS: is there a prize? I prefer the red flavour, but can drink the white flavour too. Or the amber-coloured flavour with bubbles in it at a pinch.)

Seeing as you stole two of my answers, Tony, I expect you to keep any such prize in the cellar or on ice until I come to Victoria on my Plains-wanderer pilgrimage.

E

 

[pete woodall]

The final list is:
Please suggest the current names for:

Australian flower-swallow = Mistletoebird

Bank diamond = Spotted Pardalote

Betcherrygah = Budgerigar

betting bird = Long-tailed Nightjar

black bell-magpie = Pied Currawong

black redbill = Sooty Oystercatcher

 

[Tannin]

Thanks Pete. It was good fun. I'm game for another round if you have more of them.

PS: I think it's Pete who deserves the prize here, but I'll put a couple of Cascade Pale Ales on ice for you Edward.

 

[pete woodall]

Thanks for the feedback.
These were just from the "A's" and "B's" so there are plenty more in
the book and I'll put another batch up in a while.

 

[Edward]

Thanks for the feedback.
These were just from the "A's" and "B's" so there are plenty more in
the book and I'll put another batch up in a while.

Do so, Pete, but before you finish on the B's here's one more.

Bubbly Jock

Anyone?

E

 

[Tannin]

Hmmm ... It just has to be a call-related name. The first thing that comes to mind is the beautiful rippling chuckle of a Laughing Kookaburra - not the full-fledged laugh, the soft chuckle that often preceeds or follows it. There must be several others that would fit, but I can't bring any to mind right now. And the "Jock" part - that certainly suits a kooka, so I'll go with that guess.

 

[Edward]

Hmmm ... It just has to be a call-related name. The first thing that comes to mind is the beautiful rippling chuckle of a Laughing Kookaburra - not the full-fledged laugh, the soft chuckle that often preceeds or follows it. There must be several others that would fit, but I can't bring any to mind right now. And the "Jock" part - that certainly suits a kooka, so I'll go with that guess.

Call-related indeed, but not the Laughing Kookaburra. Bubbly Jock is a bird of eastern forests and gives a thumping call of "b*llocks-are-blue"

E

 

[Chris D]

I wish my memory was better. Gonna have to get back there soon.

 

[Tannin]

This gets interesting, Edward. I'm more a dry country man than a forest birder, but ..... How about the Noisy Friarbird?

 

[Edward]

This gets interesting, Edward. I'm more a dry country man than a forest birder, but ..... How about the Noisy Friarbird?

I was wondering whether they just made it into eastern Victoria but now I'm back home and have looked in Pizzey & Knight I see that they only make it to mid NSW. Stunningly beautiful bird, brightly coloured, chunky, bet you saw them (or at least heard them) in FNQ. WOLLOCK-A-WOO (B*llocks-are-blue).

E

PS Pete, where's the next installment?