janvanderbrugge
Well-known member
Hello, I take pleasure in presenting to you the result of an exploration in Japanese bird names. From my list I have selected the names which were used an an inspiration for nomenclature. If anyone would like to receive the complete list (all vernacular names explained, so no eponyms), please let me know. I am no expert; the future (or someone more familiar with this material) might produce some improvements.
Some names were explained already in James Jobling's Key (HBW Alive).
Cheers, sayonara,
Jan van der Brugge, Oranda (= Netherlands)
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Japanese bird names which have been used, unchanged or in adapted form, as scientific names for Japanese bird (sub)species:
akagera (Dryobates major): red woodpecker, aka = red, gera = woodpecker
akahige (Erithacus/Larvivora/Luscinia): red beard, aka = red, hige = beard, whiskers
aogera > scientific name awokera
awokera (Picus): Japanese aogera = green woodpecker, ao = green, gera = woodpecker (one of the words for woodpecker).
enaga (Aegithalos caudatus). The vernacular name for the Long-tailed Tit, means: long handle; e is the word for handle, naga = long.
goisagi (Gorsakius/Nycticorax), from the Japanese name goisagi = heron of the fifth imperial rank, go-i = the fifth court rank, sagi = heron; goi is now used for all night-herons and bitterns.
From goisagi were also coined the generic names Gorsachius, Gorsakius.
iamasigi (Scolopax rusticola) < yamashigi = mountain snipe, the Japanese name for the Eurasian woodcock (shigi is the general name for snipe-like birds: snipe, godwit, dowitcher, sandpiper).
jamasemi (Ceryle lugubris) < yamasemi = mountain kingfisher, Japanese name for the Greater Pied Kingfisher. Semi is kingfisher, but the Halcyon-type species are called shōbin.
jotaka (Caprimulgus, Caprimulgus indicus) < Japanese yotaka = night hawk (taka = hawk) = nightjar.
kakes (Garrulus japonicus) < kakesu is the autochthonous Japanese name for the Eurasian Jay, with original meaning: hang-nest. (kakeru = to hang, su = nest). [Edit: the vernacular name is not kakes, a Japanese word does not end in -s, although the termination -u can be quite weak.]
kakesu > scientific name kakes
kawarahiba (Carduelis/Chloris sinica, Fringilla): kawarahiwa = riverside finch, the Japanese name of the Oriental Greenfinch (kawara = riverside, hiwa = finch).
kawarahiwa > scientific name kawarahiba
kitsutsuki > scientific name kizuki
kizuki (Dendrocopos) < kitsutsuki, Japanese name for (a smaller) woodpecker. It is not the usual name for Dendrocopos kizuki, which is called: ko gera = small woodpecker. (Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopos minor, = ko akagera = small red woodpecker).
komadori (Erithacus/Lusciola/Sylvia): steed bird, horse bird. The Japanese word for bird is tori (also the name of the national ornithological magazine); softened to -dori in compound words. As stated elsewhere, Siebold or Temminck & Schlegel confounded the names komadori + akahige for the two robin-like species.
miharagokko (Turdus aureus/Zoothera dauma). It is far from easy to plausibly split up such names in elements. Hara is the word for belly. There could be a linguistic link with the autochthonous name Akakokko of Turdus celaenops (in which aka = red and kokko is considered a dialect word), the Izu Islands Thrush. The Scaly-breasted Munia, an escaped estrildid in Japan, is called Amihara. One might assume that miharagokko must refer to the scalloped breast or scaly underparts of the White’s Thrush.
mugimaki (Ficedula/Muscicapa/Siphia): autochthonous Japanese name for this flycatcher, means: wheat-sower.
onaga (Pica cyanus): The word onaga means: long-tail, o (with short o) = tail. Naga is also found in the name E-naga.
shijukara > scientific name sidsiukara
sidsiukara (Parus major): shijukara = forty titmouse, alliterative from the call-note; this is the Japanese name for Parus major minor > Parus minor minor (all the great tits of mainland Japan).
toratsugumi > scientific name toratugumi
toratugumi (Turdus aureus/Zoothera aurea/dauma). Tsugumi is Japanese for thrush, tora = tiger.
tsubame (Aerodramus vanikorensis/Collocalia whiteheadi). Tsubame = swallow, also used for Swifts. The name umitsubame = sea swallow, is used for Oceanodroma species.
umisuzume > scientific names umizusume, wumizusume, wumisuzume
umizusume (Uria), wumisuzumi (Synthliboramphus/Uria), wumizusume (Synthliboramphus/Uria): umisuzume = sea sparrow (umi = sea, suzume = sparrow), the name for auklets and murrelets (Aethia, Synthliboramphus).
yamasemi > scientific name jamasemi
yamashigi > scientific name iamasigi
yotaka > scientific name jotaka
Japanese words, other than vernacular bird names, in scientific bird names:
(again: no eponyms or toponyms in this part)
ma (Strix aluco, Syrnium): = Japanese: gnome, elf.
ni (Turdus eunomus): ni is one of the Japanese postpositions (the Japanese language has no prepositions) of high frequency, with the meaning: in, on, to (to in the sense of: belonging to, adding, beside).
Kuroda wrote about this bird: “Momiyama’s ni is a variety of the common eunomus, very frequently found among the ordinary form.” It seems a plausible explanation that this is what Momiyama wanted to express: the new form he distinguished, is an addition to the well-known Dusky Thrush and belongs to/in that species. If the thrush name had been Japanese, the -ni would be attached to it with a hyphen (that is, in transcription).
sunsunpi (Cyanistes/Parus/Poecile/Sittiparus varius): apparently an onomatopoeic word. The song is described as a thin “tse-tse-peee”, call high, 4x repeated “ssii-ssii”; but for Parus ater is mentioned: calls softly
“tse-tse-peen”, so the sound is not exclusive. Possibly there is a local vernacular name “Sunsunpi”, which Kuroda chose for the Varied Tit of Tanegashima. Original sources might contain such information, but it is not given in the English summaries.
Source:
Oliver L.Austin, Jr. & Nagahisa Kuroda, The Birds of Japan - Their status and distribution. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Vol.109, no.4, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. October 1963 [1]
A Hand-List of the Japanese Birds. Edited by a Special Committee of the Ornithological Society of Japan.
Fourth and Revised Edition, March, 1958 (revision of the 1942 Edition) Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, Tokyo, Japan. [2, all subspecies, species of Taiwan + islands included]
Mark A.Brazil, The Birds of Japan. Illustrated by Masayuki Yabuuchi.
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1991 [3]
Joseph A.Massey et al. A Field Guide to the Birds of Japan. Text by Wild Bird Society of Japan. Illustrations by Shinji Takano.
Wild Bird Society of Japan/Kodansha International Ltd., Tokyo, 1982 [4]
[the figures after the references correspond with the columns of my file, because not all species are given in all publications (exotic invaders etc.) and there are also differences in spelling, as well as in the systematic status of taxa.]
Some names were explained already in James Jobling's Key (HBW Alive).
Cheers, sayonara,
Jan van der Brugge, Oranda (= Netherlands)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Japanese bird names which have been used, unchanged or in adapted form, as scientific names for Japanese bird (sub)species:
akagera (Dryobates major): red woodpecker, aka = red, gera = woodpecker
akahige (Erithacus/Larvivora/Luscinia): red beard, aka = red, hige = beard, whiskers
aogera > scientific name awokera
awokera (Picus): Japanese aogera = green woodpecker, ao = green, gera = woodpecker (one of the words for woodpecker).
enaga (Aegithalos caudatus). The vernacular name for the Long-tailed Tit, means: long handle; e is the word for handle, naga = long.
goisagi (Gorsakius/Nycticorax), from the Japanese name goisagi = heron of the fifth imperial rank, go-i = the fifth court rank, sagi = heron; goi is now used for all night-herons and bitterns.
From goisagi were also coined the generic names Gorsachius, Gorsakius.
iamasigi (Scolopax rusticola) < yamashigi = mountain snipe, the Japanese name for the Eurasian woodcock (shigi is the general name for snipe-like birds: snipe, godwit, dowitcher, sandpiper).
jamasemi (Ceryle lugubris) < yamasemi = mountain kingfisher, Japanese name for the Greater Pied Kingfisher. Semi is kingfisher, but the Halcyon-type species are called shōbin.
jotaka (Caprimulgus, Caprimulgus indicus) < Japanese yotaka = night hawk (taka = hawk) = nightjar.
kakes (Garrulus japonicus) < kakesu is the autochthonous Japanese name for the Eurasian Jay, with original meaning: hang-nest. (kakeru = to hang, su = nest). [Edit: the vernacular name is not kakes, a Japanese word does not end in -s, although the termination -u can be quite weak.]
kakesu > scientific name kakes
kawarahiba (Carduelis/Chloris sinica, Fringilla): kawarahiwa = riverside finch, the Japanese name of the Oriental Greenfinch (kawara = riverside, hiwa = finch).
kawarahiwa > scientific name kawarahiba
kitsutsuki > scientific name kizuki
kizuki (Dendrocopos) < kitsutsuki, Japanese name for (a smaller) woodpecker. It is not the usual name for Dendrocopos kizuki, which is called: ko gera = small woodpecker. (Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopos minor, = ko akagera = small red woodpecker).
komadori (Erithacus/Lusciola/Sylvia): steed bird, horse bird. The Japanese word for bird is tori (also the name of the national ornithological magazine); softened to -dori in compound words. As stated elsewhere, Siebold or Temminck & Schlegel confounded the names komadori + akahige for the two robin-like species.
miharagokko (Turdus aureus/Zoothera dauma). It is far from easy to plausibly split up such names in elements. Hara is the word for belly. There could be a linguistic link with the autochthonous name Akakokko of Turdus celaenops (in which aka = red and kokko is considered a dialect word), the Izu Islands Thrush. The Scaly-breasted Munia, an escaped estrildid in Japan, is called Amihara. One might assume that miharagokko must refer to the scalloped breast or scaly underparts of the White’s Thrush.
mugimaki (Ficedula/Muscicapa/Siphia): autochthonous Japanese name for this flycatcher, means: wheat-sower.
onaga (Pica cyanus): The word onaga means: long-tail, o (with short o) = tail. Naga is also found in the name E-naga.
shijukara > scientific name sidsiukara
sidsiukara (Parus major): shijukara = forty titmouse, alliterative from the call-note; this is the Japanese name for Parus major minor > Parus minor minor (all the great tits of mainland Japan).
toratsugumi > scientific name toratugumi
toratugumi (Turdus aureus/Zoothera aurea/dauma). Tsugumi is Japanese for thrush, tora = tiger.
tsubame (Aerodramus vanikorensis/Collocalia whiteheadi). Tsubame = swallow, also used for Swifts. The name umitsubame = sea swallow, is used for Oceanodroma species.
umisuzume > scientific names umizusume, wumizusume, wumisuzume
umizusume (Uria), wumisuzumi (Synthliboramphus/Uria), wumizusume (Synthliboramphus/Uria): umisuzume = sea sparrow (umi = sea, suzume = sparrow), the name for auklets and murrelets (Aethia, Synthliboramphus).
yamasemi > scientific name jamasemi
yamashigi > scientific name iamasigi
yotaka > scientific name jotaka
Japanese words, other than vernacular bird names, in scientific bird names:
(again: no eponyms or toponyms in this part)
ma (Strix aluco, Syrnium): = Japanese: gnome, elf.
ni (Turdus eunomus): ni is one of the Japanese postpositions (the Japanese language has no prepositions) of high frequency, with the meaning: in, on, to (to in the sense of: belonging to, adding, beside).
Kuroda wrote about this bird: “Momiyama’s ni is a variety of the common eunomus, very frequently found among the ordinary form.” It seems a plausible explanation that this is what Momiyama wanted to express: the new form he distinguished, is an addition to the well-known Dusky Thrush and belongs to/in that species. If the thrush name had been Japanese, the -ni would be attached to it with a hyphen (that is, in transcription).
sunsunpi (Cyanistes/Parus/Poecile/Sittiparus varius): apparently an onomatopoeic word. The song is described as a thin “tse-tse-peee”, call high, 4x repeated “ssii-ssii”; but for Parus ater is mentioned: calls softly
“tse-tse-peen”, so the sound is not exclusive. Possibly there is a local vernacular name “Sunsunpi”, which Kuroda chose for the Varied Tit of Tanegashima. Original sources might contain such information, but it is not given in the English summaries.
Source:
Oliver L.Austin, Jr. & Nagahisa Kuroda, The Birds of Japan - Their status and distribution. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Vol.109, no.4, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. October 1963 [1]
A Hand-List of the Japanese Birds. Edited by a Special Committee of the Ornithological Society of Japan.
Fourth and Revised Edition, March, 1958 (revision of the 1942 Edition) Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, Tokyo, Japan. [2, all subspecies, species of Taiwan + islands included]
Mark A.Brazil, The Birds of Japan. Illustrated by Masayuki Yabuuchi.
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1991 [3]
Joseph A.Massey et al. A Field Guide to the Birds of Japan. Text by Wild Bird Society of Japan. Illustrations by Shinji Takano.
Wild Bird Society of Japan/Kodansha International Ltd., Tokyo, 1982 [4]
[the figures after the references correspond with the columns of my file, because not all species are given in all publications (exotic invaders etc.) and there are also differences in spelling, as well as in the systematic status of taxa.]
