Oxymoronic Names (1 Viewer)

[simondix]

As we have had Bloggs' birds how about birds with oxymoronic names. There must be quite a few.

I'll start the ball rolling with Red-rumped Wheatear.

 

[birdman]

Nice one, simondix.

How about...

Amethyst Brown-Dove Phapitreron amethystina

 

[Alastair Rae]

Black redstart?

 

[bristolbirder]

Bearded Tit?

Or is that just being silly?

 

[HokkaidoStu]

off topic but....

Whoever named Gulls in the UK must have been drunk

 

[HokkaidoStu]

oops let me finish that!
BLACK headed Gull....(it`s brown)
COMMON Gull (there are several commoner species)

When are these names going to be sorted out?

And what did they call House Martins before people started living in houses?

 

[Paul Rule]

How come when Marsh and Willow Tits were split into 2 species they end up getting the names they did? Neither bird can be linked to either Marshes or Willows, and the one that does prefer a wetter habituate got the Willow tag.

On a more technical point none of the examples given in this thread are actually oxymoron’s, just cases of poor naming.

According to my Chambers CD - Oxymoron = a figure of speech by means of which contradictory terms are combined, so as to form an expressive phrase or epithet - as Cruel Kindness

I think the term "Sports Personality" could fall into this category

 

[Johnny1]

Red Winged Blackbird.

 

[Surreybirder]

How come when Marsh and Willow Tits were split into 2 species they end up getting the names they did? Neither bird can be linked to either Marshes or Willows, and the one that does prefer a wetter habituate got the Willow tag.

On a more technical point none of the examples given in this thread are actually oxymoron’s, just cases of poor naming.

According to my Chambers CD - Oxymoron = a figure of speech by means of which contradictory terms are combined, so as to form an expressive phrase or epithet - as Cruel Kindness

I think the term "Sports Personality" could fall into this category

I think that red-rumped white-arse (the original name) was truly oxymoronic. But I agree that most of the examples are simply moronic.
The classic phrase is: 'It was a pretty ugly situation'.

Yellow white-eye and the like are not really oxymorons.

 

[gordon hamlett]

It's not just the English names

The scientific name for Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus translates as Laughing gull

The scientific name for Laughing Gull Larus atricilla translates as Black-headed Gull

Gordon

 

[Jasonbirder]

What about "Spotted" Crake?
They`re usually devlish hard to spot!

 

[Surreybirder]

The scientific name for Laughing Gull Larus atricilla translates as Black-headed Gull

Can anyone confirm or contradict this? I had a look on a web site about the latin names of birds and it gave atra as 'matt black' and 'cilla' as tail.

click here

I've certainly seen cephala used for 'head'. But I'm not a Latin scholar!

 

[Ashley beolens]

I was under the same impression as Gordon on this one, It goes along with the fact that Black headed gull has a brown head, and Laughing gull has a Black head.

 

[Surreybirder]

At the risk of breaching copyright:

A particularly entertaining example is formed by the gulls. Larus melanocephalus is applied to the bird known in English as the Mediterranean Gull, but actually means black-headed gull. The scientific name for the Black-headed Gull is Larus ridibundus, which means laughing gull. The scientific name for the Laughing Gull is Larus atricilla, which means black-tailed gull. The scientific name for the Black-tailed Gull is Larus crassirostris, which means large-billed gull. The scientific name for the Large-billed Gull is Larus pacificus, which means (of course) Pacific Gull. At this point a disappointing touch of sanity intervenes, because Pacific Gull is another name for Larus pacificus.

 

[simondix]

I wish I hadn't started this thread!

 

[Surreybirder]

Well you know what they say, Simondix, "publish and be damned!".

 

[Harry]

"Can anyone confirm or contradict this? I had a look on a web site about the latin names of birds and it gave atra as 'matt black' and 'cilla' as tail.

I've certainly seen cephala used for 'head'. But I'm not a Latin scholar!"

My (distant) recollection is that atra is the feminine form of ater (black) and cilla (a feminine noun) is indeed tail.
Kephalos is Greek for head.

 

[alanhill]

It's an interesting thread, Simon, even though you may wish you hadn't started it, and it's now developed a life of its own away from oxymorons.
I've been interested in how bird names developed and changed from Roman, Anglo-saxon, Medieval times, etc.
For example Stu, how did all the 'house' names come about - House Martin, House Sparrow, House Swallow? As you say they were about long before the sorts of houses they were later associated with. The 'House Martin' is originally a cave and cliff dweller, which only relatively recently adapted to nesting on houses.
Apparently its 'proper' name, the Martin (aka Martlet), only got the adjective 'House' attached around the 18th c., to balance up with the Sand Martin.
There are similar stories for the Swallow and Sparrow. This information came from 'The Oxford Dictionary of Bird Names', by W.B. Lockwood. I don't know how far it applies to non-UK names.

Alan Hill

 

[T0ny]

Isn't it odd that no-one with a bizarre name has ever had a bird named after them ? If I had a weird name, I'd try to get it immortalised in this way, or by inventing something for which it would become a household name.

J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock

 

[Surreybirder]

Don't know. King of Saxony (as in bird of paradise) is a fairly bizarre name. Or Kittlitz (to the English at least).

Mind you, with birds like
potoo
brubru
pygmy-tyrant
who needs bizarre first names?

Coming back to oxymorons: how about a hen cock-of-the-rocks?
There's also a coppery emerald listed in Birds of the world a checklist (James F. Clements)