Same bird different name? (1 Viewer)

[steveo]

Same bird different name? UK focus

What species of bird do we have here in the U.S that also naturally exist in other countries by a different name? For example is our Northern Shrike the same as Britian's Great Grey Shrike. ?. As in they are genetically speaking the same speicies. Any example you can think of throw in. Thanks. Steve o

 

[Jack Dawe]

I made a list of these once and came up with the following. Often the US and UK birds are different subspecies and some of them may perhaps have been split by now - I haven't kept up to date.

US name - - - - - UK name
Common Loon = Great Northern Diver
Yellw-billed Loon = White-billed Diver
Arctic Loon = Pacific Diver
Red-throated Loon = Red-throated Diver
Horned Grebe = Slavonian Grebe
Eared Grebe = Black-necked Grebe
Flesh-footed Shearwater = Pale-footed Shearwater
Band-rumped Storm Petrel = Madeiran Storm Petrel
Black-crowned Night Heron = Night Heron
Tundra Swan = Bewick's Swan (subspecies of)
Oldsquaw = Long-tailed Duck
Common Merganser = Goosander
Snowy Plover = Kentish Plover
Mongolian Plover = Lesser Sand Plover
Black-bellied Plover = Grey Plover
Red Phalarope = Grey Phalarope
Ruddy Turnstone = Turnstone
Rufous-necked Stint = Red-necked Stint
Parasitic Jaeger = Arctic Skua (all jaegers are called skuas in the UK)
Mew Gull = Common Gull
Black-legged Kittiwake = Kittiwake
Common Murre = Guillemot
Dovekie = Little Auk
Thick-billed Murre = Brünnich's Guillemot
Atlantic Puffin = Puffin
Northern Harrier = Hen Harrier
Rough-legged Hawk = Rough-legged Buzzard
Rock Ptarmigan = Ptarmigan
Willow Ptarmigan = Willow Grouse
Fork-tailed Swift = Pacific Swift
Horned Lark = Shore Lark
Bank Swallow = Sand Martin
Barn Swallow = Swallow
Black-billed Magpie = Magpie
Winter Wren = Wren
Northern Shrike = Great Grey Shrike
Olive Tree-pipt = Olive-backed Pipit
Bohemian Waxwing = Waxwing
Lapland Longspur = Lapland Bunting
Red Crossbill = Crossbill
White-winged Crossbill = Two=barred Crossbill
Common Rosefinch = Scarlet Rosefinch
Hoary Redpoll = Arctic Redpoll

 

[lockbreeze926]

To that list, you could add these (largely just more explicit names) -

Great Cormorant - Cormorant
Red Knot - Knot
Pine Siskin - Siskin
Brant - Brent Goose
Long-Billed Curlew - Curlew
Ring-Necked Pheasant - Pheasant
Northern Gannet - Gannet

I didn't know that a Bank Swallow was a Sand Martin!

 

[rokermartin]

To that list, you could add these (largely just more explicit names) -

Great Cormorant - Cormorant
Red Knot - Knot
Pine Siskin - Siskin
Brant - Brent Goose
Long-Billed Curlew - Curlew
Ring-Necked Pheasant - Pheasant
Northern Gannet - Gannet

I didn't know that a Bank Swallow was a Sand Martin!

Long billed Curlew is actually a different species from Eurasian Curlew.Also Pine Siskin is a different species from Eurasian Siskin.

 

[lockbreeze926]

Long billed Curlew is actually a different species from Eurasian Curlew.Also Pine Siskin is a different species Eurasian Siskin.

You are quite right - and the Black-Billed Magpie is now a separate species as well.

And the Northern Harrier used to be the American Marsh-Hawk (and may be again...)

The joys and perils of lumping and splitting, and that's without getting into things like the American Herring-Gull.

 

[ovenbird43]

And the Northern Harrier used to be the American Marsh-Hawk (and may be again...)

Currently it's Northern Harrier.

I'm not sure when Wilson's Snipe was split from Common Snipe, but many checklists here still call it Common Snipe. For that matter, is it usually called Common Snipe in Europe, or just Snipe?

Is the House Sparrow that we have here also called House Sparrow in Europe? What about Eurasian Starling, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, and Eurasian Collared-Dove- are they normally called just Starling, Tree Sparrow, and Collared-Dove in Europe?

 

[lockbreeze926]

Currently it's Northern Harrier.

I'm not sure when Wilson's Snipe was split from Common Snipe, but many checklists here still call it Common Snipe. For that matter, is it usually called Common Snipe in Europe, or just Snipe?

Is the House Sparrow that we have here also called House Sparrow in Europe? What about Eurasian Starling, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, and Eurasian Collared-Dove- are they normally called just Starling, Tree Sparrow, and Collared-Dove in Europe?

I know it's Northern Harrier at the moment - I was referring to its once-and-future naming potential.

In Europe, people (except deep-dyed taxonomy enthusiasts) are generally unwilling to be very specific - if you only have one wren, why not just call it "Wren"? So, yes to all of your questions : just Snipe, Starling, etc.

And House Sparrow.

 

[Dave B Smith]

And what about the birds that have the same name but are different species?
Our Robin versus your Robin, etc.

 

[Jack Dawe]

Colloquial names are the ones that come to mind here.

To Americans "redwing" means Red-winged Blackbird. In the UK it is the name for Turdus iliacus.

To Americans "sparrowhawk" means American Kestrel. In the UK it is the name for Accipiter nisus.

 

[fugl]

Here's another Old World/New World difference:
"Redstart" = kind of thrush (Old World)/kind of wood warbler (New World).

And then there are the sparrows and buntings. In the OW "buntings" are what the NW tends to call "sparrows" while in the New World "bunting" is used for various species not found in the OW. Everybody now calls the House Sparrow "House Sparrow" though it used to be known as "English Sparrow" in the NW. The American Tree Sparrow is related to other NW "sparrows" not to the OW Tree Sparrow which is a relative of the House Sparrow.

 

[Kits]

Fascinating thread! We Opus Editors have great fun with alternative names for birds. Why not have a dip into Opus and have a look at the differences for some of the birds mentioned here?

 

[ovenbird43]

I know it's Northern Harrier at the moment - I was referring to its once-and-future naming potential.

Oh, I see... sorry.

Elaborating on the sparrow vs. bunting... if I am not mistaken, birds in the family Emberizidae are generally called "buntings" in Europe and mostly "sparrows" in America (except Lark Bunting, Snow Bunting, and longspurs). We also use the term "bunting" for several members of the Cardinalidae, i.e. Indigo, Painted, and Lazuli Buntings. In Europe, "sparrows" are usually the Passeridae, right? As in House Sparrow.

 

[ovenbird43]

Also, an interesting thing about the robins... in North America we have been referring to large Turdus thrushes as "robins", as in American Robin, Clay-colored Robin, etc. However, most field guides for Central and South America call all species in this genus "thrushes". Recently the ABA officially changed Clay-colored Robin to Clay-colored Thrush... however, American Robin or just "robin" is a name that will probably endure, especially colloquially.

 

[Mysticete]

On old versus new world "sparrows":

at least some molecular evidence coming out is calling for the split of the buntings (Emberizidae), longspurs (Calcariidae) and the new world sparrows (which may then be called "Arremonidae"). IF that happens I guess the weirdness of bunting versus sparrow in emberizidae will be taken care of.

 

[Dave B Smith]

Here's another Old World/New World difference:
"Redstart" = kind of thrush (Old World)/kind of wood warbler (New World).

And to complicate the American Redstart, the South American Species are being called (more appropriately) Whitestarts. See quoted section below from Wikipedia:

"The whitestarts are New World warblers in the genus Myioborus. The English name refers to the white outer tail feathers which are a prominent feature of the members of this genus (“start” is an archaic word for “tail”). Confusingly, most species are usually named as “redstarts”, and these less accurate, but more familiar names (to birders in Central and North America, while Whitestart has gained wider use in South America), are retained in the species list below"