Go back to my #blogvent calendar
The amount of time I spend watching birds is… a lot. I’ve been accused (how dare they) of being an old woman who likes to spend my time sipping my tea and watching the birds flit though my backyard. Guilty as charged. What can I say?
But, one thing you maybe didn’t know, is how absolutely bizarre a lot of bird names are. I’m not talking about the latin, species, proper names. I’m talking about the common names. Bushtit. Titmouse. Blue footed boobie. Like, what? I don’t know why these birds are named the way they are, but we’re about to learn together.
(you read that right)
This refers to a family of birds. When thinking about evolutionary taxonomy we it goes in this order: Domain > Kingdom > Phylum > Class > Order > Family > Genus > Species
If you ask yourself, well, what decides a family? The answer is taxonomists. If you want to learn more about biological taxonomy, I highly recommend “Why Fish Don’t Exist”. (technically, like taxonomically speaking, they don’t!)
Okay, so back to tits (ha). In Old English, “tit” meant “small bird”. So every bird in the “tit” family, is just a type of bird defined by its small size. That means birds like: the titmouse, a bushtit (one of my spark birds, which I can talk about later), great tits, etc.
Honestly, I defy you to find something cuter than the tit family. When we talk about borbs; the round, orb of a fluffy bird… we mean the tit family. They’re cute. They’re gregarious. They travel in packs. And they are painfully adorable.
Make Bushtit (Pacific). These little buddies come in flocks of 20 or so at my house. They make this disarming little “cheep-cheep” as they flit from bush to bush. Photo and more info at All About Birds.
(these cute little buddies arrive in my backyard every spring!)
When this name is broken down it makes a lot of sense. But put together it sounds pretty funny. Yellow-rumped is pretty self-explanatory. These birds have a stunning (I said what I said), bright yellow bum in springtime, during mating season. I’m lucky enough to get flocks of them in my fountain and get to watch them flit around my yard.
The warbler part of their name comes from the call they make. If you’ve ever sat and listened to a warbler, they make these beautiful, intricate, trilling calls that modulate and change as the song goes on. It’s really very enchanting. “Warbler” comes from the french “werbler” meaning “to sing in trills”. Every year when I hear the warblers I know spring has arrived!
This is they Myrtle variation of Yellow Rumped Warbler that I see in my yard. Truly a stunning little bird and really exciting against the gray-green backdrop of early spring foliage. Photo and more info on All About Birds.