Borrowed Bird Names

I've been toying with the idea of this post - comparing the Australian birds whose names have been 'borrowed' from European birds with the 'originals' - for quite some time but without the illustrative material to do it. Our recent holiday in Ireland has finally given me the opportunity to take photos of some of these birds, so we can now see and compare the local species with those originals. For this post I have drawn heavily on the research for Australian Bird Names; origins and meanings, published by CSIRO and now in a revised second edition, which I co-wrote with my friend and colleague Jeannie Gray. 

I won't tell the stories of these origins in full here, as some are really quite convoluted, but the book's in libraries if you're interested. It's going to be primarily a photo essay with the abbreviated stories in the captions. Where possible I've used photos of both the species the name was based on, and the Australian species to which the name was probably originally applied, but sometimes that still hasn't been possible so I've used closely related and similar species to get the idea over. Often you'll find that quite a leap of the imagination is required to see what our forebears saw! Usually these names were applied by British colonists in the early days of the foreign settlement of Australia, mostly people with some familiarity with the British birds but with no knowledge or interest in actual relationships. Moreover they were often homesick and longing for some familiarity in  a very strange land. (They could of course have asked the people who'd had names for the birds for thousands of years but that wouldn't have occurred to most of them.)

We'll start with some obvious and straightforward ones, where a name was directly applied based on superficial similarities, and come back to some of them when more convoluted name combinations are involved.

Eurasian Magpie Pica pica, Dublin. This is a very common and conspicuous bird,
 a member of the crow family, found right across northern Europe and Asia.

Australian Magpie Gymnorhina tibicen, Wagga Wagga. Yes it's large and conspicuously
black and while, but that's about it really! Its family Artamidae includes currawongs,
butcherbirds and woodswallows, of which all but the woodswallows are
confined to Australia and New Guinea.

European Robin Erithacus rubecula, Donegal, Ireland. This is a very engaging and
boldly curious little Old World flycatcher which would have been familiar to many of the colonists.

 

Flame Robin Petroica phoenicea, Namadgi National Park, ACT. It seems to me that
the name robin for Australian birds, which arose early in the Sydney colony,
could have been initially applied either to this species (especially in winter when it
came down from the mountains) or the Scarlet Robin, but most likely both.
In either case the resemblance again is pretty sketchy, and while there are pink,
yellow and black-and-white Australian robins, there are no orange ones.

Southern House Wren Troglodytes musculus, Chilean Patagonia. This is in the same
genus as the Eurasian Wren T. troglodytes, but I found the latter to be very difficult
to photograph. However this image is essentially what our forebears were thinking
of when they named the Australian 'wrens'.

Female Superb Fairywren Malurus cyaneus, National Botanic Gardens, Canberra
(where I think all the wrens have been banded by ANU students and other researchers).
Yet again the resemblance is vague - small, brown, cock-tailed and diving into bushes is
about it. And of course it entirely ignores the very colourful males in breeding season.
Nonetheless 'wren' was used from the very early days of the colony, initially for this
species, but it was later expanded to scrubwren, emuwren, grasswren, heathwren etc, for
more or less closely related groups. (The group name 'fairywren' was only coined
in the 20th century.)

Red-billed Chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, Great Saltee Island, Ireland.
This is another crow, one of just two members of the genus, mostly associated
with mountains or coastal cliffs, where they typically forage on nearby short
grassland, as this one was.

White-winged Choughs Corcorax melanorhamphos, in Canberra.
They are black and have a curved bill, but neither bill or legs are red, though
their eyes are, all in contrast to the original chough. They are in a uniquely
Australian family of just two species of mud nest builders (with the Apostlebird).
In this case most of the settlers wouldn't have been familiar with the European chough
which lived in pretty remote places; it was the scientists who named it and were
badly led astray by the superficial resemblance, even into the early 20th century.

Pied (or White) Wagtail Motacilla alba, Cork, Ireland. A familiar species across
a huge range covering Europe, all of Asia and some of North Africa. The family
Motacillidae includes wagtails and pipits, of which only one pipit species
is found in Australia. Significantly, in this context, the name Willy-wagtail
was apparently applied to it (according to the authoritative Australian National
Dictionary) but only on the Isle of Man and in Northern Ireland.

 

Willie Wagtail Rhipidura leucophrys (and two species of honeyeater) Gluepot Reserve,
South Australia. This is an odd and somewhat mysterious story about one of Australia's
most familiar and fondly regarded birds. The oldest record we can find for the name
is in a south-east Queensland newspaper in 1882, though earlier oral usage seems likely.
The Australian National Dictionary (see previous caption) asserts that the name
was transferred to our bird but doesn't explain the late arrival of the name.
However on balance it would seem a huge coincidence if there was no connection.

Welcome Swallows Hirundo neoxena, Canberra. This species is very similar to and
closely related to the Barn Swallow H. rustica, which would have been very familiar
to British settlers and found throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere. In fact
I suspect that most of them would have just referred to both species as 'the swallow'
without distinguishing them.

Dusky Woodswallow Artamus cyanopterus family near Canberra. The name Wood Swallow
was applied to it early in the days of the Sydney colony (allegedly because of its
habit of perching on tree stumps) and often just elided to 'swallow', being lumped in
with 'other' swallows until the end of the 19th century. This was based purely on its habit
of soaring and catching insects in the air, as do 'real' swallows'; as mentioned earlier
the woodswallows are in the same family as magpies, currawongs and butcherbirds.

Mixed flock of woodswallows hunting insects over the Gulf Country savannah
of tropical Queensland.

But things started to get a lot sillier as the essential unfamiliarity of most Australian birds overwhelmed people trying to fit them into familiar boxes. They often felt obliged to coin combined forms that were usually, quite frankly, weird. Here are some of these combinations that we still use today.

For instance if we put 'magpie' into a name (see previous photo) it implies black and white, but what other bird did someone blend with it?

Ideally I'd have used a photo of a Eurasian Skylark Alauda arvensis, which is the lark the
new colonists would have been thinking of, but I haven't quite managed one, so this
similar and related Spike-heeled Lark from northern South Africa Chersomanes albofasciata
will have to stand in. It hardly matters as neither would seem to have anything in common
with one of our commonest birds which now shares their name.

Magpie-lark Grallina cyanoleuca, Canberra. I can't ague with the black-and-white implication
(indeed I grew up in Adelaide calling them Murray Magpies, for the river, because their
mud nests require them to live near water). But a lark? Hardly, but the colonists
were using this name from the early days of Sydney. This one has always eluded me.
Larks are classically renowned for their song (eg Vaughan Williams' Lark Ascending)
but while I love the stroppy Magpie-larks, it's not for their singing prowess!

The shrikes, family Laniidae, are a largely northern hemisphere family of small to medium predatory songbirds and while they are not naturally found in Australia, their name recurs in compound bird names here. Here the reference is to their strong straight hooked bill. The best illustrations I have of this are from true shrikes but which don't carry 'shrike' in their name, but the colonists were thinking of closely related birds in the same genus and with this bill when they scattered the name among the Australian birdscape.

Taita Fiscal Lanius dorsalis, Serengeti NP, Tanzania.

Well if a bird had such a bill and sang beautifully like other birds they'd known, why not call it a shrike-thrush? (Rhetorical question by the way.)

Song Thrush Turdus philomelos, a familiar and famed singer found across Europe,
western Asia and North Africa.

So we have the group name of some of our great songsters, the shrikethrushes. Unlike most of those we've looked at here so far, this was not a spontaneous 'folk' name, but a translation of the genus name coined by the collaborating ornithologists Nicholas Vigors (Irish) and Thomas Horsfield (US) in 1827.

Grey Shrikethrush Colluricincla harmonica, Canberra. I hope you know the call
(if not click on any of these) but the predatory hooked beak is clear here.

OK, what if it has (sort of) such a beak but is black and yellow? Is there a British contender for the 'shrike' name here? Of course there is if you're determined to find it.

Great Tits Parus major are actually not bright yellow, as this Irish one shows,
but the black, white and yellow pattern is distinctive, leading to...

... Eastern Shriketit Falcunculus frontatus, near Forbes, central western NSW.
This name appears to have been first applied by the hugely influential John Gould
in his 1848 7 volume Birds of Australia. He also commented on the similarity
of its foraging behaviour to that of the quite unrelated European tits.

And one more 'shrike'-based compound name, the cuckoo-shrikes. My European Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus photos are not usable, but the Australian Pallid Cuckoo Heteroscenes pallidus is a good 'body double' for it - indeed until fairly recently it was placed in the same genus. 

Pallid Cuckoo, Canberra.

Which together apparently make a cuckoo-shrike!

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike Coracina novaehollandiae, north coast NSW.
Everything about this name is mysterious, though one may imagine the dipping flight to
resemble that of a Cuculus cuckoo, plus the hook-tipped shrike beak. However the name
appeared without any obvious prompting in the late 19th century (before that they were
mostly called caterpillar-eaters) and while the group is found throughout southern Africa,
south and south-eastern Asia and the west Pacific, there is circumstantial evidence
that the name arose in Australia. But that's all I've got, sorry!

Back to the thrush for a moment. It has unwittingly been complicit in another of the Great Mysteries of Australian bird names, along with another entirely unrelated bird group.

Brown Quail Synoicus ypsilophorus, north coast NSW. A common and widespread bird
in Australia and New Guinea, very similar to the Common Quail Coturnix coturnix of Europe,
Asia and Africa which many of the colonists would have known.

But put them together and you apparently get a quail-thrush - or at least the eminent and generally very sensible Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) committee tasked with preparing a final definitive list of Australian bird names in 1926 thought you did. Indeed they thought it was more appropriate than the hitherto prevailing 'ground-bird' name, though they didn't venture to explain themselves; I personally think that the port decanter was involved.

Female Spotted Quail-thrush Cinclosoma punctatum, Brindabella Ranges above Canberra.
OK, it lives mostly on the ground (like lots of other birds) and sort of sings - though sort of
not at all like any thrush that I know. Hmm.
The males tend to be more brightly coloured, not that that helps eitheer.

Male Copperback Quail-Thrush C. clarum, near Norseman, Western Australia.

And that's probably enough of these mind-twisting weird name inventions. But I'll finish with two  quite different bird name stories, both brought to the front of my mind in Ireland, which I think are worth mentioning. The first is a much more convincing use of a call than the thrush examples, to name an unrelated bird.

At one stage I stepped out of the car on the Atlantic coast and was immediately challenged by the unmistakable call [I'd suggest you listen to the 7th example, by Nick Talbot, if you're interested] of an Australian Bush Stone-curlew Burhinus grallarius.  

 

Bush Stone-curlew Darwin, Northern Territory.

Fortunately for my mental health I quickly remembered why our bird is so-called. In fact the group name arose in England, where another member of the genus lives (Eurasian Stone-curlew B. oedicnemus) in rocky drier habitats. And I'm getting to the point! Its wailing nocturnal call is remarkably similar to that of the Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata, a large shore wader with a very long down-curved bill, which of course was what I heard in Ireland. In Australia the Bush Stone-curlew is often referred to as simply 'the curlew'.

Far Eastern Curlew Numenius madagascariensis in Cairns, tropical Queensland.
This species, which breeds in Siberia, is very similar to the Eurasian Curlew, and
with similar calls, but didn't influence the naming of the Australian stone-curlew. However it does
help us to envisage the 'model' for the original name.

And finally, and somewhat tangentially, another bird-derived name, though this time not applied to another bird.

This is a Rook Corvus frugilegus, a common Eurasian crow, here in Ireland.

And this is a Rook nesting colony...

... called, yep, a rookery.

But, for reasons uncertain the term came to be used for breeding colonies of seabirds in particular. So these birds, none at all crow-like, are among those which breed in rookeries!

Magellanic Penguins Spheniscus magellanicus, Strait of Magellan, Chilean Pagagonia.

Mixed seabirds, but mostly Guanay Cormorants Leucocarbo bougainvilliorum, Islas Ballasteras, Peru.

Northern Gannets Morus bassanus (part of a much larger colony), Great Saltee Island,
County Wexford, Ireland.

And that might be enough of such silliness, which says a lot more about us and our language than it does about the birds. I think it's interesting though, and it's an excuse to showcase some birds, which can never be a bad thing.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 26 JUNE

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Wild Singapore

We're just back from a near-six week overseas trip, which started with five nights in Singapore. Shortly before we left a friend, to whom I'd commented that one of my aims was to try to see some birds, said "I'd not have expected there to be any birds there". Well! It wasn't an unreasonable comment actually as Singapore, with some six million people, has an area which is only a third the size of Canberra, so it's very densely populated indeed (in fact only Monaco has a higher population density). However they have put a lot of work and planning into building a 'garden city' so that any walk is likely to take you past or through parkland with lots of trees - and birds. Moreover there are a surprising number of nature reserves, including some original rainforest, and lots of regenerating and restored forest. This post features some of the natural delights we enjoyed.

I very rarely give plugs to commercial enterprises, so when I you do you know I really mean it. We spent a day with Shamla Jeyarajah Subaraj and Yeo Suay Hwee, and through them we enjoyed most of the natural reserves below and learnt a great deal about Singapore and its birds, mammals, plants, butterflies and dragonflies, and had a most memorable day (and excellent lunch) into the bargain. It was the undoubted highlight of our time in Singapore and I would recommend them unreservedly. You can contact Shamla at shamla@subaraj.com.

I guess this is many people's expectation of Singapore; it was mine until I started doing some homework.

However it could as well be represented by this...

Meraga Adina eurhyncha Family Rubiaceae, growing in remnant rainforest in the
fabulous Singapore Botanic Gardens. For us, these gardens were the jewel of Singapore. Covering
82ha they were founded in 1859 and have evolved ever since. In 2015 these gardens were declared
a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

...or this...

Rainforest, Bukit Batok NP.

... or this ...

Tidal lagoon, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.

...or this.

Mangroves, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.

These are substantially natural areas, but there are also areas in the process of restoration.

The Quarry Reserve, which is part of the same reserve system as the Dairy Farm Nature Park
(see three photos down). This reserve is just what is sounds like, a former quarry
which has been turned into a nature reserve by flooding the excavation and
assisting the return of the surrounding forest. We found a couple of other examples too.

 

Fig growing on the wall of a flooded quarry in Bukit Batok NP; I think that much of
the rainforest is original here, but it regrows quickly and it's not always easy to
be sure which is primary and which is secondary forest, though I think that most
of the reserves are dominated by secondary (ie regrowth) forest.

Massive bird's nest ferns growing on the infrastructure in Bukit Batok;
it doesn't take long!

This is a clearing in the rainforest at Dairy Farm NR. The forest was cleared
in the 19th century for plantations of pepper and gambier (whose astringent leaves were
used for tanning, dyeing and herbal medicine). By the 1920s it was a pig farm, then in
the next decade it laid claim to being the world's first tropical dairy farm. The National
Parks Board began the regeneration process in the 1980s and the result is remarkable.

Like most of Singapore's reserves, Dairy Farm is heavily used by walkers on the sealed paths. Many of them were walking (and talking) for exercise and recreation rather than the natural values, but this is surely inevitable in such a densely populated country. The shared system seems to me an excellent compromise in the context, though it takes a little while to get used to; we were in most of these reserves on a Saturday too which exacerbated the situation.

Lily pond at the amazing Gardens by the Bay, an area of just over 100ha (though the
most-visited South Garden is about half this size), of gardens, ponds, pathways
and enormous greenhouses and cooled conservatories, which draws visitor numbers of
tens of millions a year. While not really a nature reserve - perhaps too structured for
that - it really is a must-visit and there is certainly plenty of wildlife present (including
the famous Oriental Small-clawed Otters which sadly didn't make an appearance
to coincide with ours).

And that, I think, is probably enough background - it's time to offer some actual animals of these landscapes before you nod off! There are a few of them to offer you, so I'll keep the information relatively brief. I'll start with one I'd actually wanted to see for some time, and which turned out to be very easy - in fact just about my first Singaporean bird.

Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus, in Fort Canning Park, central Singapore. These are the
ancestors of domestic fowl (ie chooks in Australia). The ones in the city parks are all
partial hybrids with domestic birds, though they look very like the true wild ones,
which do occur in some of the rainforests. A handsome bird indeed, and this one
is (inadvertently) advertising his mixed parentage by not cutting off the end of his
enthusiastic crowing quite abruptly enough.

And they are breeding well in this situation.

Pink-necked Green Pigeon Treron vernans snacking in the botanic gardens on fruit
of a Melastoma species (thanks Duncan!). A common south-east Asian pigeon,
but nonetheless lovely for that.

Common Emerald Dove Chalcophaps indica at Dairy Farm NP.
This is a close relation to the Pacific Emerald Dove of eastern Australia
and nearby islands.

Zebra Dove Chalcophaps indica, a common urban bird, again with a close
Australian connection in our Peaceful Dove.

There are plenty of opportunities for waterbirds, including a couple of large ones which are recent arrivals.

Asian Openbills Storks Anastomus oscitans, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve - and
I'm sorry that I couldn't get any closer to them. It's only in the last decade (since 2013)
that these fascinating big storks have started to appear in Singapore from further north,
with a huge influx of some 5000 birds in 2020 and a smaller one currently. In brief summary
they have a gap in the bill, and the lower mandible is also twisted to the side to allow
the extraction of big apple snails from their shells. I wrote a little bit more on this here.

Somewhat more controversial is the status of this Milky Stork Mycteria cinerea (accompanied
here by Little Egrets Egretta garzetta and a Medium Egret Ardea intermedia*). They breed in
Cambodia, Thailand and Sumatra, but the Singapore population is believed to have derived
from escapes from the Singapore Zoo.
*The Medium Egret, found throughout south and south-east Asia, is now separated from
the Australian and New Guinea Plumed Egret A. plumifera, as well as from the African
Yellow-billed Egret.

And while we can see the Little Egret in Australia, especially in the north,
this one was too glorious in flaunting its breeding finery to overlook.

Common Redshanks Tringa totanus, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.
These birds may have wintered here (remembering that Singapore is in the Northern
Hemisphere, though only just) or were on their north from Africa. Either way they
would soon have been continuing on their way north to breed on the Arctic tundra.

White-breasted Waterhens Amaurornis phoenicurus foraging by a lake in the
botanic gardens. One of the prettiest rails I've met, though this photo doesn't show
the lovely clear white underside.

White-breasted Kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis, a bird with a huge range from the
western Mediterranean to the Philippines but I'd not seen it and our guides put in
some effort to find it for us. This photo doesn't at all do it justice, but you can just
see the bright blue back, wings and tail. (The photo that does show them is even
worse so I'll keep it to myself.)

And while I'm on bad photos I'm going to slip in an even worse one, in late afternoon gloom, but a spectacular bird that I'd not expected to see. Please squint.

Chestnut-winged Cuckoo Clamator coromandus, Bukit Batok NP. It is regarded
as an 'uncommon migrant' to Singapore from south and south-east Asia.

And rather than calling it a bad photo (though it doubtless is) I prefer to think of this one as arty...

Silhouetted Greater Racket-tailed Drongo Dicrurus paradiseus in early morning
non-light at Dairy Farm. A spectacular bird.

Laced Woodpecker Picus vittatus, Bukit Batok NP, feeding at the base of a tree. It's apparently
fairly common, in Singapore and from China to Bali, but I'd not seen it before.

Blue-tailed Bee-eater Merops philippinus, Singapore Botanic Gardens. These are
winter visitors to Singapore, so this one was likely to be flying further north to
breed soon after this. Meantime it was feeding up by swooping on insects above the pond.

Yellow-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus goiavier Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.
Bulbuls form a big family of birds, some 170 species across Africa and Asia.
This appears to be the commonest one in Singapore (in fact I've just discovered
that it's the second 'most observed' bird there).

Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus, another winter visitor which would soon be
leaving for the far north to breed.

Ashy Tailorbird Orthotomus ruficeps, Kranji Marshes Reserve. The tailorbirds
literally pierce and sew a large leaf with spider silk or grass to form a cup
in which the nest is made.

Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker Dicaeum cruentatum, closely related to the Australian
Mistletoebird, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. A common little beauty, but
like most flowerpeckers it doesn't sit still very often!

Given that it's the most commonly reported bird in Singapore, I can't really ignore it,
but the Javan Myna Acridotheres javanicus is an introduced species here.

However I won't finish the bird section with the myna; I've left what was probably my favourite Singaporean bird until last.

The White-crested Laughingthrush Garrulax leucolophus, Bukit Batok NP, was another
I was especially hoping to see, and at the end of the day we were rewarded by a bustling little
gang of these rowdies, swaggering up the path to inspect us and comment loudly
and doubtless rudely on our presence. In the past half century this species has expanded
its range south to Singapore, probably with human assistance.

Mammals didn't feature heavily, unsurprisingly, but here are three that we greatly enjoyed.

Lesser Short-nosed (or Dog-faced) Fruit Bats Cynopterus brachyotis, roosting on the
Sungei Buloh Wetland visitor centre ceiling. These are tiny fruit bats, less than 10cm long.
Below is a mother with baby.

Plantain Squirrel Callosciurus notatus, Singapore Botanic Gardens.
This is another common urban Singapore mammal.
While they're mostly arboreal, the one below was helpfully feeding on the
ground at Butik Batok NP.

Again I've left my favourite until last in this category. Since I encountered them in one of my treasured animal books when I was a boy, I've been fascinated by the mysterious colugos, two south-east Asian arboreal species of utterly misnamed 'flying lemurs' (they glide, not fly, and are definitely not lemurs!). We now know that they belong to their own Order of mammals, ie with no close relations at all. I had previously met them in Borneo, but on our late afternoon walk in Butik Batok NP we came upon two different ones (plus a third as you'll see) typically roosting on a tree trunk, but quite close to the ground. Very exciting.

Malayan Colugo Galeopterus variegatus with baby. Part of the marvellous spotted
gliding membrane can be seen below the front leg.

The only reptiles we saw were two species of monitor lizards (what we'd usually call goannas in Australia). One of them, the big Asian Water Monitor Varanus salvator, was surprisingly common in busy areas like the Botanic Gardens and the Gardens by the Bay. They and the people they encountered seemed in the main unperturbed by each other, which seems a satisfactory situation.

Asian Water Monitor nonchalantly crossing the path in the Botanic Gardens.

And yes, they are definitely at home in the water; this one at the Gardens by the Bay.

A less common species is the smaller Clouded Monitor Varanus nebulosus.

This one was basking by the cafe at the Botanic Gardens; I'm pretty confident based on the thin end
of the tail, the shorter nose and the nostrils halfway from the eye to the nose (see below),
but comments always welcomed.

And finally, a few invertebrates - mostly dragonflies actually!

Branded Imperial Eooxylides tharis, The Quarry Reserve. Love the 'tails'!

Blue Dasher Brachydiplax chalybea Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Common Parasol Neurothemis fluctuans, The Quarry Reserve.

Common Scarlet Crocothemis servilia, Kranji Marshes.

Yellow-striped Flutterer Rhyothemis phyllis, Singapore Botanic Garden.
This one comes as far south as northern Australia.

Variegated Green Skimmer Orthetrum sabina, Kranji Marshes.
It too is found in Australia, but in its case down much of the east coast.

And that is definitely enough for today; if you're still reading, thank you! I know that many people visit Singapore, for pleasure or business; if you have an interest in the natural world, don't miss any opportunity to explore Singapore with that in mind next time you're there. You'll be rewarded.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 5 JUNE

I love to receive your comments and in future will be notifying you personally by email when a new posting appears, if you'd like me to. All current subscribers have been added to this mailing list and have already been contacted. This will mean one email every three weeks at the current rate of posting. I promise never to use the list for any other purpose and will never share it.
Should you wish to be added to it, just send me an email at calochilus51@internode.on.net. You can ask to be removed from the list at any time,or could simply mark an email as Spam, so you won't see future ones.
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