Nickname That Bird Contest

I call the Juncos that come to my yard the "Little Executioners". Seems fitting given their dark hoods.

Margaret

Hi all:

Some that my crowd uses:

Yellow-rumped Warbler : "butterbutt" - easy to call out quickly, focuses on diag. key

Marsh Wren : "Typewriter bird" - call sounds like an old typewriter

Song Sparrow : "Cash register" - refers again to song

American Robin : "The Rufous-breasted Lawn Thrush"

Roadrunner : "The Snake-eating Ground Cuckoo"

Scarlet Tanager : "Black-winged Redbird"

-t

I do a lot of banding, so many of the nicknames I use are variations on the four-letter SPEC codes we record on data sheets. A few examples:

Black-headed Grosbeak (BHGR): whiny little 'buggers' (because they *scream* and *scream* and *scream* in the hand)

Yellow Warbler (YWAR): Why War? (a relevant question today), the Peace Bird or pacifist bird(and they're so cute, calm, and peaceful in the hand, too)

Warbling Vireo (WAVI): wavy-gravy, or the Polite Bird (based on their song, which I remember as "courtesy courtesy courtesy" , and they're cute & relatively calm in the hand, esp. for a vireo)

Tufted Titmouse (TUTI): Tuti, tootsie or Tuti-Fruti (a cute name for a cute bird)

Other nicknames:
Western Tanager = Wasted Teenager (play on words, and with those bright colors they look pretty psychedelic. Can't take credit for this one - I picked it up from a friend)

Painted Bunting: Psychedelic bird (with those bright colors, it looks like something Picasso would paint while on acid)

White-eyed Vireo = Patriarch bird, or sexist bird (I learned it's song as 'Get me a beer, chick!' - they're pretty tough and feisty, too)

One more - I call turkey vultures "flying TVs", and like webted, all Yellow-rumped Warblers are "butterbutts"

Red-bellied woodpeckers and ring-necked ducks are definitely in need of better names, since the current names describe features that are not apparent except to banders (or taxidermists). Maybe zebra woodpecker and ring-billed duck instead.

OO, i love these entries! keep them coming!

I have wanted a better name for the Common Yellowthroat, something like the Jet-Masked Flaming Yellowthroat.

I like to call the red-breasted nuthatch the 'beep-beep' bird since one of their calls sounds like an cartoon car horn going beep-beep.

Rebecca's post reminded me of one more - then I promise I'll quit! I call the Common Yellowthroat the Lone Ranger.

In my family, mockingbirds are car-alarm birds, because their songs have the same structure as the more annoying car-alarms: do the same thing four or five times, then switch to something randomly different to make sure people keep paying attention.

One neighborhood mocker-boy has added several actual car-alarm noises to his repertoire.

Crows should be wolfbirds because of their wolf-pack-like social structure, and their intelligence.

I think the Red Bellied Woodpecker ought to be called the Orange Crowned Laughing Woodpecker. They always sound like they are laughing to me.

I love Mourning Doves and feel sometimes that I have a special relationship with them. I am convinced that their wings need oil as they always make squeaky noises when they fly. The guide books say they are capable of silent flight, but I have never witnessed that.

NOOOO, don't stop! i want to know all the interesting nicknames and alternative common names that you all have for birds.

you see, when i was a kid, i named all the birds i knew from song alone, and then later, i was given a field guide to the birds which corrected all my erroneous nicknaming of birds. today, i only remember a few of the names i invented for "my birds" but wish i could remember more of them. so, please share your names for birds!

I don't know what kind of birds they are, but in Hawaii (not exactly North America) there are birds that look like cardinals except they are almost all grey and only their heads are red. I used to call them "almost-a-cardinals." I remeber those and all the mourning doves.

My husband, Don, calls the Black Oystercatcher the Dr. Seuss bird. They're so comical and look like something Dr. Seuss would have drawn in his book. We enjoy seeing them on beach walks.

Least Grebe - "leasty beasty" or "fluffy butt"
Bewick's Wren - "dial 9 bird"
Vermilion Flycatcher - "your head's on fire"
Inca Doves - "stinky doves"
Pintails & Gadwalls - "pinballs"
Cinnamon Teal - "cinnamandos"
Scaup - "scoop"
Gambel's Quail - "P4 birds"
Killdeer - "screech plovers"
Ring-billed Gull - "Arizona Gull"
Gila Woodpecker - "pointy nose"
Greater Pewee - "Jose Maria bird"
Bridled Titmouse - "bridley tidleys"
House Sparrow - "Boreal Chickadee or Dickcissel"
Vermilion Flycatcher & Great Blue Heron - "greatest day in the history of the world"

Here are some of the ones I use for fun:

Red-headed Blackbird: Turkey Vulture

Black-winged Redbird: Scarlet Tanager

Buff-jar: Buff-collared Nightjar

Dogwatcher: spell-check's version of dowitcher

Shovelhead: Northern Shoveler

Rusty Rock-roller: Ruddy Turnstone

Ted Red: Painted Redstart

Luigi: Lewis's Woodecker

HA-HA: the band code for Harris's Hawk

Arizona Black Duck: American Coot

Screech Plover: Killdeer (shrill calls)

Marsh Poodle: Black-necked Stilt (yappy)

Mine are both vulture-related:
Turkey vultures seem easier to call by their code (TUVU),
and "Tu-vu" rolls off the tongue much easier.

But my favorite is "white-headed vulture," for the scavenger more commonly known as the bald eagle.

Ring-necked ducks: ring-billed ducks, which is obvious enough that it's already been mentioned here.

Hutton's vireos: "decaf kinglets" -- not original with me, but I can't recall where I first encountered it.

Broad-tailed hummingbirds: Doppler birds.

Wilson's warblers: "yarmulke warblers".

This is a specific bird, rather than the species in general, but the local least grebe (a rarity here, but this particular bird's been here for most of a year) is fondly known as Major Fluffybutt.

Spotted sandpiper: teeter-arse.

Common yellowthroat: whichatee (since they're almost never seen around our river, but their calls are everywhere).
I sometimes anglicize the French names for birds, when I know them, if I like them enough. i.e. Grand Duke for great-horned owl. I have a European field-guide that is a gold mine of good multilingual names -- Kwok for the black-crowned night heron is another really good one.

Some of the obsolete names are also favourites of mine. Summer redbird for the summer tanager, summer yellowbird for the yellow warbler, qua-bird for the yellow-crowned night heron, white nun for the smew, whiskeyjack for the grey jay.

Duck hunters have an alternate name for virtually every duck (bluebills, mud hens, etc...)

My favorite is calling N. Shovelers "French Mallards" - it makes me laugh whenever I see them.

I think some of the pro. raptor observers refer to all of the passerines as "dickie birds?"

Down in Texas one of the old-timers referred to the Montezuma Quail as the "Crazy Quail"

-t

My daughter called male Buffleheads Marshmallow Ducks when she was little.

Northern Mockingbird (esp. during nesting season): Watch out!

Actually, I thought of a better one for a Northern Mockingbird, one that has a more ornithological theme: "Duck" ;)

My father's name for Redpolls is "Socialist Sparrows", just like a sparrow, only a little bit red.