One of the aspects of my interest in birds is not only their behavior and appearance, but just how they acquired their names. Common or vernacular names can vary depending on what part of the world a bird comes from, and the same species with a worldwide distribution may have different names. For example, Black-bellied Plover in North America is a fairly straightforward descriptive name for Pluvialis squatarola, at least during the breeding season, but it is known as Grey Plover in Europe. One thing that is common is the scientific name of that bird.
Scientific naming, or binomial nomenclature, is the Latinized name in two parts of a particular species. Be it a plant, animal or insect. The first being the genus and the second the name or title of that individual species. In the world of birds these are occasionally given to describe a plumage characteristic, pattern or color, in honor of a historical scientific explorer or ornithologist, or something completely odd and without clear understanding. These names or descriptions are sometimes redundant, comical or rather mundane. So, I thought I would offer up some binomials from time to time with a digiscoped image I’ve taken of the bird, and where I have references, the various slang names for these birds. Here is the first…
Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus); (pih-roh-SEF-ah-lus rube-EYE-nus)
Pyrocephalus from the Gr. pyr, pyros, “fire”, and cephale, “head” (fire-head). Rubinus L. “ruby” for the brilliant red plumage of the male.
Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus)
Originally uploaded by almiyi
Filed under: Birds, Digiscoping
I just came across your blog through your comment on mine. It is amazingly rich and interesting. Keep up the good work! Best wishes from Sweden
Good think we have the latin names, lol, because I ran into the same problem with names. BTW this is such a cute birds! Anna