10,000 Birds
MARCH 22, 2011
They’re all named for livestock. It didn’t take much imagination to name Cowbirds or Cattle Egrets or Cattle Tyrants , but there’s more fantasy, even more wit, involved in the naming of other bovine birds. The genus Bucephala includes three familiar ducks with big heads. Wicked, right?
10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 11, 2019
Even the names we give to some birds reflect their dependence on the cultivated landscape – we have Barn Owls ( Tyto alba ) and Barn Swallows ( Hirundo rustica ) over much of the world, and Orchard Orioles ( Icterus spurius ) in the Americas really do have a fondness for fruit groves.
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