Bird Wirds: Nicknames

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Thanks, mollusque! Good ones. :-)

And coalgoose?

How about cargoose?

Thanks, M--added, though why anyone needed to improve on bobolink is beyond me. ;-)

Will do. How about meadowwink?

Thanks, mollusque! Keep them coming. :-) By the way, I already listed hoot-amaganzy (with hyphen). One of my new favorites to say aloud. Repeatedly.

Two more nicknames for woodcocks: hookumpake (American Midland) in MW3 and beccaccia (Italian) in OED2. I think they refer to different species. Also hootamaganzy for hooded merganser in MW3.

Good grief, mollusque--what a glaring omission! And it's one of my favorite birds! Added to the U.S. list. Thanks for pointing that out. (I do like "timberdoodle," though.)

Woodcock isn't on a bird wird list. You prefer timberdoodle and bogsucker?

Fair enough! Added. :-)

Yes, reesetee, but your description of the list included obsolete names.

Wasn't that a species classification, though, mollusque, rather than a nickname?

How about onocrotal or onocrotalus, obsolete words for pelican.

Okay, now that is a much better name: Niblicks, Timberdoodles, and Fewmets. How do we turn that into a URL?

Deep in my heart, I knew that niblicks, timberdoodles and fewmets would confound the revolution. All is lost.

Er, uh...maybe we should stick with Wordie.

A new triad AND a new name for the site: Sportie, Birdie & Shittie.

Well, there is a preponderance of excrement-related lists, too....

Somehow I knew my lists, none of which include birds or sports, were useless. Carry on.

Well, dammit, we can't have nice things!

Birdie and Sportie then. We can get rid of all this other rubbish.

Or perhaps Sportie??

Can we change the name of the whole site to Birdie? ;-)

Yep, they're all bona fide. Most of them come directly from old ornithology publications. :-) Amazing, no?

Note, though, that it's not "jerk-or-perk bird" but "jerk-or perk-bird." I couldn't tell you why. But if you're familiar with any of the calls or songs of some of these birds, the goofy nicknames start to make a little more sense.

r-t: You swear these are all boney-fidey? There are so many, it makes my head spin. And the porn star nickname hypothesis does have a certain ring of plausibility....

jerk-or-perk bird???? tee-hee. :)

"You think I'm a porn star? You bet!" crowed the timberdoodle cockily.

I was very much expecting that remark. :-) I daresay birding was a bit more entertaining back in the day.

You sure these aren't porn star nicknames?

Haha! Trivet, is your family really as hilarious as you describe it? :-)

Thanks, O--still working on it. Chime in with suggestions!

Does it count that my family calls all jays Gus and all Canada geese Rupert?

HEY!! Great list, Reesetee!