Pictured above are three of the many species of small birds at the backyard feeders today, a day which turned cold and very windy, compared to the past several days. As I watched these birds feeding, I was recalling all their common names. For whatever reason, I started to wonder what my grandfather, who emigrated from England to Canada in 1911, might have called these same birds back then. Back in 1911 of course, he would have heard some new names, no doubt...names that were purely north-american and most of which probably had their origin in the United States. I did some quick research and discovered the following obsolete English names for the birds pictured above plus a couple of others. They are in no particular order.
Dark-eyed Junco: a.k.a. Baird's Junco / Carolina Junco / Grey-headed Junco / Guadalupe Junco / Laguna Hanson Junco / Montana Junco / Nevada Junco / Oregon Junco / Pink-sided Junco / Point Pinos Junco / Red-backed Junco / Ridgeway's Junco / Shufeldt's Junco / Slate-coloured Junco / Thurber's Junco / Townsend's Junco / White-winged Junco / Snowbird.
Common Redpoll: a.k.a. Redpoll Linnet / Greater Redpoll / Holboell's Redpoll / Labrador Redpoll / Lesser Repoll.
House Finch: a.k.a. Crimson-fronted Finch / Rose-breasted Finch / San Clemente Finch / San Lucas Finch / California Linnet / Guadalupe Linnet / McGregor Linnet / Burrion.
American Goldfinch: a.k.a. Wild Canary / Yellow-bird / California Goldfinch / Eastern Goldfinch / North-western Goldfinch / Pale Goldfinch / Western Goldfinch / Willow Goldfinch / Yellow Goldfinch / Thistle-bird.
American Tree Sparrow: a.k.a. Mountain Sparrow.
The obsolete names listed above are from a list created, by Richard C. Banks of the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Centre, National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Please comment if you wish.
BtheB
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