Bird Names

[Rhodes Family]

Just a quick questing that has bugged me for a while; why do some birds in the guide book have names such as:

• Palla’s
• Tawny
• Icterine
• Pallid
• Blythe’s
• Isebelline


And what do they mean/symbolise? Just curious and would appreciate some answers!

Alex

[actionfinch]

Nice question Rhodes Family....i'm also intruiged now...

[thebeard]

ones such as pallas's and blythes, etc, are ones which have been named after naturalists and other people.

for example
Peter Simon Pallas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tawny is i think related to colouration, usually dull and brown i think. same with pallid, means 'pale', isabelline, means 'off-white' and icterine 'yellowish'.

[david156]

Peter Simon Pallas
Edward Blyth
Coenraad Jacob Temminck
Allan Octavian Hume

and so on......

[RKB]

Originally Posted by Rhodes Family

Just a quick questing that has bugged me for a while; why do some birds in the guide book have names such as:

• Palla’s
• Tawny
• Icterine
• Pallid
• Blythe’s
• Isebelline


And what do they mean/symbolise? Just curious and would appreciate some answers!

Alex

Pallas's and Blythe's should be pretty obvious by the possessive apostrophe, meaing they belong to Mr Pallas and Mr Blythe.

Tawny, icterine and isabelline are all colours, like red, green, brown or blue. So you have Blackbird, which is a bird that is black in colour, and you also have Icterine Warbler, which is a warbler that is icterine in colour.

Pallid is a common English word in general use, that just means 'pale'. All of these colour words are in the dictionary (online or OED).

[aeshna5]

I have to say I never knew icterine was a colour! I've learnt something today,never really thought about what it meant before.

[davecatt]

Originally Posted by aeshna5

I have to say I never knew icterine was a colour! I've learnt something today,never really thought about what it meant before.

I've only come across icterine in reference to birds; its a sort of pale yellowish colour.
Isebelline is only familiar to me as a description of light sandy coloured animals found in desert areas.

As RKB says Tawny,icterine and isebelline are colours, tawny and isebelline are shades of brown,icterine is a shade of yellow;not terms in common usage so its not surprising your not familiar with them; but I dont understand the reference to red green and blue
Dave
Edit
Sorry I can be a bit thick sometimes RKB was just explaining what colours are for the benefit of the intellectually challenged.

[Rhodes Family]

Thanks everyone who replied - perhaps one day some bird will appear in the guide book as Rhodes' Pipit or the like!

Regards, Alex

[RKB]

Originally Posted by davecatt

I've only come across icterine in reference to birds; its a sort of pale yellowish colour.
Isebelline is only familiar to me as a description of light sandy coloured animals found in desert areas.

As RKB says Tawny,icterine and isebelline are colours, tawny and isebelline are shades of brown,icterine is a shade of yellow;not terms in common usage so its not surprising your not familiar with them; but I dont understand the reference to red green and blue
Dave
Edit
Sorry I can be a bit thick sometimes RKB was just explaining what colours are for the benefit of the intellectually challenged.

Just pointing out that icterine is the name of a colour exactly the same as blue is. There's many more colours than the standard red, green and blue that we usually use - e.g. cerise, magenta and cyan are less commonly used, and isabelline and tawny are just a bit more obscure. I suppose we could rename them to more modern names that are available in B&Q paint colours, like Duckegg Harrier?!

[thebeard]

magnolia pipit