What’s in a bird name?
On January 17, a juvenile (first winter) Harris’s Sparrow popped out of a bush at the visitor center – probably the same one I observed on November 27 less than two months ago. Who is Harris, and why is this bird named after him? “Hey Google….” Hmm – Edward Harris – not the one in Apollo 13, the Firm, The Rock, or Enemy at the Gates. Apparently he’s the horse breeding philanthropist who hung out with birding legend John James Audubon. Audubon honored his naturalist buddy with both the sparrow and Harris’s Hawk – a Parabuteo I’m not going to get in Idaho.
The next day I fell in with a small flock of cedar waxwings at Stines Creek Picnic Area. Most were darting in and out of a Rocky Mountain Juniper (aka cedar). Right place, right time, right name. Oh, but the waxwing refers to the Carnauba wax that the bird produces and excretes from its axillaries… just kidding. Wikipedia says, “Some of the wing feathers have red tips, the resemblance of which to sealing wax gives these birds their common name.”
This past Monday, I paid due respects to Martin Luther King Jr - also a birder (no?), got dressed and was all set to chase down the day’s target bird: Red-breasted Nuthatch. All of a sudden one flew into my feeder and totally ruined the day. I didn’t have a back-up plan. Seriously? – red-breasted? It should have been “rust-breasted. Even Sibley describes it as orange. Whatever…#70.
Tuesday found me in Boise in the director’s meeting room on a conference call, talking resources stewardship strategies with my NPS colleagues. Good stuff! Can’t wait to get going on that project this year. But, truth be told, a flock of Black-capped Chickadees (#71) swarmed the bush outside the window, and for a moment I heard nothing but “chickadee dee dee.” Appropriately named? Check! Pardon me, could you repeat what you just said about strategies?”
Which brings me to today. My goal was to at least hear if not observe the wily Spotted Towhee. Up to Stines Creek Picnic Area I went, passing a full parking lot at the Castle Rocks Trail Head. Strangely, no one was at Stines. Out comes the bird song app. I play a few seconds of the call. Immediately, as if waiting all morning for me to show up, Towhee (#72) scolds back from the bitterbrush…towhee.
It’s really not that hard to remember bird names when half the noise in any given forest is an avian creature shouting its name at you. I can almost hear a sparrow shouting “Edward Harris!”