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My Grandmother’s Ornithology, and Mine
Cultivating your own personal names for familiar birds
© Mick Thompson
In this episode, J. Drew Lanham shares how his grandmother’s personal names for the birds helped shape his own relationships with birds. Names such as “redbirds” for Northern Cardinals, “rain crows” for Yellow-billed Cuckoos, and “cat owls” for Great Horned Owls help him feel personally connected to these species. Through developing one’s own ornithology and personal names for birds, he says, anyone can strengthen their bond with birds.
BirdNote®
My Grandmother’s Ornithology, and Mine
Written by J. Drew Lanham
This is BirdNote. I’m J. Drew Lanham, an ornithologist, naturalist and writer.
[Northern Cardinal song]
Names are important as they help us tell one thing from the next. My name is Drew. What’s yours? Easy enough. Birds aren’t so simple. Or rather, we’ve complicated things that could be simpler. Take my grandmother Mamamatha’s redbirds.
[Northern Cardinal song]
They became Northern Cardinals and Cardinalis cardinalis as I learned more about “proper” scientific nomenclature. But some days, even with lots of degrees attached to my name, they are redbirds again. And so on and so on, with Yellow-billed Cuckoos back to “rain crows,” calling out before a storm...
[Yellow-billed Cuckoo call]
Great Horned Owls back to “cat owls” because of those feather tufts that look like ears...
[Great Horned Owl call]
and juncos that arrive in the fall back to “snowbirds”.
[Dark-eyed Junco song]
In other words, my grandmother had her own ornithology, her own names for birds. I have mine. Each of us can build our own ornithology and our personal names for these creatures. Keep it simple. What stands out to you about these birds? Once you have a name that means something to you, you’ll never forget it.
[Northern Cardinal song]
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Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Northern Cardinal ML49062 recorded by Gregory Budney, Yellow-billed Cuckoo ML539858 recorded by Wil Hershberger, Great-horned Owl ML22874 recorded by William R. Fish, and Dark-eyed Junco ML79472 recorded by Wil Hershberger.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote July 2024
Narrator: J. Drew Lanham
ID# names-08-2024-07-03 names-08
J. Drew Lanham
Writer NarratorSights & Sounds
