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Quirky Words for Brown Birds
Some shades are reserved for the natural world.
© Andy Reago and Chrissy McClarren
What do Fulvous Whistling-Ducks, Bay-breasted Warblers, Ferruginous Hawks, and Rufous Hummingbirds have in common? They are all birds whose names refer to a shade of brown!
BirdNote®
Quirky Words for Brown Birds
Written by Ariana Remmel
This is BirdNote.
[Fulvous Whistling-Duck]
The Fulvous Whistling-Duck is a lanky, brown bird with a high-pitched call. The name not only denotes the duck’s distinctive voice, but also their characteristic color.
[Fulvous Whistling-Duck]
Fulvous comes from a Latin word meaning tawny or yellowish-red in color. Though it never caught on in everyday speech, more than a dozen birds have fulvous in their common English names. It’s one of many color words specific to birds and nature.
Take bay, for example. Both bay horses and Bay-breasted Warblers are named for their prominent reddish-brown features.
[Bay-breasted Warbler]
The fearsome Ferruginous Hawk might not seem like it belongs on this list, but ferruginous actually comes from the Latin word for rust.
[Ferruginous Hawk call]
Or the Rufous Hummingbird, whose moniker references the way this species gleams like polished copper in afternoon sunlight.
[Rufous Hummingbird wing sounds]
That rich cinnamon-red hue gets an even fancier flourish with the Rufescent Antshrike of Peru.
[Rufescent Antshrike]
You can learn more about the colorful world of birds at our website, BirdNote.org. I’m Michael Stein.
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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Ariana Remmel
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Ferruginous Hawk ML250892251 recorded by Andrew Spencer. Fulvous Whistling-Duck ML97450 recorded by Lucienne Wilmé. Fulvous Whistling-Duck ML65843851 recorded by Paul Marvin. Rufescent Antshrike ML33439751 recorded by Daniel Lane. Bay-breasted Warbler ML249809 recorded by Wil Hershberger.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2025 BirdNote August 2025
Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# names-11-2025-08-22 names-11
Michael Stein
Narrator
Ariana Remmel
WriterSights & Sounds
