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Quirky Words for Patterned Birds
Some birds are named for their striped and streaked feathers.
© Julio Mulero
Descriptive names can be a great help when you’re getting to know a new bird. Some species have common names that put their plumage pattern front and center – like the Five-striped Sparrow. If you encounter a bird described as flammulated, lineated, banded, or barred, keep an eye out for their namesake stripes and streaks!
BirdNote is grateful to the many contributions of Dr. Gordon Orians, and for his ongoing support of the show.
BirdNote®
Quirky Words for Patterned Birds
Written by Ariana Remmel
This is BirdNote.
Descriptive names can be a great help when you’re getting to know a new bird. Like the Five-striped Sparrow:
[Five-striped Sparrow]
Like many sparrows, this little bird is mostly dark grey and brown. But the five white stripes radiating from the center of his face — and that distinctive song — are unmistakable.
[Band-tailed Pigeon]
Similarly, the Band-tailed Pigeon gets their moniker from the band of light grey feathers at the tip of their tail that these stocky birds display in flight.
[Barred Owl]
Or, the Barred Owl. The name isn’t because these owls are excellent storytellers — or jail birds either! It actually refers to their striped backs and streaked chests, like alternating bars of colors running across their bodies. The Streak-backed Oriole and Lineated Woodpecker have similarly patterned plumage.
[Lineated Woodpecker]
They’d be joined by the Flammulated Owl, [HOOT] a tiny raptor with streaky feathers and flashes of orange whose name evokes the ephemeral shapes of a flickering flame.
[Flammulated Owl]
Whether a bird be flammulated, lineated, banded or barred — you can learn more about them at BirdNote.org. I’m Ariana Remmel.
BirdNote is grateful to the many contributions of Dr. Gordon Orians, and for his ongoing support of the show.
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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. Five-striped Sparrow ML40609 recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller. Band-tailed Pigeon ML171751351 recorded by Paul Marvin. Barred Owl ML218487901 recorded by Tom Johnson. Lineated Woodpecker ML69428 recorded by Paul A. Schwartz. Flammulated Owl ML340633911 recorded by Brian Sullivan.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2025 BirdNote October 2025
Narrator: Ariana Remmel
ID# names-12-2025-10-24 names-12
Ariana Remmel
Writer NarratorSights & Sounds
