Birds That Say Their Own Names

BirdNote^®

Birds That Say Their Own Names

Written by Frances Wood

This is BirdNote!
[Call of the Common Poorwill]
Ever wonder how birds were named? Some, such as the Wilson’s Snipe, were named for people; others for a distinguishing physical characteristic — like the Spotted Towhee; and some for geographic locations, like the California Quail. In a few cases, the bird’s song or vocalization is incorporated into its name. Let’s listen to a few birds that call their names.
[Black-capped Chickadee call]
Do you recognize this “chick-a-dee, dee, dee” call? [Repeat call.] That’s the Black-capped Chickadee.
How about the “bobwhite?” [Northern Bobwhite call] The Northern Bobwhite. Listen again. [Repeat call.]
And this bird? [Killdeer call]
The Killdeer is a common shorebird that often uses this alarm call when predators approach its nest. [Killdeer call.]
And finally, a bird you might hear in the open, arid areas of the West and Midwest [Common Poorwill call].
It’s the Common Poorwill, a nocturnal hunter of insects. The easiest way to locate this species is to listen for its call. [Common Poorwill call.]
To listen to these calls more closely, begin at our website, BirdNote.org. I’m Mary McCann.

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Calls of the birds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Black-capped Chickadee recorded by R.S. Little; Killdeer and Common Poorwill by G.A. Keller; Bobwhite by P.P. Kellogg.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2014 Tune In to Nature.org     July 2016/2020 / June 2022    Narrator: Mary McCann

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