Yes but does it matter a lot? It is to aid communication for those who do not know automatically that tern and the others you mention already are bird names. Some of the names are too short and obscure without a qualifier. Why should anyone who doesn’t happen to know, think official names like Redthroat is a bird or Luzon Bleeding Heart, that isn’t even given a useful name like Luzon Bleeding Heart Pigeon. But it would surely be hypocrisy to be too critical on this as we also use “bird” as part of many official names: lyrebird, butcherbird, bowerbird, antbird, grassbird, bird of paradise, etc. What is really strange is that the same situation is used for so many frogs and fish (maybe more than not), but as far as I know, it is never used for any mammal. We never get Red Fox Mammal, Phascogale Mammal, Echidna Mammal, Blue Whale Mammal, etc. Philip —–Original Message—– From: Birding-Aus [mailto:birding-aus-bounces@birding-aus.org] On Behalf Of Neil Cheshire Sent: Wednesday, 24 September 2014 7:41 PM To: birding-aus@birding-aus.org Subject: [Birding-Aus] Bird tautology Has anyone else noticed the annoying trend of adding the word ‘bird’ or ‘birds’ to common bird names such as tern, cormorant etc. This evening’s introduction to ‘Wild Britain’ mentions “nightjar birds” I have even seen it in a circular from the South Australian Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources which referred to “little tern birds”. There appears to be cultural cringe/PC that does not want to offend or bewilder anyone who may be unaware that a tern, cormorant etc is in fact a bird! End of rant Neil Cheshire Encounter Bay, South Australia.
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