All that opinion is fair enough. The Jabiru is an interesting story. I think
we all know it but here it is again. The point being that the Jabiru is one
species of bird, only from South America. The name comes from a TupiGuaraní
language and means “swollen neck”, a feature not shared with our bird, so
the word is clearly wrong. I suggest the word applied here has the very
unfortunate aspect of easily sounding like an Australian name (like kangaroo
that jabs at its food), so it has easily been transferred here, mostly in
ignorance that it is wrong even if understood by almost everyone. If I talk
of a Jabiru I am certainly talking about the South American bird, which I
never have and never will encounter. The complication is that “Stork” is
also surely originally a specific species of bird from Europe and Africa.
The difference is that over time “Stork” has become a group name applied to
other birds including our species, but Jabiru has not. I suggest
“Black-necked Stork” is only equally “ugly, ungainly and totally unromantic”
as are 90% + of bird names around the world. It is entirely typical and it
is a good name on that basis (Satin Stork is nicer). Similar to “cuckoo”,
surely originally just for one species (of Europe) but now a group name. It
is only quirks of history and colonialism as to which former English species
names become group names and history only goes forward. Is there a reason
why “Jabiru” is not also available as a group name? Although I don’t see any
value of doing that, other than in the illusion of sounding like it has
original Australian culture value and thus validating an error. To my mind
this would be regrettable. But we are all happy with “Magpie”, so there I
have hypocrisy in that common bird. “Torresian Imperial Pigeon” is entirely
sensible in creating a very useful link to all the other birds in a group
called Imperial Pigeon (whatever that is), something that is lost in just
using “Torres Strait Pigeon”.
Philip
—–Original Message—–
From: Birding-Aus [birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
