I would be very interested to hear what people think of the different English names for the one species that are now appearing: sometimes ‘Australian Gull-billed Tern’, sometimes ‘Australian Tern’.
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Sorry: second sentence should read "So when downloading data from the Cornell database the output does not have the "English (Australian)" names attached. "Martin Butterfieldhttp://franmart.blogspot.com.au/
https://mallacootaweatherwildlife.blogspot.com/On Sun, 24 May 2026 at 15:58, Martin Butterfield <martinflab@gmail.com> wrote:
An interesting point re the last paragraph is that as far as I am aware what is stored in the Cornell databases is the species names used in the Cornell version of the world. So when downloading data from the Cornell database does the output not have the "English (Australian)" names attached. As most people know those names I have in the past used a concordance to convert from Cornell-speak into Australian names (in the process also converting the mis-spellings from the land of Trump such as 'Gray). However I think Avilist is a great idea so from now on intend to use their names (apart from correcting the mispellings, but including the latest results from the hyphen wars).Martin Butterfieldhttp://franmart.blogspot.com.au/
https://mallacootaweatherwildlife.blogspot.com/On Sun, 24 May 2026 at 15:31, Geoffrey Dabb via Birding-Aus <birding-aus@birding-aus.org> wrote:
I do like that idea, Inland Tern has a nice ring to it 👍🏻Sent from my iPhone
Surely … surely, not ‘Mallacoota Gull’ ?! From: Martin Butterfield <martinflab@gmail.com> Sent: Sunday, 24 May 2026 1:12 PMTo: Philip Veerman <pveerman@pcug.org.au>Cc: Geoffrey Dabb <gdabb@iinet.net.au>; birding-aus@birding-aus.orgSubject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Bird name We record – not often admittedly – the species in question at Mallacoota.Martin Butterfieldhttp://franmart.blogspot.com.au/ https://mallacootaweatherwildlife.blogspot.com/ On Sun, 24 May 2026 at 12:15, Philip Veerman <pveerman@pcug.org.au> wrote:
We record – not often admittedly – the species in question at Mallacoota.Martin Butterfieldhttp://franmart.blogspot.com.au/
https://mallacootaweatherwildlife.blogspot.com/On Sun, 24 May 2026 at 12:15, Philip Veerman <pveerman@pcug.org.au> wrote:
I will put forward a new name option of “Inland Tern”. There are at least two valid and long-standing precedents for “Inland…” (Dotterel and Thornbill). Pizzey’s book lists 18 species called “tern”. I took my comparisons from that book. There are only 3 other Australian terns that also have an inland distribution, but not as much as this one does. Also, all the other terns are NOT inland but have a marine distribution and this one is the only one that is fully inland and does not have a marine distribution. The name is short and distinctive, removes the need for “Australian”. I hope it is distinctive, as in I hope there isn’t something else called “inland tern” in some other part of the world. I think "Deep-billed Tern” would be ok but it is not a very attractive name. Philip Veerman From: Martin Butterfield Sent: Saturday, 23 May, 2026 8:57 PMTo: Philip Veerman <pveerman@pcug.org.au>Cc: Geoffrey Dabb <gdabb@iinet.net.au>; birding-aus@birding-aus.orgSubject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Bird name I looked at Fraser and Gray for any suggestion of an alterna-tive. They list only Gull-billed tern noting "for the relatively short deep bill’. IMO "deep-billed Tern’ would be better than "Australian".Martin Butterfieldhttp://franmart.blogspot.com.au/ https://mallacootaweatherwildlife.blogspot.com/ On Sat, 23 May 2026 at 17:28, Philip Veerman <pveerman@pcug.org.au> wrote:
I looked at Fraser and Gray for any suggestion of an alterna-tive. They list only Gull-billed tern noting "for the relatively short deep bill'. IMO "deep-billed Tern' would be better than "Australian".Martin Butterfieldhttp://franmart.blogspot.com.au/
https://mallacootaweatherwildlife.blogspot.com/On Sat, 23 May 2026 at 17:28, Philip Veerman <pveerman@pcug.org.au> wrote:
There are many other species of terns that occur in Australia. So the name Australian Tern is at best a weird choice and very confusing and I suggest not acceptable. In what way is this bird more connected to Australia than any of the other terns? Is it confined to Australia and other terns are not? Even if so, that is hardly a distinctive feature. Maybe it deserves a completely different and new name but I don’t know what. Do we want it to be connected by name to some other form of Gull-billed Tern? Given that it is not a species that is often encountered, then I considered that if Australian Gull-billed Tern is acceptable. However whilst I am within Australia, I am perfectly happy to call it just Gull-billed Tern because the context is clear. Just as I am perfectly happy to call a common bird I see every day, a Magpie, rather than Australian Magpie because I am completely aware that it has no close connection to the various species of magpies of the northern hemisphere. And within Australia, the context is clear. Also, we should not have long names for species that are frequently encountered or written about. If only rarely encountered, it is OK. Which is why Galah is a good name. There are so many birds called “Common something”. How valid is that? It may not even mean common (as in lots of them) but just likely means historically familiar to the situation in Britain long ago. How many birds are called “Rare something. Philip From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of Geoffrey Dabb via Birding-AusSent: Friday, 22 May, 2026 1:56 PMTo: birding-aus@birding-aus.orgSubject: [Birding-Aus] Bird name I would be very interested to hear what people think of the different English names for the one species that are now appearing: sometimes ‘Australian Gull-billed Tern’, sometimes ‘Australian Tern’.
WgasOn Fri, 22 May 2026, 15:12 Tony via Birding-Aus, <birding-aus@birding-aus.org> wrote:
Likewise but our masters decreed otherwise, adding Australian and Common to Gull-billed Tern seemed so obvious☹️Sent from my iPhone
Hi GeoffreyThanks for canvassing opinions.I find ‘Australian Tern’ remarkably uninformative, as opposed to the much more useful ‘Australian Gull-billed Tern’.And ‘Gull-billed Tern’ implies there is only one species of gull-billed terns, which is now not the case, so the name ‘Common Gull-billed Tern’ is appropriate for that species.Regards SteveSteve Readsteve.read123@gmail.com+61 408 170915On Fri, 22 May 2026 at 4:58 am, Geoffrey Dabb via Birding-Aus <birding-aus@birding-aus.org> wrote: