Dogs last week and, for the many birds I saw on the same short break, our avian friends this. Of course no gull could ever be considered a friend, they always look very angry.
Albatross - interestingly an alteration of the Spanish or Portuguese
alcatraz 'large web-footed sea bird', although originally referring to the pelican. This comes from the Arabic
al-ghattas 'sea eagle' and related to Portuguese
alcatruz 'the bucket of a water wheel'.
Auk - from the Old Norse
alka originally imitative of its cry.
Bantam - a place name, a Dutch settlement on the island of Java.
Blackbird - it is well known the female is brown, however correctly the male is not actually black but a very dark brown.
Blue tit - again named for its colour.
Booby - the adjective referring to a person means 'stupid', this considered a reasonable description of these ungainly seabirds.
Budgerigar - a native of Australia named from
budgeri 'good' and
gar 'cockatoo'.
Bullfinch - a composite of 'bull', a description of its head and neck, with 'finch' a Germanic word imitative of its call.
Bunting - derived either from a Brythonic word for 'plump' or a Germanic
bunt or 'speckled'.
Bustard - often said to come from Old French
bistarde and itself from Latin
avis tarda but this 'slow bird' does not accurately describe the creature.
Canary - named for it being found on Canary Island, itself named for the Island of Dogs.
Chaffinch - another finch, named for its call, this time the prefix points to its habit of eating the chaff from grain on farms.
Chicken - a Germanic name, the root imitative of its call.
Cockatoo - from a Malay or Austronesian word
kakatua 'elder sibling' and
tua 'old'.
Condor - from the Quechua
cuntur, simply their name for this bird.
Cormorant - from Late Latin
corvus marinus 'sea raven'.
Crane - from Proto-Indo-European
gere 'to cry hoarsely'.
Crow - an Old English word, imitative of the bird's cry.
Cuckoo - again, imitative of the bird's cry.
Curlew - from Latin
currere 'to run quickly', ultimately Proto-Indo-European
kers 'to run'.
Cygnet - came to English from French
cigne 'swan' and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European
keuk 'to be white', which a cygnet isn't.
Dipper - aptly named for its repeated action in fast-moving water.
Dodo - is from the Portuguese
doudo 'fool, simpleton'.
Dove - a Germanic reference to its flight as it comes from the root for 'dive'.
Eagle - named as the 'dark-coloured' bird, as it is so often seen in silhouette.
Eider - a kind of duck named from the Old Norse
aethar or 'duck'.
Falcon - from the Latin
falcis 'curved blade, pruning hook, sickle, war scythe'.
Finch - again the name imitative of its call.
Flamingo - from the Greek
phoinikopteros literally meaning 'red-feathered'.
Goose - is from the Proto-Indo-European
ghans 'goose, swan'.
Grebe - some of the species of grebe are crested, hence the name from Breton
krib 'a comb'.
Gull - effectively its name means 'one who will swallow anything'. Yes, that's the gull.
Hawk - ultimately from Proto-Indo-European
kap 'to grasp'.
Hen - derived from Proto-Indo-European
kan 'to sing'.
Heron - from an Indo-European root imitative of its cry.
Jackdaw - both elements are imitative of the bird's cry.
Jay - again named from its harsh cry.
Kestrel - again imitative of its cry, but this time related to the Latin
crepitare 'to rattle'.
Kingfisher - self-explanatory.
Kite - once again imitative of its cry.
Kiwi - named by the Maoris as what they perceived as its cry.
Lapwing - has a Germanic root meaning 'leaper-winker'.
Lark - from Proto-Indo-European
leig 'to play'.
Magpie - the two syllables describe the 'chattering bird'.
Mallard - it fundamentally means 'male'.
Merganser - from Latin
mergus 'waterfowl, diver' and from
mergere 'to dip, immerse'.
Merlin - simply means 'small hawk'.
Nightingale - is Germanic for 'night singer'.
Oriole - named from a Latin root meaning 'gold'.
Ostrich - effectively from the Greek
strouthos megale 'big sparrow'.
Owl - a Germanic origin imitative of its call.
Parakeet - thought to be from the Italian
parrocchetto literally 'little priest'.
Partridge - comes from the Greek
perdesthai 'to break wind' and a reference to the whirring sound made by the bird's wings in flight.
Penguin - named from the Old Welsh for 'white head' and yet look at any penguin and you will see it has a black head. What the name first referred to was the great auk, which did have a white head.
Peregrine - comprised of
per ager 'away from the land'.
Pheasant - from the Greek for 'Phasian bird', the birds were particularly numerous along the river Phasis leading to the Black Sea.
Pigeon - is an Old French word meaning 'young dove'.
Plover - from the Latin
plovarius 'belonging to the rain'.
Ptarmigan - of uncertain origin but likely realted to the Greek
pteron 'wing'.
Raven - another Germanic name imitative of the bird's cry.
Redstart - basically means 'red tail'.
Rook - from roots such as Gaelic
roc 'croak' and Sanskrit
kruc 'to cry out'.
Rooster - literally 'the roosting bird'.
Shrike - from Old Norse referring to 'the bird with a shrill call'.
Sparrow - from the Greek
spergoulos 'small field bird'.
Swan - from Proto-Indo-European
swen 'to sing, make sound'.
Tercel - the male falcon, thought to be named from Latin
tertius 'a third' as the male is a third smaller than the female.
Tit - an old word for any small animal, be a bird, rodent or anything else.
Vulture - from the Latin
vellere 'to pluck, tear'.
Whippoorwill - imitative of its call.
Woodpecker - of obvious derivation as indeed is the dialect name in the East Midlands of 'nicker'.
And before anyone asks, no I didn't see all these birds.
