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Dawn Chorus: COME HOME! and other Bird Code WHIMsy [1]

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Date: 2024-09-08  

Inspired by lineatus’ HAHA reference in her Dawn Chorus last month about Harris’s Hawks, I thought it would be fun to look at some other Bird Codes that lend whimsy to the very serious business of bird documentation (for some of us, HAHA).

All bird species have unique 4-letter bird codes (FLBCs) which are used to streamline observations, reporting, and banding. As with the official bird world in general, there are strict rules about codes. As much as possible, a bird’s FLBC relates to its common name, but given the variety of monikers (with one, two, three or four word names, sometimes hyphenated or internally capitalized) and the duplication that would result from a simple system, sometimes oddities emerge. And as if that wasn’t complicated enough, there are two FLBC systems with slightly different codes, the Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) and the Institute for Bird Populations (IBP). For folks who want to see the list of the rules, Kent Fiala at the Carolina Bird Club wrote up a very clear explanation with examples for each situation, including what happens when there’s a “collision” (ie a duplicate FLBC when the simplest rule is applied). Current established bird codes include parts of names or initials in various combinations, some of which are nice and obvious, others more obscure, even humorous.

(We won’t get into the 6-letter codes for scientific names. Sometimes they are charming, like HARHAR (for the Harpy Eagle, Harpia harpyja), TURPLE (for Mountain thrush, Turdus plebejus) or DRYNUT (for Nuttall's woodpecker, Dryobates nuttallii), but more often they are unpronounceable, like PEUAES (for Bachmann’s sparrow, Peucaea aestivalis)).

Sometimes a bird’s FLBC unintentionally expresses a feature of a bird, either its appearance or behavior. Or even how a birder reacts to them, as in SCOR (Scott's Oriole). "SCORE! We just saw a SCOR!"

Several single-word-named birds are easy, like OSPR (Osprey), MERL (Merlin), WHIM (Whimbrel), and DUNL (Dunlin).

OSPR

Another single named bird whose FLBC has the bonus of describing it is the Bufflehead. Some may disagree but I consider these diminutive ducks to be superlatively BUFF, ie physically muscular and attractive.

Two BUFF drakes posturing

A few more I like:

Purple Martins are the PUMAs of the swallow world.

Photo by Andrew Reding, Semiahmoo Spit, Blaine, WA.

Sanderlings (SAND) were once felicitously described by a blogger in this way:

Sanderlings are born of the sand. They live, laugh, and love the sand. Sand courses through their lungs and pulses in their veins. For breakfast they have sand toast with sand butter, and at night they have sand steak. A life spent running up and down the sand is, for a Sanderling, a life well and wisely spent. Several scientists have posited that the reason for their back-and-forth wave-running is actually the intention of breaking down (weathering and eroding) any larger shell chunks that are washed up on the beach, thereby creating more sand. Butler's Birds

.

The SAND’s northern inland counterpart’s FLBC SNOW (for SNowy Owl) evokes both the bird’s appearance and habitat

TUTI just sounds like a Tufted Titmouse doing its flitting and hopping, twirling and darting.

The spunky, assertive, quick-moving kingbirds are the WEKIs, EAKIs, CAKIs, COKIs, LOKIs and so on.

Pine Siskins get seriously PISI around other birds no matter what their size.

In this case it’s two siskins facing off over the birdbath

And what about the title of this Dawn Chorus? It’s how I feel about ducks…..

COME

HOME! for the winter, duckies

Whether dry or whimsical, our assigning code monikers to birds makes me wonder about the reverse. Do birds have codes to distinguish different human types, since we overlap in habitat a lot of the time? Like STKR or BINO or WWKR or FDRR? *

I expect they do, in their own vocabulary. What might your birder code name be?

(* stalker, binocular-wielder, (the dreaded) weedwhacker-wielder, feeder-provider)



Do you use FLBCs? Any favorites for you?

The Dawn Chorus is now open for your birdy reports of the week.

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