2005 (No 5) - Gibraltar Ornithological & Natural History Society

8 Bird Report 2005
have therefore been adopted for this and future reports. The purists among you will
have discovered that already.
The situation with the vernacular names is a little different. For simplicity as
well as for consistency, the Spanish names used are those adopted by the Spanish
Ornithological Society (SEO/Birdlife) and used in the Lista de las Aves de España,
Edición de 2005. The English names, though, allow for an element of flexibility and,
I have to admit, of personal preference.
It is probably impossible to make the English names as rigorous as the scientific
ones since many of them are of traditional origin and firmly embedded in common
use. Any attempts to rename the Blackbird Turdus merula the Black Thrush or the
Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla the Black-capped Warbler, for example, are surely doomed
to failure. Yet there has been widespread acceptance of the trend to make certain very
parochial names which have been in traditional use in Britain more specific. Hence, for
example, Swallow, Wheatear and Swift (for Hirundo rustica, Oenanthe oenanthe and
Apus apus respectively) are now Barn Swallow, Northern Wheatear and Common
Swift: you will probably know many more examples.
Scope for confusion arises where several English names exist since, unlike
the scientific names, there is no central authority responsible for these. The tendency
is to qualify stand-alone names, such as Bee-eater (for Merops apiaster) and
Sparrowhawk (for Accipiter nisus) with adjectives: in these two cases the proposed
additions are geographical and we have European Bee-eater and Eurasian
Sparrowhawk. This is fine but such handles are often unwieldy and, let’s face it,
never used in common parlance. I have never heard any of the raptor watchers at
Jews’ Gate call out ‘Eurasian Sparrowhawk’ (although they are bound to do so now
once they read this !). The Bird Report uses the shorter names where no ambiguity
exists, the authority for the identification always resting with the scientific name.
Some English names have changed a good deal. During my ornithological
lifetime I have ‘had’ to refer to Agrobates (now Cercotrichas) galactotes as the
Rufous Warbler, Rufous Bush Chat (my favourite), Rufous-tailed Robin and, now,
Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin. The guiding principle in this report is to use those
names which are in common and widespread usage. In most cases they are those
adopted by the British Ornithologists’ Union but there have been occasional departures:
we stopped calling our resident gulls Herring Gulls many years before the
BOU adopted the name Yellow-legged Gull for Larus michahellis.
Names will always change, whether we like it or not, but we are always free
to call anything by any name we like: except when trying to communicate with others
in print. Most importantly, the names we give birds are labels of convenience to
ourselves and they do not alter the actual relationships between existing groups
and species. Name them as we will, the birds remain the same.
* The Gibraltar List may be consulted on the GONHS website: www.gonhs.org