junk drawer & prizes

Pygmy Fruit-eating Bat (Dermanura phaeotis) get a drinky drink, family Phyllostomidae, Nicaragua

As you may already know... ornithological authorities (such as the AOS and ABA) in North America have decided, for a variety of reasons, to rename all of the birds that have been named after people.

Some examples: Lewis's Woodpecker, Smith's Longspur, MacGillivray's Warbler...

I thought it would be fun for us to come up with some ideas for new common names here on Tumblr.

Here are some criteria for re-naming that might appeal to ornithologists and birdwatchers:

Habitat and geographical range

Physical characteristics

Call/song characteristics

Behavior

PLEASE MAKE YOUR NAMING SUGGESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS, REBLOG, OR TAGS.

We'll take the best ideas, and put them in a poll by the end of the week! (I and an esteemed panel of ornithological tumblererrsssres will make the decisions).

WEEK 11 - Bullock's Oriole

Bullock’s Oriole (Icterus bullockii), males, family Icteridae, order Passeriformes

Breeds/nests in the western US, far SW Canada, and far NW Mexico

Overwinters in Mexico and northern Central America.

Usually found in open deciduous forests, especially along habitat edges. Found often in riparian woodlands (along river edges).

This species and the Baltimore oriole were considered to be a single species, the northern oriole, which was re-split into 2 species in 1995.

Feed on insects, berries, other fruits, and nectar.

Sexually dimorphic.

Seasonally monogamous, males and females care for the chicks.

Nest is constructed of woven plant fibers, looking somewhat like a round hanging basket.

Listen to the calls/songs here: Bullock's Oriole Sounds, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

photographs by Mick Thompson & Kevin Cole 

photograph via: USFWS

Female - photograph by Janey Woodley

We had so much input for this one, that we couldn’t possibly include all the great suggestions, but thanks to you all for your input.

Also, some of the color suggestions are not very spot on, on the color of the bird irl. For instance, Citron Oriole is a beautiful name, but "citron" is an actual color that does not match the bird's color.... even if it happens to evoke for you the orange to yellow-orange coloration of this oriole. Also, all Icterid oriole weave nests, so Weaving Oriole would not distinguish it from other species

Okay, you made your suggestions, and our esteemed panel of judges has weighed in:

@nemertea; @greycatbird, @passerinethehallway; @todaysbird, @proton-wobbler, and I!!!

Dibaeis absoluta

OK, so why does this lichen look like it is growing mushrooms, even though these are decidedly not mushrooms? My first answer is "just to fuck with you," but D. absoluta evolved long before humankind, nonetheless you specifically. So my second answer is because the mushroom shape just makes functional sense when you want to produce a fruiting body by maximizing the physical area that produces spores, and raising them above the substrate by a thin stalk so they can get caught in and distributed by wind. Ok, so they are the spore producing structure of fungi, shaped like that, how are they not mushrooms? Mushrooms are we typically think of them are the reproductive structures of basidiomycete fungi, the spores are typically released from the lower surface of the fruiting bodies like this:

And in an ascocarp, the reproductive structure of an ascomycete fungi like that of D. absoluta, the spores are released from the upper surface of the fruiting bodies. So like this:

OK this is waaayyy simplified. There are also a bunch of internal physiological differences but you, dear reader, can look those up yourself if you are curious about the nuances of fungal development. But very generally speaking, basidiospores come out the bottom, ascospores come out the top.

So not tiny mushrooms, but very very cute just as they are!

To be clear, I feel like they're missing out on a lot of the story, but at this point I'm just happy that they're supporting the authors.