Birding Brevard: Getting Birds' Names Right

By Dave Freeland

How would you like it if we started off like this: This spring, at MINWR, you should watch for the arrival of SESA and PABU and check the nesting success of BAEA while praying for a glimpse of BHPA, LIMP or BUOW?

Alpha codes, or the four-letter descriptors used by a specialized group of ornithologists, are becoming de rigueur (oops, there we go again) in some birding circles. In the paragraph above, using the banding codes eliminates many of the letters in long names like Semipalmated Sandpiper (SESA) and Black-hooded Parakeet (BHPA), but also the heart and soul of pretty easy names like Bald Eagle (BAEA), Painted Bunting (PABU), Limpkin (LIMP, naturally) and Burrowing Owl (BUOW).

When I was working for a living as an organizational communications practitioner for a major corporation and later for several consulting firms, we professionals frequently had to remind executives not to talk in "internal code," the jargon that separates the haves from the have-nots. The "internal code" simply excluded new employees or others not on the inside of the organization from understanding the important language of business.

Thus, an executive might be inclined to substitute acronyms and product/customer shorthand for good ol' English. The Large Rotating Apparatus Division (yes, it's a mouthful) became LRA, the production people members of MFG rather than the Manufacturing Department and a product shipped to WEPCO instead of Wisconsin Electric Power Company. The communicator's task was to keep reminding executives that using in-house jargon hurt open communications rather than fostering it.

As for birds and those forbidding Alpha codes, a lot of serious birders are growing angry over the increasing use of those terms rather than the welcoming bird names we have come to enjoy. Is PABU a good way to describe a beautiful Painted Bunting? NUTS to PABU, we say!

I don't know the correct Alpha codes for Black-throated Green Warbler or Black-throated Gray Warbler, but I trust it isn't BTGW. If it is, how would anyone know which species the user is talking about?

Margie Wilkinson of St. Petersburg, apparently agrees with us. She's one of the co-owners of the birding listserv BRDBRAIN (yes, it's short one "I" in its name). After a recent posting about sightings that referenced them by Alpha codes in the subject line, she sent her own post reminding users that's off-limits. "Don't do that," she said essentially. We hope users were listening because Margie has the authority to dump them from the listserv altogether. Goodie!

Where to Go: It's a long summer, but remember that shorebirds are still migrating north into early June and will begin their long trek back south before the end of the month. It's one of the shortest turn-around schedules in migration. So keep an eye open for where there are mudflats and sandbars where sandpipers and plovers can congregate to feed and rest. Our open beaches will attract Sanderlings, Black-bellied Plovers and Ruddy Turnstones. The rack washed up on the north edge of the parking lot in Titusville just after the Max Brewer Causeway swing bridge attracts "peep," turnstones, Sanderlings and even Marbled Godwits and Willets. The mudflats along Black Point Drive in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, assuming there is some water, will harbor Semipalmated Plovers, "peep" and a multitude of both yellowlegs and other shorebirds.

Some inland sites that partially dry up but retain wet areas will look appealing to many migrating waders. Watch for these sites to develop in your own neighborhood, then check them regularly for newcomers to the migrant scene.

Bird of the Month: Swallow-tailed Kite. Many birders think it's the best bird of every month, though we lose ours from September through March, when they head for South America. Most of them like the interior of the Florida Peninsula, especially over groves of trees where they can nest and feed. Even Australian pines, which many environmentalists abhor because they squeeze out native plants, often attract Swallow-tailed Kites. Are they SWTKs? Rats, I don't know!

Your Question: A birding friend of mine from Oregon saw this gull (photo attached) near Belle Glade in February. She was thinking it was a Heermann's. Any thoughts?

A: I see an immature and two adult gulls in the picture, all of which look like fairly typical Ring-billed Gulls to me, though the images are not easy to detect. Heermann's Gull would be extraordinary in Florida (despite the one that has been hanging out in Tampa Bay for a few years), although we all should be vigilant for any gull species the way larids have been exploding in population as do landfills and other garbage dumps.

Forward your birding question to me at freela148@aol.com. I'll answer as many as I can directly and will publish one each month in The Limpkin.