Why All the Parrot Name Confusion?

[triplebbirds]

If you want to have an educated discussion with other owners of the same birds, you're going to have to start by agreeing on what to call them so that you could all know what you are talking about.

Or if you want to have a civil conversation about it then you would have to agree that neither one owner is lesser for using a more common name, or the one that is currently used by more owners. What would be better is if we all could just agree to disagree that we dont call everything by the same name. Depending on where you go one bird may be a different name. But we should understand that names may be different for different areas.

[wordpainter7]

Interestingly, the only store where I've ever seen a conure called a "parakeet" is Petsmart.

Calling it a parakeet isn't wrong, it's a broader term. "parakeet" literally means "long tail" so it's just saying it's a smaller parrot witha long tail, which it is. And really, if we're going to get all technical on this, "conure" is a very broad term and not scientific, so really, they would be called parakeets.

But I think we can all agree Petsmart and Petco aren't all that knowledable on birds

[CinnamonParrots]

I look at the COMMON parrot names as something more to do with language than anything else. Well, culture and language to be precise. I mean, even without any literature, looking back in the "colonial times" when many species of parrots were discovered in the Old and New World, terms were given, and these terms evolved with the times, or stuck with the times. And language is always changing, and therefore it is only reasonable that common names for the more popular species of birds change when crossing cultural and continental boundaries, through translation across various languages between Western ideology vs. regional and native ideology. I mean -- I just watched a documentary where the British narrator called the "Greenwing" macaw the "Red and Green Macaw", the B&G Macaw the "Blue and yellow" macaw, BUT the scarlet macaw was still the Scarlet! I'm guessing depending on the source, certain names are recognized in literature, in ornithology, and are timeless terms even though they are no longer popular, as to be honest, Blue and Gold has a better ring to it than blue and yellow macaw (Lol)

To get into politics here: Term "Indian" in Canada, is still a legal term referring to First Nations peoples, but average people now use either "Aboriginal" or "First Nations" rather than "Indian" but in literature, it is still very much prominent.

If you put yourself in the shoes of those who first discovered these species of birds, I mean I feel like without researching this that the term blue and yellow macaw probably came first, before the blue and gold macaw. As I would describe the bird as blue and yellow, instead of "gold"

To give another example, certain terms such as "Washroom" varies greatly depending on where you go, and we have slang for it as well. So it is understandable that there will most likely always be name confusion.

Names and language are arbitrary, they are forever changing, and therefore it's more frustrating than anything if you ask me, especially when you're trying to understand what another person is talking about!
Don't even get me started on people calling Quakers, Quackers, and when I correct them, they keep saying Quacker!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lol. And if there ever comes a time to be really specific, use the scientific name! But even that is subject to change the more we learn about them!

One of the biggest confusions I had was was the difference between "Major Mitchell's Cockatoo" vs. "Leadbeater" and it totally threw me off because I had no idea what a Leadbeater was!

[Zanizaila]

I mean -- I just watched a documentary where the British narrator called the "Greenwing" macaw the "Red and Green Macaw", the B&G Macaw the "Blue and yellow" macaw, BUT the scarlet macaw was still the Scarlet! I'm guessing depending on the source, certain names are recognized in literature, in ornithology, and are timeless terms even though they are no longer popular, as to be honest, Blue and Gold has a better ring to it than blue and yellow macaw (Lol)

There are often differences between bird watchers and aviculturists, what they call the birds.
Red and green Macaw for example, or Blue and yellow, are the more "ornithological" names, while us in aviculture know them as Green-winged and Blue and gold.

And on the Swedish Wikipedia pages for parrots, I get so annoyed since they always mention the "ornithological name" (like Red and green Macaw) first, and say the more commonly used, avicultural name (like Greenwinged Macaw) is "rarely used". *Facepalm*

For example, the Umbrella Cockatoo is in Sweden known as Albakakadua. In later years, the official named has become Vittofskakadua (White-crested Cockatoo), but then there is a very rare name, which I've only come across in one (!) book - Vithuvad kakadua, which means White-headed Cockatoo. (Almost all cockatoos are white-headed anyway, come on...)
And then it sais - Cacatua alba, Vithuvad kakadua. (Sometimes called "Vittofskakadua" or "Albakakadua") - And it's just not true! God, how annoying.

Or another example - the Military Macaw is almost always known as Soldatara (Soldier Macaw) over here. Then sometimes it's called Militärara (this speaks for itself). But on Wikipedia, they have to say "Militärara - sometimes called Soldatara".

One of the biggest confusions I had was was the difference between
"Major Mitchell's Cockatoo" vs. "Leadbeater" and it totally threw me off because I had no idea what a Leadbeater was!

A bit ironic since the scientific name is Cacatua (or Lopochroa) leadbeateri.
Here in Sweden it's called Inkakakadua - Inca Cockatoo. (Because of the crest, I guess.)

Oh well, that's at least a good reason to learn the scientific names.

I noticed more mistakes on the Wikipedia pages. Time for editing.

[TheNzJessie]

it really annoys me when people call green naped lorikeets rainbow lorikeets, yea sure they are cousins but they are DIFFERENT green napes lorikeets are from New guinea they look like rainbow lorikeets except they have black scale type markings through there breast area and have lighter colours on the other hand rainbow lorikeets are from Australia and dont have any black scale markings and have much brighter colours

green naped lorikeet


Rainbow lorikeet