{"id":101330,"date":"2021-08-15T06:28:47","date_gmt":"2021-08-15T12:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=101330"},"modified":"2021-08-15T06:42:04","modified_gmt":"2021-08-15T12:42:04","slug":"why-i-keep-wanting-to-call-willow-flycatchers-by-another-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/15\/why-i-keep-wanting-to-call-willow-flycatchers-by-another-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Keep Wanting To Call Willow Flycatchers By Another Name"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rose by any other name…<\/p>\n

In the 16th century a \u201clogger\u201d was a large block of wood for hobbling a horse. The term loggerhead came to mean \u201cblockhead\u201d or something with a disproportionately large head. Several animal species were named for that characteristic including the Loggerhead Sea Turtle and Loggerhead Sponges (huge sponges whose barrel shape resembles a head).<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Examples in the bird world include the Loggerhead Kingbird<\/a><\/span><\/span> found in the Caribbean and our own Loggerhead Shrike, above. Depending on the pose I often notice how big-headed Loggerhead Shrikes are when I get them in my viewfinder. I’ve always wondered if their large head is an adaptation for powering the unusually strong beak of this wannabe raptor.<\/p>\n

But there’s another songbird I photograph regularly that very often looks like it has an even larger head, relative to size, than the Loggerhead Shrike.<\/p>\n

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1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

And that bird is the Willow Flycatcher.<\/p>\n

I took this photo in the mountains four days ago. The moment I got ‘him’ in my viewfinder I thought “Damn, that’s a big head” and then I wondered, as I often do, why this bird hadn’t been called the Loggerhead Flycatcher instead of Willow Flycatcher. In my view they deserve “loggerhead” in their name at least as much as Loggerhead Shrikes do.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not proposing a name change. Willow Flycatcher is a perfectly good name for this species – it accurately describes their preferred habitat and it doesn’t name the bird after a person, a practice I’ve come to oppose.<\/p>\n

But I know me. I’m such a creature of habit I’ll continue to think “Loggerhead Flycatcher”, at least for a moment, whenever I get a Willow Flycatcher in my viewfinder.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n