Indeed, while birds are generally harmless to humans, the names of some bird species sound frightening. Here are 8 of the scariest:
Cut-throat Finch (photo: Alandmanson, Creative Commons)
Blood Pheasant
Killdeer (photo: Pexels)
Wailing Cisticola (photo: Alan Manson – Uploaded by snowmanradio, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17387679)
Satanic Nightjar (By William Stephens – https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/2626247631, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=107746258)
Grey Butcherbird (and other butcherbirds)
Eastern Screech Owl (and other screech owls) (photo: Freepik)
Red-collared Widowbird (and other widowbirds)
And while it is not a species, a murder of crows also sounds terrifying …
For birds that look frightening or spooky rather than having such names, see an older post by Faraaz.
Photos by the author unless mentioned.
The nightjar and the pheasant moved to the top of my wishlist now… I have seen the other species and could add the dead seasparrow as another example (but that’d be cheating, I know).
I d also add the bleeding-hearts, like the Luzon bleeding-heart (Gallicolumba luzonica). It apparently was also overlooked in Faraaz’ post, despite looking as if it was dressed for a Halloween party.
Here in Mexico, they call the Rose-throated Becard “degollado”, which means it has had its throat slit. And shrikes are known as “verdugos”, or torturers. No doubt that is why they wear masks.
That is a great addition indeed, Kilian, and a species I did not know existed. Need to go to the Philippines … unfortunately, the guides there are generally very slow to respond.