Birding

Bird Names, Geography, and Reality

October 11, 2026 by Kai Pflug No Comments

Thanks to Christopher Columbus and his distorted sense of geography, Native Americans came to be known as Indians. A few bird species share a similar fate.

The Turkey is a bird native to North America.
The excuse: Its English name likely came through confusion with guineafowl and Turkey-linked trade.

The Muscovy Duck is native to the Americas, not Muscovy.
The excuse: Muscovy may be a corruption of “musk.”

For the Far Eastern Curlew (Numenius madagascariensis), the scientific name points to Madagascar.
The excuse: This is reportedly an error for Macassar (Makassar), Sulawesi.

The Bohemian Waxwing is the wild card: the name may refer to a supposed Bohemian origin—or to the bird’s wandering habits. For the sake of this post, let’s call it another mistake. Thank you.

Photo: Bohemian Waxwing

Written by Kai Pflug
Kai has lived in Shanghai for 22 years. He only started birding after moving to China, so he is far more familiar with Chinese birds than the ones back in his native Germany. As a birder, he considers himself strictly average and tries to make up for it with photography, which he shares on a separate website. Alas, most of the photos are pretty average as well. He hopes that few clients of his consulting firm—focused on China’s chemical industry—ever find this blog, as it might raise questions about his professional priorities. Much of his time is spent either editing posts for 10,000 Birds or cleaning the litter boxes of his numerous indoor cats. He occasionally considers writing a piece comparing the two activities.