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Yellow-bellied sapsucker
Have you seen any Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers recently? This is a good question for separating birders from non-birders. Non-birders would laugh, certain that this absurd name is made up - it sounds like a name invented by a tv writer to make fun of birdwatchers, as they do. Birders would quickly answer yes or no, because they know this is a real bird, an attractive but uncommon woodpecker. Why am I telling you this? Because it’s time to talk about silly, fun, and just plain annoying bird names.
Maybe the most frustrating category of bird names, especially for beginners, is “birds named for invisible anatomical features”. A classic local example is the Ring-necked Duck – I don’t think I’ve ever seen the alleged “ring”- and most people who’ve seen one would prefer to ring the neck of whoever named them. Another is the Red-bellied woodpecker, with it’s flaming red crown and nape but barely visible, sometimes there in good light, vague red