More Pretty Birds to Identify


Avalus has a penchant for finding interesting things to photograph on his way to work. Here are a few colourful birds, and he says,

… a flock of birds I encountered on my way to work. Again, I have no idea what kind of bird they are.

©Avalus, all rights reserved

Comments

  1. Ice Swimmer says

    So, partridges. In Finnish they are called peltopyy (pelto = a field for growing things, pyy means hazel grouse, another small species of landfowl), so they would have been perceived as small landfowl living on fields and meadows.

  2. nifty says

    Widely introduced as sport/hunting bird in many parts of the world. I grew up in an area (northern Iowa) in which they were commonly hunted, along with introduced ring-necked pheasants.

  3. nifty says

    Not quite sure why that nationality stuck, but I always heard them referred to as Hungarian partridges, even when not flavored with paprika.

  4. lumipuna says

    Ice Swimmer wrote:

    so they would have been perceived as small landfowl living on fields and meadows

    As opposed to woodlands, where hazel grouse and other native game fowls live. The partridge is an introduced species in Finland, whereas pyy (hazel grouse) happens to be one of the most ancient Finnish words derived from Proto-Uralic several thousand years ago. However, modern Finns might not be aware that pyy and peltopyy are different birds, and might easily mistranslate pyy as “partridge”.

  5. Ice Swimmer says

    lumipuna @ 9

    Also, while this probably doesn’t increase mistranslations, but both Pyy and Partridge are both surnames (for example fashion designer Outi Pyy and linguist Eric Partridge). Peltopyy and Hazel Grouse AFAIK aren’t (unless someone has a double-barreled surname Pelto-Pyy or Hazel-Grouse).

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