The speedy and powerful Jim Zook, professional Ornithologist and friend to the San Vito Bird Club, shared a tiny moment with me a few years ago.

(I paraphrase Jim’s telling of the moment)

‘I was mentoring, guiding and instructing a group of non-science undergraduate students and attempting to teach them something about the bird life of Costa Rica. Part of my job was to help them identify some of the regularly seen birds and give them the common name of those birds,. These undergrads were assigned to take notes on the experience, share their insights and thoughts and turn in to me their papers on our time together. I read through the papers and to my surprise, I found that some of the students had mis-heard the names. Here are three of the more interesting bird names i read in those papers:

Clay-colored Thrush came out Clay-covered Thrush

Buff-throated Saltator came out Buff-throated Salt Eater.

Morelet’s Seedeater came out More-or-Less Seedeater.

Buff-throated Salt Eater (Saltator)