Common Yellowthroat

I have a bit of an issue with the names that many bird species are given.

Words like, Killdeer; it’s just not right. How can that lovely bird kill a deer?

Dickcissel? What?

And, the most recent species on my list (only because I just recorded it a few weeks ago): Chuck will’s-widow. Seriously? What could have possibly inspired someone to give a bird by that moniker?

Another species name that somewhat haunts me is the Common Yellow-throat.

Yes, I must admit that this little bird is very common in my area. I hear it all the time. The male sings quite brilliantly and often. I’m not the best at bird song recognition, but I rarely get this one wrong since I hear it so frequently.

Still, I very rarely see the actual bird responsible for that melody. Filming it is quite challenging, since it prefers to exist in scrubby underbrush which is difficult to negotiate both physically, visually and with a camera lens. So, my beef with this name? Common! It’s not common to spot it, regardless of the fact that we assume its around based on its song.

However, that changed yesterday when I turned my lens towards a bird that was perched on a twig in the relative open near our pond.

This is a male Common Yellow-throat singing to his heart’s content.