• @[email protected]
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    12 hours ago

    This isn’t everywhere. In German, many birds have pretty unique names: Amsel, Spatz, Kuckuck, Uhu, Eule and so on.

  • @umbraroze
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    22 hours ago

    My favourite example of a straight-to-the-point animal name:

    There’s a species of turtles. Goofy looking fellas with big heads. So what are they called? Big-headed turtles. OK, but surely the Latin name is sensible? No, it’s megacephalum. Totally a band name.

    • @[email protected]
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      12 hours ago

      That’s really cool! But those hints don’t help when I have no idea what order a bird is in 😆

  • teft
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    21 hours ago

    Ornithologists should hang out with astronomers. They do the same naming scheme with telescopes. They’ve named some classics like the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST).

    Edit: a word

    • slazer2au
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      124 minutes ago

      Can’t beat rapid unscheduled disassembly. Aka, a thing exploded

      • @[email protected]
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        260 minutes ago

        Spooky action at a distance is how Einstein called quantum entanglement. That is the official name.

    • @[email protected]
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      2420 hours ago

      Don’t forget the Very Large Telescope, the Extremely Large Telescope, and the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope.

      • TheTechnician27
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        21 hours ago

        It’s the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope; the person you’re replying to left out “Aperture” by mistake.

    • @[email protected]
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      621 hours ago

      Five Hundred Meter Spherical Telescope (FAST)

      Where does the ‘A’ come from?
      The phonetic “faiv”?

      • Blue Lou
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        120 hours ago

        deleted by creator

  • @[email protected]
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    2920 hours ago

    I WOULD say that Lemmy jokes are on point today, but all the ones I’ve saved and sent to my family group chat are from the same Picard Maneuver lol
    You got a good taste in jokes!

  • @shalafi
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    2620 hours ago

    Saw this kickass bird at the lake one day. Went home and looked it up.

    red-winged blackbird

    C’mon!

    • @[email protected]
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      1019 hours ago

      Field biology professor at my alma matter did a study on red-winged blackbirds where they put black paint over the red spots. The females didn’t really care, but the other males would beat the shit out of the test birds.

      Animal behavior is funny

      • @jaybone
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        116 hours ago

        I wonder how that benefits them in terms of evolution.

        • @Zanudous
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          17 hours ago

          Brighter colors indicate health like their ability to successfully gather food which builds up the pigmentation, as well as fitness in avoiding predators. If you see bright bird it is very likely its a male, the stronger the signals, the more attractive they are as a potential mate

        • @[email protected]
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          315 hours ago

          The benefit is that strong red patches scare off other males, small patches get you clobbered, and no one is mating with the bird that just got his shit rocked.

  • @fluxion
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    1120 hours ago

    I prefer a more scientific name like Birridious Amadeus Maximus, Master of the Armies of the North, Loyal Servant to the One True Emporer.

  • @perviouslyiner
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    620 hours ago

    “What are we going to call this railway line? It goes from Hammersmith to the City”

    • don
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      720 hours ago

      “… we’ll call it the Gliecksbaden Line, that should clear up any confusion.”

  • Rose Thorne(She/Her)
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    320 hours ago

    Black vultures, for me.

    We have some that hunt through the dumpsters at work when deli does toss-out. I felt rather dumb assuming they had a fancier name.

    Pretty neat birds to watch, though. I lost some time while they strutted about, pretty much ignoring my existence once I had tossed all our old bread.