I've always had a love for the old names of birds. They seem more reflective and interesting than some of the modern versions. I was kindly given a photocopy of a section of a book by W.A. Dutt that gives the East Anglian names for birds, these appearing in books from 1866 to 1905.
I've listed those birds that are regularly seen across the areas that I birdwatch.
Air Goat- Common Snipe Arps- Tufted Duck Awl Bird- Avocet
Baldie Coot- Coot Banjo Bill- Spoonbill Bargoose/Bay Duck/Bergander- Shelduck
Barley Bird- Nightingale Beck- Shoveler Billy Whit-Barn Owl
Blackcap-Reed Bunting Black Poker- Tufted Duck
Black Sandpiper- Green Sandpiper Blood Linnet-Linnet
Blue Hawk-Hen Harrier (Male) Bottle-bump-Bittern Bottle Tom-Long-tailed Tit
Burrow-bird-Wheatear Burrow-duck-Shelduck Buttle-Bittern
Caddie or Cadder-Jackdaw Cambridge Godwit-Greenshank
Chummy-House Sparrow Common finch-Chaffinch Cow-bird-Yellow Wagtail
Cracker-Pintail Dickey-bird-Oystercatcher
Dive-and-Dop or Divy-Duck-Little Grebe Dow Fulfer- Fieldfare Draw-Water-Goldfinch
Dun-bird-Pochard Easterlings-Wigeon English Fulfer-Mistle Thrush
Felt-Fieldfare Flapjack-Lapwing Foreign Fulfer-Fieldfare
French Mavis-Redwing French Sparrow-Tree Sparrow
Full-eyed Plover-Golden Plover Full Snipe-Common Snipe Furzechuck-Stonechat
Game-hawk-Peregrine Gargle Teal-Garganey Gill-hooter-Barn Owl
Green Linnet-Greenfinch Green Plover-Lapwing Grey Duck-Gadwall
Grey-goose-Greylag Grey Mallard-Gadwall Ground Oven-Chiffchaff
More to come.........
