WEBVTT

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[APPLAUSE]

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"Phainopepla."

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"Is that the black one?

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Oh, I love those.

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Many casual southwestern
birdwatchers

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confuse the name phainopepla
with that of the pyrrhuloxia.

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They don't confuse
the birds, however.

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And once it's confirmed that,
yes, it's the black one,

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they know which one
you're talking about,

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and that's the one they love.

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Perhaps because they've
spotted one perching upright

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at the top of a
solitary mesquite tree,

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glossy black plumage
gleaming in the Arizona sun.

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Maybe they've seen
him leave his perch

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in short, circular,
acrobatic flights,

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catching insects in mid-air,
white wing patches flashing.

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It's no wonder the
phainopepla is more popular

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than the pyrrhuloxia--"

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Sorry, Sam.

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I'm glad Sam's not here.

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"--the one with the similar
name who just sits around

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in the undergrowth,
a chunky, dusty,

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deserty version of
the northern cardinal.

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I learned my birds
in the Midwest,

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beginning in January
in an Ornithology

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course with 6:00 AM field labs.

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Standing in the snow at
double digits below zero,

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I watched the
hearty winter ducks

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that clustered in the
steamy little pools

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below the power plant.

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When spring finally
arrived, I was

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dazzled by trees full of
sparkling, yellow warblers

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in migration.

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Later in the semester, I huddled
in a dark, makeshift blind

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in the middle of
an empty cornfield,

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listening to the booming
calls of prairie chickens,

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waiting until dawn
to see them perform

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their ritualized breeding dance.

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My love for the avian world
propelled me to Oregon

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for a summer course
in pelagic birds.

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Living at a field station
on the foggy coast,

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I raised a great blue heron
from an abandoned chick.

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Several years later,
I moved to Arizona

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as part of a career shift
from science to art,

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and never bothered to
learn the local birds.

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I once saw a phainopepla
and a pyrrhuloxia

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at the Desert Museum, but since
the names on the aviary sign

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were so similar and
completely unfamiliar to me,

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I promptly forgot which was
which and the names of both.

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Since I hadn't noticed
either bird in the wild

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during the three decades
I lived in Arizona,

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I turned to my well-worn
taxonomically-arranged field

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guide when I began this essay.

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There, I discovered that though
phainopepla looks and sometimes

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feeds like the familiar
northern flycatcher,

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it's only distantly related.

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Instead, it's 50
pages away, pictured

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beside the lovely and
exotic cedar waxwing.

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Phainopepla belongs
to a Central American

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family, the only member
that ventures north

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of the Mexican border.

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It's relative, so they live
in Spanish-speaking countries

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all have accessible
common names in English.

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So why has the phainopepla
been saddled with such

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a difficult common name?

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The technical answer is
that in 1957, the American

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Ornithological Union's
Checklist Committee

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rejected several names being
used regionally and decreed

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that our bird would
be commonly known

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by the first part of its
binomial scientific name,

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phainopepla nitens.

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Most of the alternatives
were strange and unsuitable,

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like the glossy flysnapper.

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Like the bird never caught
one, it just snapped at them.

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But I came across
an obscure reference

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to the common name windowing.

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I wonder how my
relationship of the last 30

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years with this bird would
have been different had I been

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introduced to it as windowing.

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Would the name's reference
to the white wing patches

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and taxonomic intimacy
with the cedar waxwing

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have helped me notice and
remember a phainopepla

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as it flitted by me?

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As this essay progressed,
I began to see phainopeplas

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regularly in the wild--

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on telephone wires and scrubby
brush and at the tops of trees,

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sporting their long tails,
expressive wispy crests,

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bright red eyes, and
glistening plumage.

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I hear the rising werp of
their call and, if I'm lucky,

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I catch a glimpse of the
windowy white wing patch.

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Once I've seen a male, I
often spot little groups

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of gray females nearby.

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They were always there.

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I just didn't notice
them until I'd

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learned their difficult name.

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And now that I
have, I think it's

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an aptly uncommon name for
this anything but common bird.

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[APPLAUSE]

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