Mon
Feb 27, 2006
This
nomenclature thing is pretty interesting as pointed out by Pratap
Singh Sahib. Unknowingly we have stumbled on a discussion topic
and bhopalbirds is a primarily a discussion group. Salim Ali's
book calls it Yellow Fronted Pied Wood Pecker . Grimmett (and
probably Kris's book) changes the name to Yellow Crowned Wood
Pecker and Pamela's New Book refers to it as Yellow Fronted Pied
Wood Pecker again !
These are our birds but what they should be called - is decided
by people sitting many thousands of miles away. It is both ironic
and tragic that with institutions like Zoological Survey of India
, the Wildlife Institute of India and many, we offer this luxury
to outsiders. Is this intellectual colonialism ? Agreed that science
is universal but we never seem to be a part of that universe.
Suppose
if some knowledgeable taxonomist in India creates a bird field
guide for the US and changes a few names, would that book be accepted
in the US ? From my experience and gut feeling, I can say that
there would be at least 100 people who would scientifically challenge
the author and probably junk it even before the ink dries up on
that book. But when such books arrive in India - no body challenges
them . Infact nobody even ask's these authors what was the need
to change a name and what kind of practical difficulty such changes
cause to people. Did they discover another woodpecker which had
a more yellow crown that they had to make space for it by calling
this one a Yellow Fronted Wood Pecker ?
If
Parag , me and Pratap Singh were taking a few school kids for
bird watching the conversation would be as follows : Parag will
say look there is a YF Pied Wood Pecker. By the time kids are
noting it down , I will say its called a Yellow Crowned Wood Pecker
these days - and the kids would write that instead when Pratap
Singh Ji will smilingly suggest that 'these days' it is again
called as YF Pied WP !
And
who knows if some other guy , currently writing another field
guide for India might be conspiring at this moment to call it
'the Yellow Bellied Orange Crowned Wood Pecker ! The problem with
Indian Science ( yes I am aware of Infosys, IITs and and all that
stuff) is that we are trained to accept. Right from our school,
we are told that questioning is disrespectful. Questions are treated
so disdainfully by school teachers inviting comments such as -
'Apne aap Ko Zyda smart samjhte ho ?"(sic). Our seminars are not
respectful unless a few foreigners attend them. Our research is
not respectable unless we collaborate with someone outside India.
Our degrees are not even close to foreign degrees. In every walk
of life - we are still not knowledge creators , just tame followers.
Lets have some views on this. Chinmaya
Feel free to mail your comments to
info at bhopalbirds dot com
pratap
singh wrote:
>
> I agree with Rathore Sahab that this bird is quite common in
Van Vihar > and other wooded areas like Kerwa. > > Unfortunately
there is no standardization on use of common names of > Indian
birds. There are various common/english names used for many >
birds in different books. The latest book on birds of Indian >
subcontinent uses Yellow-fronted Pied Woodpecker for the species
in > question.In fact this book has adopted some english names
used in old > books. > > Best Wishes > > Pratap Singh > > >
On Sun, 26 Feb 2006 Dr.C.S.Rathore wrote :
>
>Grimmett's book does not have any bird by the name - YFPWP. It
could be > >a Maratha Woodpecker. Distribution maps show two woodpeckers
with > >matching description - (a) Brown Capped Pygmy Woodpecker
and (b) Yellow > >Crowned Woodpecker ( earlier called the Maratha
Woodpecker Dendrocopos > >mahrattensis). From what Parag has described,
it probably cannot be a > >BCPW and in all likelihood it should
be the YCW ( which probably is the > >same as YFPWP as per new
nomenclature) . Not taking anything away from > >Sanjeev, I must
mention that it is quite common in Van Vihar and should > >be
in the VV Bird list. We have seen it many times in VV before and
it > >is a common sight in Kerwa. Maybe PS can please comment.
> >In the midst of repairing a cycle puncture for my daughter
today, I > >spotted a Verditer Flycatcher (male) at Vanika - IIFM's
residential > >colony. Interestingly, Maps do not show its distribution
here and just > >show a (X) which means individual records. These
are winter visitors and > >breed in Himalayas. I am sure about
this because PS showed me one a few > >months ago at Vanika itself.
Today I had a really good look as it kept > >sitting for a long
time (almost telling me - go on get your binocular- > >get your
Grimmett book- I don't mind waiting here). It is a really > >beautiful
bluish bird with distinct black lores( a picture attached from
> >Oriental bird club). I thought it was kind of late for the
bird to be > >seen in Bhopal . She ought to be heading home by
now. > >Chinmaya > >
Parag
wrote:
>>
Today was a great day for all of us as Sanjeev spotted a woodpecker
> >> which we all had seen for the first time. Initially we thought
of > >> brown capped pigmy woodpecker but after careful observations
using the > >> picture guide(we tool nearly 25 min observing it)
we were truly > >> convinced that it was yellow fronted pied woodpecker.
Yello color in > >> head and red band across was clearly visible
and predominant > >> red/orange color in the belly. It was moving
around in acacia tree > >> near iron gate of VEETHiKA. I will
have to check if this WP is there > >> in VAN VIHAR bird checklist.
I hav also attached two images of YFPWP. > >> > >> We must appreciate
bird spotting skills of Sanjeev, time and again he > >> has proved.
He was also the first to spot brown capped pigmy WP in > >> Kolar,
mottled wood owl in VV and nest of small blue KF. If you want
> >> to increase your species count must go with Sanjeev. > >>
> >> Khalique now owns a pocket computer with digitalised VV map,
that was > >> really interesting. It has facilities to download
or copy data to > >> desktops including pictures and voice. It
will help us in our census > >> activity. > >> > >> I hav also
attached data sheets for Bird Census. Sheet one is for > >> water
birds and sheet two for terrestrial. Methodology was discussed
> >> in my prev posting to the group. > >> We missed our seniors
today but Mr. SD Sharma (Van Vihar) was very > >> helpful. He
offered us help needed and also provided a nice cup of tea > >>
to end with.
Feel
free to mail your comments to info at bhopalbirds dot com
