Some bird’s names are still obscure nowadays. And if birds with silly names had a queen, it would be the black-winged kite, “élanion blac” in French. “Élanion” is not the problematic part, as it comes from the Greek “elanos”, meaning kite.
📷Yathin S Krishnappa
📷Yathin S Krishnappa
For the 2nd part of its name, “blac”, it’s another story. François Levaillant, a French ornithologist, chose this name in 1799. But he did not provide any explanation for this choice...
⤵️ François, feeling pleasure imagining people pulling their hair out about this bird's name
⤵️ François, feeling pleasure imagining people pulling their hair out about this bird's name
- it may come from the Arab “ablaq” أبلق , meaning a blend of dark and light colors.
- or it’s a modification of the English word “black”.
- or it’s simply a bad transcript of the French word “blanc”, meaning white.
- or it’s a modification of the English word “black”.
- or it’s simply a bad transcript of the French word “blanc”, meaning white.
The name “élanion blac” remains the official name despite the fact that a vast majority of the community of French speaking ornithologists uses the name “élanion blanc”.
This story becomes even more silly when you know that the binomial name of this bird, “Elanus caeruleus”, comes from the Latin caerulus, meaning… blue.
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