As a writer, I can't help but love language. Due to early exposure, I have come to love not just English, but German as well. I have so much fun comparing the way they say things in German and English, from the characters in books to birds to all sorts of random words (such as Fernweh, which I wrote about last week).

I also really like birds, as you are probably aware if you have read any of my other articles. When language and birds collide, I find myself obsessively poring over bird books and looking up species on the German Wikipedia, just to compare the differences between languages. And that's how I ended up writing this article.

Okay, enough intro. Let's get into the meat of the subject.

I'd like to start with the species that I think have better names in German than in English. First up, we have the Ring-necked Duck. Now, both male and female do have a ring around their necks, but it's very faint and hard to see under normal conditions. Males, however, also have a very distinctive ringed bill pattern. And guess what? Their German name, "Ringschnabelente," means Ring-billed Duck!

Then we have a pair of hawk species found in North America that are often difficult to tell apart, the Sharp-shinned Hawk and the Cooper's Hawk. However, in German, they are called "Eckschwanzsperber" and "Rundschwanzsperber" respectively, which highlights a difference between the two. "Eckschwanzsperber" means "corner-tailed hawk," whereas "Rundschwazsperber" means "round-tailed hawk." Pretty nifty, huh?

Now, there are some German names that aren't necessarily better or worse than the English, but I find them rather interesting.

In German, the word for "tern" is "Seeschwalbe," which literally means "sea-swallow". Another fun one is what the Germans call the Horned Puffin, "Papageitaucher," which can be literally translated as "parrot-diver."

There are three different words for just "owl" in German, depending on which general type of owl you're talking about. "Uhu" refers to the eagle owls, which includes our Great Horned Owl. "Kauz" and "Eule" don't seem to be as specific, but my impression is that only a smaller species would be called a "Kauz."

Also, I just have to mention that pretty much every bird that's black in German has "trauer," which can simply mean "black," but also has the added meaning of "mourning." Birding is not a happy activity if you want to speak German, I guess. Not when you have the Trauerschnäpper, the Trauerseidenschnäpper, the Trauerseeschwalbe, Trauertyrann (which even has a lot of bright yellows, but is apparently still in mourning), the Trauerschwan, the Trauerente, and the Trauerwaldsänger.

Finally, to fully appreciate the range of quality in German names of birds, you have to understand that German loves compound words. A lot. Yes, compound words are a thing in English, but not on the scale of German. If you don't believe me, go watch the Rhababerbarbara video, then come back and finish reading this.

Okay, so what we call an Eastern Bluebird, they call a "Rotkehlhüttensänger." Quite a mouthful. Literally, it means "red-throat-cottage-singer." Then there's the Black-headed Grosbeak, which is called the "Schwarzkopfkernknacker," or "black-headed kernel-cracker."

Yes, English has long bird names, too, but at least they aren't as intimidating. We usually break ours up into individual words, maybe some with hyphens. Certainly, we don't squish four words together to make a new one. (At least not that I'm aware of.)

Anyhoo, this is only a wee smattering of the entertaining German bird names that I've found. It's fun playing with languages, and I hope I've managed to share a bit of that joy with you!