Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 1d

Here’s a great little story from 1885 about a semi-wild stork? heron? crane? stalking around Memphis “exactly like Oscar Wilde” subsisting entirely on house sparrows, for which it was undoubtedly considered a public servant

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 1d

Typical craigslist ad

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 2d

After passenger pigeons disappeared people tried using house sparrows for their shooting contests instead, which they hoped would kill two birds with one stone

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 3d

A list of birds that once frequented New York City, but had disappeared by 1923. It's encouraging that nearly every one that has not gone extinct can at least occasionally be spotted in the city.

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 18d

To be a bobwhite in a potato field hootin with my bobwhite wife

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 19d

Yeah dude an entire body of scholarship, check the references if you're interested in reading.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanishi...

Vanishing Indian - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 19d

Americans saw extinction as an inevitable consequence of progress, connected to native peoples' removal. "The passenger pigeon - the very image of exultant wildness - will soon be a rarity," having "departed w/ the disappearance of savagery in the land. " - Harper's Weekly, 1889

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 21d

One candidate for best folk name is the Red-bellied Woodpecker, which apparently went by Chad

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 21d

schnip schnap, they're eating my peas

Incredible story from Alexander Wilson, America's first ornithologist, in 1812.

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 25d

Having names for plants and animals is our starting point for interacting with nature. I think that's discouraging for a lot of people because they don't know the names for things around them (me included!) but instead why don't we just… make them up?

Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 25d

Americans used to know birds by thousands of unique local folk names. Ruddy Ducks alone were called dummy duck, dinky, dipper, dopper, dumb-bird, and god-damn. My latest piece is on the joy of folk names and losing them to the bureaucratic formalization of knowledge about birds.

Chunk Ducks, Blatherskites, Butterballs, and Slug-toots

These used to be folk names for American birds. Where did they all go?

birdhistory.substack.com

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 25d

🙏🙏🙏

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Reposted by Robert Francis

The Birdist @thebirdist.bsky.social · 25d

Another excellent piece here, this is the best bird writing in the biz right now

Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 25d

Americans used to know birds by thousands of unique local folk names. Ruddy Ducks alone were called dummy duck, dinky, dipper, dopper, dumb-bird, and god-damn. My latest piece is on the joy of folk names and losing them to the bureaucratic formalization of knowledge about birds.

Chunk Ducks, Blatherskites, Butterballs, and Slug-toots

These used to be folk names for American birds. Where did they all go?

birdhistory.substack.com

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 25d

Americans used to know birds by thousands of unique local folk names. Ruddy Ducks alone were called dummy duck, dinky, dipper, dopper, dumb-bird, and god-damn. My latest piece is on the joy of folk names and losing them to the bureaucratic formalization of knowledge about birds.

Chunk Ducks, Blatherskites, Butterballs, and Slug-toots

These used to be folk names for American birds. Where did they all go?

birdhistory.substack.com

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 26d

If you're my enemy, this is how I'm regarding you

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 28d

While "odd duck" and "silly goose" both began their rise to prominence in the 1990s, it seems like "odd duck" is of truly recent origin, while "silly goose" has enjoyed the periodic resurgence in popularity, most recently in the 1870s.

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 28d

Great piece, legendary documentary.

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Reposted by Robert Francis

The Birdist @thebirdist.bsky.social · 29d

I wrote about the Reiser brothers and their hilarious, disgusting Listers documentary for Slate:

slate.com/culture/2025...

One of the Funniest Documentaries of the Year Is Streaming for Free on YouTube

Listers is a journey into the dark and cringy heart of one of the world’s most peculiar hobbies.

slate.com

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 29d

Guano miners on Laysan Island, 1891.

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Reposted by Robert Francis

Christopher Witt @msbbirds.bsky.social · Sep 14

The Pittsburgh/sooty bird one, of course, is real:

Bird specimens track 135 years of atmospheric black carbon and environmental policy | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Bird specimens track 135 years of atmospheric black carbon and environmental policy | PNAS

Atmospheric black carbon has long been recognized as a public health and environmental concern. More recently, black carbon has been identified as ...

www.pnas.org

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · Sep 14

No way! That's such good research design. Incredible!

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · Sep 14

Some abysmal bird jokes from 1908

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · Sep 12

The Excitement Of Touching The Eccentric Woodcock On The Back

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · Sep 12

In other words,

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · Sep 11

I'd say so, I picked up my lifer Manx Shearwater!

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · Sep 11

My favorite side quest is eating foods at the place the food is named for. So far I've eaten:
-buffalo wings in Buffalo, NY
-key lime pie in the Florida keys
-Nashville hot chicken in Nashville

What else (in the US) am I missing?

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