Bless this little potato for posing perfectly for me.

  • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    All our American homies are going:

    “Wat?”

    Erithacus rubecula is the European robin, and doesn’t look much like our ubiquitous American robin and in fact isn’t even in the same family, although they are both passerines. The only other things they have in common are reddish bellies and the fact that early European colonists (and the British in particular) were devastatingly uncreative and habitually went around naming apparently every single thing in the new world after things they already had back in the old world.

    In other news, the American robin’s scientific name is Turdus migratorius. “Turdus” being Latin for “thrush” and having absolutely nothing to do with their propensity to crap on your car. Honest.

    This episode of Bird Facts brought to you for no reason in particular.

    • mostlypixels@programming.devOP
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      5 days ago

      All of my Dick Grayson fanart came with the wrong bird until I figured out American Robins were a thing.

      And the “old world” version of animals are usually superior. I had a very confusing conversation about squirrels with a New Yorker friend who was describing squirrels as fluffier rats, and I was describing lovely furballs. Then we respectively found out about grey/red squirrels.

      “Turdus” being Latin for “thrush” and having absolutely nothing to do with their propensity to crap on your car. Honest.

      Here I am, wiping european tears of laughter off my cheeks. Incidentally, I was wondering who blackbirds had pissed off to be named “Turdus Merula”, aka “poop noxious fungus”.