Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 12d

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

Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 13d

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 · 13d

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 · 15d

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 · 15d

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 · 19d

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 · 19d

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 · 19d

🙏🙏🙏

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Reposted by Robert Francis

The Birdist @thebirdist.bsky.social · 19d

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

Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 19d

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 · 19d

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 · 20d

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

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 22d

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 · 22d

Great piece, legendary documentary.

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Reposted by Robert Francis

The Birdist @thebirdist.bsky.social · 22d

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 · 23d

Guano miners on Laysan Island, 1891.

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Reposted by Robert Francis

Christopher Witt @msbbirds.bsky.social · 23d

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 · 23d

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

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 23d

Some abysmal bird jokes from 1908

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 25d

The Excitement Of Touching The Eccentric Woodcock On The Back

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 25d

In other words,

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 26d

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

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 26d

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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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 26d

As a niche bird history account I gotta share that there was a run on pet canaries after 9/11 because people thought they'd help protect against poison gas, one pet store owner said "I don't want to seem unpatriotic or anything but canary business has been great ever since 9/11"

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 26d

Worth it if so!

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 26d

I spend every day writing about birds and our messy relationship with em so if you crave more bird content you know what to do
birdhistory.substack.com

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Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 26d

Only fair that I allow a binocular inspection?

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