Well, how did you do on the challenge to name the 29 species of birds that with an official AOU common name consisting of only one word? It is not easy. We tend to think first of the common, everyday birds, such as a robin or a crow. Unfortunately, the official name is American Robin or American Crow, Fish Crow, Mexican Crow, Northwestern Crow. We often ignore the adjectives and modifiers.
Many of the one-word birds are waterfowl such as Mallard, Canvasback, Redhead, Brant, Gadwall, Bufflehead. Open water birds like Dovekie and Razerbill also make the list
A number of shorebirds/marsh birds also go by a single name: Sanderling, Killdeer, Willet, Whimbrel, Dunlin, Ruff, Limpkin, Sora, Surfbird
The miscellaneous birds include Veery, Bobolink, Ovenbird, Merlin, Gyrfalcon, Dickcissel, Verdin, Chukar, Pyrrhuloxia
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