Yellowhammer

Many people here in Newfoundland call any yellow bird a Yellowhammer. Some only call this one, the Yellow warbler, by that name.

So today when I was trying to get a picture of this bird, a man ambled by and asked "What are you looking at -- a dead bird? Ha ha." My wife said, "No, it's very much alive." And I said, "It's a Yellow warbler, a Yellowhammer."

"Ehhh," he replied, "they're not supposed to be here! The whole world's upside down!" And he walked on.

I didn't think there was any point in saying that Yellow warblers are supposed to be here, and they generally show up around this time of year. This one was my first one for this year.

By the way, the -hammer in Yellowhammer has nothing to do with hammering, so the local guess (which I've helped propagate!) that the name really should belong to a woodpecker is wrong. In fact, the suffix -amer is an old Germanic one referring to buntings specifically and sometimes to birds in general. In Britain, I understand, the name Yellowhammer refers to the Yellow bunting. When British people came here, 400 years or so ago, they brought the name and applied it to whatever yellow birds they could find. The North American Yellow warbler was the main beneficiary of the donation, though not the only one. (That's just like how the North American robin got its name, by the way.)