Why Is It Called an Albatross? The Surprising History of Bird Names

About this episode

This episode explores the fascinating origins behind bird names, focusing on the albatross and the gull.

Send us Fan Mail Why do birds have the names they do? In this episode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss kicks off a new mini-series called “Bird Name Game”, exploring the fascinating origins behind bird names. Each episode looks at two birds, their natural history, and the surprising linguistic stories behind what we call them. This episode dives into two iconic seabirds: the albatross and the gull. The albatross, one of the largest flying birds on Earth, can glide across the ocean for thousands ...

People in this episode

Host: Katy Reiss

Topics covered

• bird names
• natural history
• linguistic stories
• seabirds
• albatross
• gull

Keywords

• bird names
• albatross
• gull
• natural history
• linguistic origins

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Bird Name Game, albatross, gull

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