Laura--
        Collecting odd colloquial bird names can be a full-time occupation,
believe me.  I started doing so myself years ago, and eventually
discovered there is no end to it. But it's fun. The name you ran into,
more often "shite-poke," is a common one for large birds that live along
the water, referring especially to green herons' habit of relieving
themselves while flying off after being disturbed. Older ornithologists
universally tiptoed around this locution; Ohio's first
major bird-man, Wheaton, politely wrote in 1882 of Butorides virescens
that "It has numerous common names, among which Fly-up the creek is
probably the most refined."
        There are many anthologies of bird names from folklore, and they are
always fun to read. For North America, one good source is the 8000+
names for North American birds collected in "North American Bird
Folknames and Names," by J. K. Sayre (Bottlebrush Press, 1996; the index
has 90 pp), and there are many others, but probably the mother lode of
such names is embedded in the monumental multi-volumed "Dictionary of
American Regional English," which you can find in any good library.
        You'll find that game birds tend to have more names. Take the common
goldeneye, for example. My humble list has, for Bucephala clangula the
following: American goldeneye, black duck, brass-eye, brass-eyed
whistler, bullhead, butterball duck, caille, canard a grosse tete,
canard caillie, canard canadien, cobhead, conjuring duck, copperhead,
cub-head, cur, dooker, diver, european goldeneye, fiddler duck, garrot,
gold-eye, great-head, iron-head, jingler, merry-wing, pisque, pixe,
oyster duck, pie bird, plongeur, pork duck, smoky pie, spirit duck, tree
duck, whiffler, whistle diver, whistle-duck, whistler-wing, widgeon,
wiffler, winter duck, wood duck, bright eye, rattlewings, freshwater
pigeon, gangling curre, poker, gaudy duck, popping wigeon, king diver,
bronzehead, whiteside, buffalo head, quandy, jingler, old hard-weather,
and quindar.  There are, of course, many more.
        Burns, in an article in the Wilson Bulletin (April 1900), nominated the
flicker as the bird with the most common names, listing over 120, but
there are many more: see Sayre pp 89-91. Use the dull approved English
or scientific names if you want people to knew exactly what species you
mean, but there are many more colorful ways to go...
Bill Whan
Columbus

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