counting coots

This one isn’t quite so funny, but it has a nice ring to it. Perhaps it has an internal contradiction that amuses me.

Lulu's Tody Tyrant, Poecilotriccus luluae

Either way, Lulu’s Tody-Tyrant brings up images of a little Scottish one-trick-pony and some beardy bloke from Neighbours all mixed together in a hellish concoction to rule underworld barbies with extreme prejudice. Mate. Well, to me anyway.

I’m not entirely sure which Lulu it was named after (and don’t have the Who’s Bird book to hand as I type) but that was never really the point of these frivolous entries.

As the average reader of this humble blog is unlikely to be familiar with Peruvian foothills, I’ll give you some background to the bird.

It was discovered (or perhaps more accurately separated) in 2000 by Ned K Johnson and Robert E Jones (nice work guys). The paper detailing all this was published in The Auk in 2001. The paper is freely available online, as is much of the output of this esteemed organ (google for ‘Searchable Ornithological Research Archive’ – it is a cracking resource).

This distribution map is in the paper.

Maps are cool.

Postscript. I'm led to believe that in 2008 Ned K Johnson died, and the species is subsequently assuming the name Johnson's Tody Tyrant. Which although worthy, is not amusing in the slightest.