Unfortunate Bird Names Anonymous (UBNA)

My family are obsessed with birdwatching—a pastime to some about as thrilling as watching paint dry on a particularly damp Tuesday, though I’ll concede that a few of these creatures are pretty cool. However, the best bit about birds is not the feathered beasts themselves, but in their names. Absolutely sublime, every last one of them.

Take the comic above. I’ve penned several iterations starring the magnificent Bearded Tit, but this version remains my absolute favourite. I would like to point out that these are all actual names of existing birds! The whole thing stems from a simple, terrifying realization: what if the birds actually found out what we decided to call them?

Because let’s be entirely honest. These creatures were not christened by solemn men of science. No, they were named by a collection of hard lined stoners huddled in a smoke-filled room—gentlemen who had consumed enough dubious herbal remedies to think themselves gods. Picture it: a room reeking of hemp and intellect, where someone giggles hysterically, shouts out the most profoundly absurd string of syllables imaginable, and as the room howls with laughter, someone else scribbles it down into official law.

And thus, the Bearded Tit was born—a name as magnificent, absurd, and completely unhinged as the minds that birthed it.

As a bonus here is one of the other comics featuring the bearded Tit!