Bird Names and Onomatopoeia

Animal names are often onomatopoetic in the languages of the world, meaning that they resemble a sound that the animal makes. This is true of many familiar bird names in English, such as "killdeer", "chickadee", and "whip-poor-will", to name a few.

This is also true of many animal names in Native languages. Here, you can learn about some bird names in Nisenan and Northern Sierra Miwok that resemble the calls that the birds make, listen to their names, and hear their calls.

Esak’ahá daak’ábe mi c’aykɨ́ɨ? (Do you want to know more?) We know that some names are onomatopoetic thanks to observations past speakers made. For example, here you can listen to a recording of Lizzie Enos, a Nisenan woman from the Auburn area, as she talks about the Nisenan name for California Scrub-Jay (a.k.a. "bluejay") and how it resembles its call.

John Duncan Collection of California Maidu Oral Histories and Music and Plains Indian Music (MU 17), Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections, University of New Mexico.

Nisenan bird names and onomatopoeia

Here you can learn about a few birds whose Nisenan names are onomatopoetic; there are many other names like these that are not listed here.

Scroll through these birds by using the left and right arrows. For each bird, you will find a recording of its Nisenan name above the photo and a recording of the bird's call below the photo. Can you hear the resemblance between their names and their calls?

1 / 9

Kook

'Common Raven'

Photo by Marta Boroń, CC BY 2.0

Pintanopé! (Let's listen!) Do any of the calls on this recording sound like a bird saying "kook" to you?

2 / 9

Aak

'American Crow'

Photo by lwolfartist, CC BY 2.0

Pintanopé! (Let's listen!) Do any of the calls on this recording sound like a bird saying "aak" to you?

3 / 9

Panák

'Acorn Woodpecker'

Photo by Kathy & sam, CC BY 2.0

Pintanopé! (Let's listen!) Do any of the calls on this recording sound like a bird saying "panák panák" to you?

4 / 9

Makmák

'Pileated Woodpecker'

Photo by lwolfartist, CC BY 2.0

Pintanopé! (Let's listen!) Do any of the calls on this recording sound like a bird saying "makmák makmák" to you?

5 / 9

C’ayít

'California Scrub-Jay'

Photo by Becky Matsubara, CC BY 2.0

Pintanopé! (Let's listen!) Do any of the calls on this recording sound like a bird saying "c’ayít c’ayít" to you?

6 / 9

Loo

'Canada Goose'

Photo by lwolfartist, CC BY 2.0

Pintanopé! (Let's listen!) Do any of the calls on this recording sound like a bird saying "loo" to you?

7 / 9

Tokk’óok’

'Burrowing Owl'

Photo by Ron Knight, CC BY 2.0

Pintanopé! (Let's listen!) Do any of the calls on this recording sound like a bird saying "tokk’óok’" to you?

8 / 9

Weekwék

'Peregrine Falcon'

Photo by Shiv's fotografia, CC BY 4.0

Pintanopé! (Let's listen!) Do any of the calls on this recording sound like a bird saying "weekwék" to you?

9 / 9

K’ɨw

'Green Heron'

Photo by Andrew C, CC BY 2.0

Pintanopé! (Let's listen!) Do any of the calls on this recording sound like a bird saying "k’ɨw" to you?

Northern Sierra Miwok bird names and onomatopoeia

Many Northern Sierra Miwok bird names are onomatopoetic too. However, Miwok nouns take additional word endings which often obscure this relationship. For example, the name ṭíwwayɨ (northern flicker) is onomatopoetic: Miwok speakers have said that the beginning of the word, ṭiw-, resembles a call that northern flickers make; the rest of the name is an additional word ending.

Ṭíwwayɨ

'Northern Flicker'

Photo by Becky Matsubara, CC BY 2.0

Ṭolóoyettic! (Let's listen!) Do any of the calls on this recording sound like a bird saying "ṭiw ṭiw" to you?

Want to know more?

About birds: The audio recordings of bird calls are from the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology shares other free resources for learning more about birds, like their All About Birds website for learning more about the birds of North America.

About Nisenan: The SSBMI Community has ties to the Valley and Southern Hill dialects of the Nisenan language through the Tribe's Matriarchs, Pamela Cleanso Adams and Annie Hill Murray Paris. Pamela spoke the Valley dialect and she, her brother Tom Cleanso, and her daughter Lillie Williams are responsible for passing on most of the knowledge we have of Valley Nisenan today. We have less direct information about Annie’s language; based on where she was from and documented language from her relations and associates, she likely spoke Southern Hill Nisenan.

The Nisenan language that we share is from speakers of the Valley dialect like SSBMI Matriarch Pamela Cleanso Adams and her brother Tom Cleanso as well as speakers of the Southern Hill dialect like William Joseph, Ida Hill Starkey, & Charlie Hunchup.

About Miwok: The Northern Sierra Miwok language that we share comes from Eph Cummings and others who worked with C. Hart Merriam in the early 1900s, and Queenie Miller, Elena McCauley, and Nicolas Villa Sr. who worked with Catherine Callaghan on the Northern Sierra Miwok dictionary (1987). To the best of our knowledge, speakers of all dialects of Northern Sierra Miwok call northern flickers ṭíwwayɨ.

If you have any questions about the Nisenan or Northern Sierra Miwok languages, please contact us at language@ssband.org.

Webpage last updated: 2025-04-04