Date: 5/20/26 7:44 pm From: Carol Riddell via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: [Tweeters] Red-winged Blackbird = Banding Code RWBL
Hi All,
It is incumbent upon all of us, if we want to communicate clearly with each other, to know and use the correct common names of birds that we commonly know and see. And because abbreviations are the bane of clear writing, at least at one time Tweeters banned the use of abbreviations in subject lines of posts. Whether in the subject line or the text of a post, the full name of the bird should be used once. Then the use of a four-letter banding code or other abbreviation ideally should follow in parentheses and then be used throughout the remaining text: “A Red-winged Blackbird (RWBL) appeared at my feeders for the first time. I then saw the RWBL on two subsequent days.” The banding code has never been RWBB. It is RW because Red-winged is hyphenated. It is then BL because blackbird is one word. The banding codes are easily searchable through any internet browser. But they are not helpful to those who have not learned them or used them regularly. And for one to save a moment or two in writing a post, look at how many posts have now been devoted to the difference between a Eurasian thrush named Redwing and our common blackbird, the Red-winged Blackbird. I guess I am a Tweeters grump, but I must say I got a chuckle out of the image of Ruth Sullivan stomping down an Olympia street in search of the Redwing. I was there myself and watched her with more interest than I devoted to the Redwing.
