Wobbler.
Seriously, listen. It’s definitely wobbler and not warbler.
Kind of ironic that the joke pronunciation name that everyone quotes is usually misquoted.
Jerry pronounced “cicada” wrong, too.
Damn. You beat me to it.
I’ve always heard it as “nut hatch”, too.
A Mexican ornithologist friend, when speaking English, pronounces** caracara** “expensive face.”
Just in case you were wondering about that.
How dear!
I’d disagree with this one. The prevailing one I hear (and the one I use) is EE-gret, which is the first pronunciation given by Merriam-Webster (although they also give others as variants). Perhaps it varies regionally.
I don’t recall ever hearing a visiting birder here in Panama use this one, even though it’s the one I prefer. People mostly say “jah-KAH-na,” although some Panamanian birders (and some visitors) pronounce it as if it were Spanish, “ha-KA-na.” This is perhaps the most variable one, since you’ll get people mixing elements of English, Portuguese, and Spanish pronunciation.
You mean “wobbla”? Nobody drops one R and not the other.
Around here (midwest) you’ll also find a brown creeper that travels that way, although often in a slow spiral around the tree. For me, the coloring is the clincher. (And also, the creeper has a slightly curved bill).
I think I’ve heard it where the H is de-emphasized, to the point that it almost sounds like nut-tatch.
I mean it’s clearly “wobbler” as in wobble and not “warbler” as in warble.
It says “Wobbler” in the Monty Python scripts book, too, if your ears aren’t up to hearing it in the clip.
In the British Isles we have a corresponding – though of other species – duo of birds, found also on the European continent: the Eurasian Nuthatch and Eurasian Treecreeper. In these parts, the nuthatch is the only bird which walks down a tree headfirst; the treecreeper only climbs up.
Actually, Brown Creepers rarely if ever go down a tree headfirst. It’s one of the behaviors that most easily distinguish them from nuthatches, even at a distance. Creepers have stiffened tail feathers that enable them to hitch up trees using the tail as a prop. Nuthatches instead have short tails and rely more on their legs to grasp. They can creep up trunks, but often go downwards, unlike other bark-gleaning birds.
Another bird with two popular pronunciations is the killdeer. I’ve always pronounced it, and every one I’ve gone birding with pronounces it “kill deer.” But my doctor (an internist) who is also a birder “corrected” me and said it is pronounced “killdee.” I then asked a very excellent birder who was a gastroenterologist in Michigan before coming here upon retiring (he passed away a few years ago), and he said that the bird says “killdee,” but its name is pronounced “kill deer.”
That’s correct. I’ve never heard anyone pronounce the name of the bird as “killdee” in more than 50 years of birding. So I wouldn’t say there are “two popular pronunciations.” There’s the correct pronunciation, and a mistaken one used by one particular internist.
I stand corrected! I always thought it was “warbler”, which of course made it even more appropriate for a bird thread. But I have realised the error of my ways and will endavour to ensure correctness of quotation in all future usage.
How are you pronouncing PLOH=ver ? Does it rhyme with lover? Because the English say "plov-er
Yeah, Americans say it wrong 
PLOE-ver instead of pluvver.