Talk:Liver bird

First comments
Could we have more about why the liver birds are there please. F0or instance, the reason they were built. thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.194.144.2 (talk • contribs)  09:04, 7 March 2007  (UTC)


 * Liver birds are not built or constructed in the usual sense. Rather, they are hatched. See sexual reproduction. Myles325a (talk) 04:57, 26 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Heh. Presumably the original poster means why are there sculptures of them on the buildings. Given that they have long been regarded as the symbol of Liverpool, it's not really surprising that they appear as representations in various parts of the city. And the article already mentioned who designed the most well-known sculptures. Not sure that too much more needs to be said than that. Grutness...wha?  01:00, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Shirley & Chris did it in Liverpool, overlooked by a picture of the Liverbirds —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.183.134.129 (talk) 17:23, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Lucky old them. Grutness...wha?  01:50, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

New section
I've re-arranged the text a bit to make a "History" section. I thought it'd be better to start with a section saying what the bird is, rather than one saying what it is not. I hope that's OK with everyone. Swanny18 (talk) 18:47, 25 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Looks good to me, and in keeping with standard WP format. Good work. Grutness...wha?  00:02, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

"Sir Shane"?
the paragraph with details of fishermen eating cormorants seems a little questionable - especially the name "Sir Shane of the Goldthorpe Meadows". Shane is a relatively modern name, and is unlikely to have been found in the 13th century, and "goldthorpe meadows" returns zero ghits. I suspect vandalism/hoaxing. Grutness...wha?  22:15, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Hmm: I've moved this to here

"In the mid 13th century a reference to Sir Shane of The Goldthorpe Meadows was made in a court case against fishermen capturing and later eating "lefler birds" (cormorants) in an attempt to subsidise their poor diet. There are only snippits of these references and no indication to how true or accurate any etymologies made in relation to them may be.."

Can I suggest we delete it after a week unless someone can come up with more than a snippet to justify it? (Message left on contributor talk page) Swanny18 (talk) 07:51, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Lefler
"Lefler" is not a Dutch word. According to english naturalists from neckam to ray it is German, though its current spelling, according to the Van Dale Dutch  to German dictionary, is "Löffler". The Dutch equivalent is "Lepelaar". Wartywolfs (talk) 01:28, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
 * It's "lepelaar" in modern Dutch. But in old Low Dutch lefler was an acceptable spelling and was the likely origin of the word, according to numerous sources, e.g.,, , and . Grutness...wha?  23:11, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

"Making sure the pubs are open"??
I believe that this edit, back from 2006, was vandalism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Liver_bird&diff=next&oldid=56046665

By the way, it was the only edit made by that user account.

Please confirm and edit as appropriate. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.66.182.245 (talk) 18:06, 30 December 2010 (UTC)

May 2011
An IP keeps adding this to the article: "In 2011, the Liver Bird was misidentified in a LCC meeting and mistakenly referred to as a stork. LCC is reviewing the claim of the Liver Bird being from the stork family to see if there is any historic truth behind the comment." There's no source, and it seems to me as approaching vandalism, but I'm sensitive to accusations of WP:3RR at the moment, so other editors might like to take a look. Ghmyrtle (talk) 07:32, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

link to Sir Paul McCartney
I was just reading up on Sir Paul McCartney, since it's his birthday. I saw that he had a Coat of Arms, and that it contained a representation of a Liver Bird in honor of his Liverpulian roots. I then found this article to explain to me what the heck a Liver Bird is. So I'm simply suggesting that someone who knows how, goes in there and links the two articles together, and possibly make reference to Sir Paul on this page. Btw, I don't see any Liver Bird in the design of his crest as claimed, so maybe someone who does can explain?!? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_McCartney_Arms.svg — Preceding unsigned comment added by Arpodk (talk • contribs) 04:46, 19 June 2011 (UTC)
 * The article on Paul McCartney shows the escutcheon, not his full crest, which is shown here and described thus: "The design of Sir Paul McCartney's coat of arms granted in June 2001, not only incorporates his musical career, but also incorporates his Liverpudlian roots with the crest showing a Liver bird holding a guitar in its claw. The time he spent with fellow band members John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr are also represented in Sir Paul's design by the four curved emblems on the shield which resembles 'beetles' backs, while the two black circles also shown on the shield symbolises records and CDs. The motto ' Ecce Cor Meum ' in Latin is Behold my Heart is the title of the oratorio Sir Paul wrote during his first wife's Linda's illness." Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:30, 19 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Probably nitpicking pedantry on my part, but that would be better as "it shows the escutcheon but not the full coat of arms, which includes the crest and motto." Given Sir Paul's career, it's perhaps surprising that the escutcheon and crest both show a standard six-stringed guitar rather than a bass guitar, but that's a point for another discussion entirely. Grutness...wha?  01:39, 20 June 2011 (UTC)
 * "Nitpicking pedantry" is what keeps us all here, isn't it...?!  ;-)  Ghmyrtle (talk) 06:57, 20 June 2011 (UTC)
 * True, true... :) Grutness...wha?  09:31, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

LCC
In the section "Possible species" in the article, "LCC" is referred to. Could it be made clear there which LCC is intended? I can think of a number of possibilities: Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Cricket Club, and Liverpool Community College, as well as some admittedly less likely ones. Paulbuckingham (talk) 23:41, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I've removed that sentence, which was highly questionable and unreferenced anyway. Ghmyrtle (talk) 06:30, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

Merseyside
I have reverted the addition of "Merseyside" - as in "Liverpool, Merseyside, England". It is unnecessary - Liverpool is a big enough city not to need any explanation in this article of which 1970s local government area it was (or is, according to some) in, and the existence of the Liver birds as symbols long pre-dates the existence of the administrative area in any case. It's a quite unnecessary addition. Ghmyrtle (talk) 22:50, 31 August 2012 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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I have just modified one external link on Liver bird. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added tag to http://theheraldrysociety.com/publications/gazette/2008-Mar.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20161222064905/http://hslc.org.uk/documents/PDFS/1969.pdf to http://hslc.org.uk/documents/PDFS/1969.pdf

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Local legend?
Though myself not from Liverpool, I have more than once read of a supposed local legend jocularly claimed by male Liverpudlians that the Liver birds on top of the Royal Liver Building flap their wings when a virtuous woman passes by, and that female Liverpudlians defend their honour by pointing out that the birds' wings are tied down. Is this actually extant, and might it be included in the article? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.220.212.253 (talk) 20:34, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

What does “murderous and carnivorous jackdaw like creatures” mean? and shouldn’t it be ‘jackdawlike’?
It misillreads: “murderous and carnivorous jackdaw like creatures” 2A00:23C7:2B13:9001:4DD9:395A:783C:26AC (talk) 00:50, 21 March 2023 (UTC)

Copy vio?
Chunks of this, particularly in the second and third sections, have wording very similar to that contained in Source 8. Did Explore Liverpool plagiarise from us, or the other way round? KJP1 (talk) 14:19, 5 December 2023 (UTC)