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Kosice, Czech Republic

Hradec Králové okres, Hradec Kralove Region

by Jarig Bakker, 3 May 2004
adopted 18 Mar 2003

Kosice municipality flag

See also:

Kosice municipality flag

Image after Petr Exner's Vexilologický Lexikon prapory obcí Čr (2003) - Kosice, Hradec Králové district, Hradec Králové region - adopted 18 Mar 2003 - the bird is a "kos" - a blackbird (turdus merula).
Jarig Bakker, 3 May 2004

The stylized image of the "kos" is very attractive. I guess the flag is canting.
What does the bird's Latin genus mean?
Lewis A. Nowitz, 2 May 2004

Turdus = a thrush
merula = a blackbird
Hence a black thrush.
Albert S. Kirsch, 3 May 2004

The correct spelling of the Latin name of the blackbird should be "Turdus merula" (Genus - species). The genus name was derived from the Latin name of the thrush, "turdus". The family "Turdidae" includes, inter alia, genus "Erithacus" ("E. rubra", robin), "Luscinia" ("L. megarhynchos", nightingale), "Phoenicurus" ("P. ochruros", black redstart; "P. phoenicurus", white redstart), "Saxicola" ("S. torquata", stonechat), "Oenanthe" ("O. oenanthe", wheatear), "Monticola" ("M. saxatilis", rocky blackbird; "M. solitarius", blue blackbird) and "Turdus" (thrushes and blackbirds).

Genus "Turdus" includes "T. merula" (black blackbird, "merula" being the Latin name of the bird, in French, "merle"), "T. torquatus" (plastron blackbird) and several species of thrushes ("T. pilaris", "T. philomelos", "T. iliacus" and "T. viscivorus"). This is just a brief outline of the European "Turdidae". Siberian birds have been found from time to time in France, for instance "Zoothera dauma" (golden thrush, spotted six times in the XIXth century and four times in the XXth century) and "Zoothera sibirica" (Siberian thrush). The great ambidextrous French Daviscupplayer Merlo does not belong to this species.

Source: La faune de France. Inventaire des vertebres et principaux invertebres. Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. 1992.

In classic Latin, the blackbird was called "merula", later "merulus". The first use of "merle" in French is dated from the XIIth century. A female blackbird was called in the XIVth century "merlesse", and is today, but extremely unfrequently, called "merlette". The heraldic word "merlette" (a small bird without beak and with folded wings) has the same origin.

Source: Le Grand Robert de la Langue Francaise, Paris. 2001.
Ivan Sache, 15 May 2004