Over the past few weeks, we've been asked many times where we came up with "Stuka" as a name for the winged beast so I thought I'd make a post to explain it. For starters, it's a German word and pronounced Shtoo-ka. When we first brought him home from the pet store and he was only about two months old, one of Stuka's favorite pastimes was climbing to the highest perch in the cage and jumping off. Climb, jump, repeat. Ah, the silliness of youth, even in birds. Since he looked and acted like a little dive bomber, we decided to name him after one. Mr Moo, who is very interested in all things aeronautic and having to do with World War II, came up with the name. From the Wikipedia entry:

The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka (from Sturzkampfflugzeug) was a two-seat (pilot and rear gunner) German ground-attack aircraft. Designed by Hermann Pohlmann, the Stuka first flew in 1935 and made its combat debut in 1936 as part of the Luftwaffe's Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War. The aircraft was easily recognizable by its inverted gull wings, fixed spatted undercarriage and its infamous Jericho-Trompete ("Jericho Trumpet") wailing siren, becoming the propaganda symbol of German air power and the Blitzkrieg victories of 1939-1942.

There you go. He's named after a plane. And, if you've ever met him and know how he behaves, you understand why naming him after a Nazi plane is more than appropriate. His full name is Sturzkampfflugzeug, which literally translates as "dive bomber" and is shortened to just Stuka.

That kind of looks like a parakeet, doesn't it?