Spain and Argentina meet in the World Cup final. Countries tend to choose powerful animals as part of their national story. The well-known symbol of Spain is of course the bull, a horned head bulging with strong and masculine menace.
But what is the national animal of Argentina? Maybe some eagle or jaguar?
Answer is surprising. A small, inconspicuous, sand-brown sparrow named orneero has been chosen as the national symbol for the highest podium in Argentina’s nature. It is also one of the most common birds in the country. A bit like if our national animal in Finland was a finch or a goldfinch.
Orneero means in Latin A red baker known as a skilled builder. The bird, which is only slightly larger than a sparrow, does not make itself a number, but the traces of its work can be seen all over Argentina. Orneero is a small, skilled and modest hustler.
The funny-sounding name orneero comes from the Spanish word “horno”, which means oven. Homer means, respectively, an oven maker or also a baker. Finland’s name is twisted to “orneero”.
On Orneero has a good visualization ability and it builds its place creatively. The bird is therefore known, as its name suggests, for its nests that look a bit like an oven, which it carefully builds from clay, mud and plant parts. Round nests are a bit like footballs glued to tree branches.
The nest hardens in the sun’s heat and the bird basically lives in a clay oven with a round opening in the middle. The cup-shaped nest works as a good incubator, keeping the heat higher than outside. It also provides protection from larger predators.
A bird builds its nest almost as long as a Spaniard builds his church in Barcelona. It can take a divorced couple months to make a perfect nest. Even so, the birds usually don’t stay in the nest for more than a year, but build a new one.
The Orneero was voted the national bird by schoolchildren more than a hundred years ago.
Argentina The largest and most handsome bird is of course the Andean condor. However, it is already quite busy representing as a national bird, as the Andean condor can also be the national bird of Chile, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.