Red Knot

Calidris canutus

Its scientific name, canutus, honors King Canute, who in legend ordered the tide to stop, because the knot feeds right along the tide line. The link was a guess made in 1586, and there's no evidence the bird was really named for him.

Calidris comes from kalidris, Aristotle's word for some gray waterside birds. Linnaeus took canutus from a suggestion by the English historian William Camden. 'Red' is for its rusty summer colors.