Scatterbrained (2/24/10)

I saw a Spanish expression recently: 'tener la cabeza llena de pájaros' - to be scatterbrained [Lit.: 'to have the head full of birds']

It seems so descriptive! As does "scatterbrained". I tried to find its etymology but the best I found was "from: scatter and brain." However, I did find translations and other expressions.

Word Reference has some lovely definitions. (This is the website we use most for our translations.)

scatterbrained

A    adjective

1     flighty, head-in-the-clouds, scatterbrained absent-mindedly irresponsible; "he said I was too flighty to be a good  supervisor"
2     rattlebrained, rattlepated, scatterbrained, scatty lacking sense or discretion; "his rattlebrained crackpot ideas"; "how rattlepated I am! I've forgotten what I came for"- Glenway Westcott

I shall now repeatedly say "How rattlepated I am! I've forgotten what I came for."

On the bird front, another equivalent Spanish expression is cabeza de chorlito. Turns out a chorlito is a plover. I haven't figured out if the expression means "head full of plover" or "a plover's head." Wikipedia lists 41 species of plovers but I have no idea how they came to be associated with scatterbrains, as opposed to other types of birds.

A French word is hurluberlu, although that seems to imply "weirdo" which I'm hoping scatterbrained doesn't. I'm sure there's a story there as well.

Are we all more scatterbrained nowadays because of multi-tasking?