(Zool.) See Ant bird, under Ant, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } (Zool.) A common bird (Icterus galbula) of eastern and central America and Canada, named after Lord Baltimore, because its colors (black and orange red) are like those of his coat of arms; -- called also golden robin. It winters in the American tropics. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) A small European flycatcher (Muscicapa grisola), so called because it often nests on a beam in a building. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ So called from their notes. ] (Zool.) (a) A South and Central American bird of the genus Casmarhincos, and family Cotingidæ, of several species; the campanero. (b) The Myzantha melanophrys of Australia. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. brid, bred, bird, young bird, bird, AS. bridd young bird. √92. ] 1. Orig., a chicken; the young of a fowl; a young eaglet; a nestling; and hence, a feathered flying animal (see 2). [ 1913 Webster ]

That ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

The brydds [ birds ] of the aier have nestes. Tyndale (Matt. viii. 20). [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) A warm-blooded, feathered vertebrate provided with wings. See Aves. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Specifically, among sportsmen, a game bird. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Fig.: A girl; a maiden. [ 1913 Webster ]

And by my word! the bonny bird
In danger shall not tarry. Campbell. [ 1913 Webster ]

Arabian bird, the phenix. --
Bird of Jove, the eagle. --
Bird of Juno, the peacock. --
Bird louse (Zool.), a wingless insect of the group Mallophaga, of which the genera and species are very numerous and mostly parasitic upon birds. -- Bird mite (Zool.), a small mite (genera Dermanyssus, Dermaleichus and allies) parasitic upon birds. The species are numerous. --
Bird of passage, a migratory bird. --
Bird spider (Zool.), a very large South American spider (Mygale avicularia). It is said sometimes to capture and kill small birds. --
Bird tick (Zool.), a dipterous insect parasitic upon birds (genus Ornithomyia, and allies), usually winged. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To catch or shoot birds. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hence: To seek for game or plunder; to thieve. [ R. ] B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. to watch birds, especially in their natural habitats, for enjoyment; to birdwatch. [ PJC ]

n. (Zool.) In England, a species of thrush (Turdus merula), a singing bird with a fin note; the merle. In America the name is given to several birds, as the Quiscalus versicolor, or crow blackbird; the Agelæus phœniceus, or red-winged blackbird; the cowbird; the rusty grackle, etc. See Redwing. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Among slavers and pirates, a negro or Polynesian. [ Cant, pejorative ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. A native of any of the islands near Queensland; -- called also Kanaka. [ Australia, pejorative ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. i. to engage in the slave trade. [ Colloq. ] [ PJC ]

n. (Zool.) An Australian honeysucker (Myzomela sanguineolata); -- so called from the bright red color of the male bird. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) A small song bird (Sialia sialis), very common in the United States, and, in the north, one of the earliest to arrive in spring. The male is blue, with the breast reddish. It is related to the European robin. [ 1913 Webster ]

Pairy bluebird (Zool.), a brilliant Indian or East Indian bird of the genus Irena, of several species. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Zool.) An Australian bird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus or Ptilonorhynchus holosericeus), allied to the starling. The male constructs singular bowers or playhouses of twigs and decorates them with bright-colored objects to attract females; the satin bird. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The name is also applied to other related birds of the same region, having similar habits; as, the spotted bower bird (Chalmydodera maculata), and the regent bird (Sericulus melinus). [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Zool.) any species of shrike of the genus Lanius, so called because they impale their prey on thorns. [ 1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5 ]

2. (Zool.) large carnivorous Australian bird with the shrikelike habit of impaling prey on thorns. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

☞ The Lanius excubitor is the common butcher bird of Europe. In England, the bearded tit is sometimes called the lesser butcher bird. The American species are Lanius borealis, or northern butcher bird, and Lanius Ludovicianus or loggerhead shrike. The name butcher bird is derived from its habit of suspending its prey impaled upon thorns, after killing it. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The rice bunting or bobolink; -- so called in the island of Jamaica. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Zool.) A small singing bird of the Finch family (Serinus Canarius), a native of the Canary Islands. It was brought to Europe in the 16th century, and made a household pet. It generally has a yellowish body with the wings and tail greenish, but in its wild state it is more frequently of gray or brown color. It is sometimes called canary finch. [ 1913 Webster ]

Canary bird flower (Bot.), a climbing plant (Tropæolum peregrinum) with canary-colored flowers of peculiar form; -- called also canary vine. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) An American bird (Galeoscoptes Carolinensis), allied to the mocking bird, and like it capable of imitating the notes of other birds, but less perfectly. Its note resembles at times the mewing of a cat. [ 1913 Webster ]

, n. (Zool.) Same as cedar waxwing. [ PJC ]

(Zool.) The chippy. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ or } [ Cf. Cock, fowl; Yellow. ] A pet name for any small bird. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. (Zool.) The cow blackbird (Molothrus ater), an American starling. Like the European cuckoo, it builds no nest, but lays its eggs in the nests of other birds; -- so called because frequently associated with cattle. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) A small European woodpecker (Picus minor). [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool) The galeated curassow. See Curassow. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) Tengmalm's or Richardson's owl (Nyctale Tengmalmi); -- so called from a superstition of the North American Indians that its note presages death. [ 1913 Webster ]

/mhw>, n.. (Zool.) A small water bird. See Dabchick. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Any small bird; as, adults talking to children sometimes call small birds dickeybirds. [ informal ]
Syn. -- dickybird. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. same as dickeybird. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Zool.) The Eskimo curlew (Numenius borealis). See Curlew. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Named from its color. ] (Zool.) (a) The pochard; -- called also dunair, and dunker, or dun-curre. (b) An American duck; the ruddy duck. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zoöl.) A species of tern, esp. the sooty tern (Sterna fuliginosa) of the West Indies. In the Bahama Islands the name is applied to the tropic bird, Phaëthon flavirostris. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The Baltimore oriole. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The golden plover. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Etymol. uncertain. ] (Zool.) The European green woodpecker, called also the yaffle; also, the spotted woodpecker. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a person serving a prison sentence; a jail bird. [ Chiefly Brit. ]
Syn. -- convict, inmate, jailbird, jail bird. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Zool.) The chipping sparrow. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The Baltimore oriole (Icterus galbula); -- so called because its nest is suspended from the limb of a tree. See Baltimore oriole. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) (a) The European spotted flycatcher. (b) The European blackcap. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The honey guide. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Native name; -- so called from its cry. ] (Zool.) A New Zealand starling (Heteralocha acutirostris), remarkable for the great difference in the form and length of the bill in the two sexes, that of the male being sharp and straight, that of the female much longer and strongly curved. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Humming bird. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.), any bird of the family Trochilidæ, of which over one hundred genera are known, including about four hundred species. They are found only in America and are most abundant in the tropics. They are mostly of very small size with long slender bills adapted to sucking nectar from flowers, and are noted for the very brilliant iridescent colors of their plumage and their peculiar habit of hovering about flowers while vibrating their wings very rapidly with a humming noise; the wings are specialized for hovering flight, but they can also dart forward and fly quite rapidly. They feed both upon the nectar of flowers and upon small insects. The common humming bird or ruby-throat of the Eastern United States is Trochilus colubris. Several other species are found in the Western United States. See Calliope, and Ruby-throat. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) An Arctic sea bird, as the Arctic fulmar. [ 1913 Webster ]

A prisoner; one is in prison or who has been confined in prison. [ Slang ] [ PJC ]

n. (Zool.) 1. A small American bird (Tyrannus tyrannus, or Tyrannus Carolinensis), noted for its courage in attacking larger birds, even hawks and eagles, especially when they approach its nest in the breeding season. It is a typical tyrant flycatcher, taking various insects upon the wing. It is dark ash above, and blackish on the bead and tail. The quills and wing coverts are whitish at the edges. It is white beneath, with a white terminal band on the tail. The feathers on the head of the adults show a bright orange basal spot when erected. Called also bee bird, and bee martin. Several Southern and Western species of Tyrannus are also called king birds. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The king tody. See under King. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Equiv. to, bird of Our Lady. ] (Zool.) Any one of numerous species of small beetles of the genus Coccinella and allied genera (family Coccinellidæ); -- called also ladybug, ladyclock, lady cow, lady fly, ladybeetle, and lady beetle. Coccinella seplempunctata in one of the common European species. See Coccinella. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The ladybirds are usually more or less hemispherical in form, with a smooth, polished surface, and often colored red, brown, or black, with small spots of brighter colors. Both the larvae and the adult beetles of most species feed on aphids, and for this reason they are very beneficial to agriculture and horticulture. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The European meadow pipit; -- called also titling. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A small Australian parakeet (Melopsittacus undulatus) usually light green with black and yellow markings in the wild but bred in many colors; also called the budgie.
Syn. -- budgerigar, budgereegah, budgerygah, budgie, grass parakeet, shell parakeet, Melopsittacus undulatus. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. small African parrot noted for showing affection for their mates. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

pos>n. (Zool.) Any one of two or three species of Australian birds of the genus Menura. The male is remarkable for having the sixteen tail feathers very long and, when spread, arranged in the form of a lyre. The common lyre bird (Menura superba), inhabiting New South Wales, is about the size of a grouse. Its general color is brown, with rufous color on the throat, wings, tail coverts and tail. Called also lyre pheasant and lyre-tail. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Zool.) [ From native name. ] The leipoa, or Australian moundbird; it incubates eggs naturally in sandy mounds. See Leipoa.
Syn. -- mallee fowl, mallee-fowl, leipoa, lowan, Leipoa ocellata. [ 1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5 ]

n. An aviator. [ Colloq. ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. (Zool.), The frigate bird, a long-billed warm-water seabird with wide wingspan and forked tail; also applied to the skua gulls, and to the wandering albatross. [ WordNet 1.5 ]