Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Same as chip-bird.
Wiktionary
- n. A bird, Spizella passerina, the chipping sparrow.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) The chipping sparrow.
Etymologies
- hair + bird (Wiktionary)
Examples
“I have known the social sparrow, or "hairbird," to build under a shed, in a tuft of hay that hung down, through the loose flooring, from the mow above.”
In the Catskills Selections from the Writings of John Burroughs
“The pretty nocturnal trill of the hairbird; the remarkable change which civilization has wrought in the habits of the cliff-swallow; the disputed question whether the cat-bird is or is not a mocker; -- these and a hundred similar points relate to very common birds, and are accordingly unnoticed by Mr. Samuels.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hairbird’.
-
Bird Wirds: Sundry Nicknames
A list of birders' "shorthand" names, traditional nicknames, non-English names, and obsolete names for feathered creatures worldwide.
Interesting blog entry here on naming U.S. birds.welsh ambassador, goatsucker, french magpie, timberdoodle, butterbutt, popinjay, logcock, old cranky, long john, sprog, butterbum, wedgie and 697 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hairbird.
reesetee Obsolete name for the Chipping Sparrow, so-called for its habit of lining its nest with hair. It once used readily available horsehair, but with the advent of automobiles, the bird adapted to using any hair available. Chipping sparrows have been seen plucking strands from the coats of sleeping dogs. Dec 7, 2007