Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several birds of paradise of the genera Craspedophora and Ptiloris of Australia and New Guinea.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An Australian bird of paradise, Ptilorhis paradisea, belonging to the slender-billed section (Epimachinæ) of the family Paradiseidæ: said to have been so named by the early colonists from suggesting by its colors the uniform of Rifle Brigade. This bird is 11 or 12 inches long, the wing 6, the tail 4 1/2, the bill 2; the male is black, splendidly iridescent with fiery, purplish, violet, steel-blue, and green tints, which change like burnished metal when viewed in different lights; the female is plain brown, varied with buff, white, and black. The rifle-bird inhabits especially New South Wales. There are 3 or 4 other species of Ptilorhis, of other parts of Australia and some of the adjacent islands, of which the best-known is P. magnifica of New Guinea.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of four species of birds of paradise in the genus Ptiloris.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of beautiful birds of Australia and New Guinea, of the genera Ptiloris and Craspidophora, allied to the paradise birds.
WordNet 3.0
- n. velvety black Australian bird of paradise with green and purple iridescence on head and tail
Etymologies
- rifle + bird, from the resemblance of their black and green plumage to the uniform of early nineteenth-century British army riflemen. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Best of all are the tiny labels found on each and every page that describe what it is we are seeing and that have delicious names like sooty tern, paradise riflebird, and hepatic tanager.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘riflebird’.
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birds
masked cardinal, bobwhite, masked lovebird, obscure honeyeater, creamy-rumped miner, laced woodpecker, robust lancetooth, purplish honeycre..., shining honeycreeper, honeycreeper, sugarbird, honeyeater and 122 more...
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birds
birds with singular names from
at least 9 English dictionariesaasvogel, aberdevine, accentor, accipiter, aepyornis, agami, albatross, alcatras, alcid, alcidine, amadavat, amokura and 1056 more...
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Weaponized animals
cut-throat finch, jack-knifefish, spear-winged fly, ghost knifefish, riflebird, bombardier beetle, daggernose shark, dagger nematode, daggertooth pike ..., swordfish, bomb fly, hammer-headed bat and 104 more...
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Bird birds
Birds that have the word bird in their names. (This list also includes some general descriptions of certain kinds of birds - wading birds, water birds, &c.) For other bird-related fun (especially p...
blackbird, bluebird, bird of paradise, tropicbird, boatswain bird, secretary bird, millerbird, frigatebird, surfbird, kingbird, catbird, bellbird and 69 more...
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Still More Bird Wirds
A work in progress....Birds from around the world (other than endemic to North America).
barbet, hornbill, trogon, bee-eater, bristlehead, wren-babbler, stubtail, blackeye, bush warbler, cassowary, bowerbird, bird-of-paradise and 723 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for riflebird.

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