Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A humming-bird of the genus Rhamphomicron: a book-name. These notable hummers are large (averaging over four inches long), with broad forked tail, the gorget pendent like a beard, and specially short sharp bill (whence both the generic and vernacular names). Six species are described, one of the best-known being R. heteropogon. They range from the Colombian States through Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. The genus has three synonyms—Chalcostigma, Lampropogon, and Eupogonus.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of small, brilliantly colored American birds of the genus Rhamphomicron. They have a long, slender, sharp bill, and feed upon honey, insects, and the juice of the sugar cane.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of various South American hummingbirds with a sharp pointed bill
Etymologies
- thorn + bill (Wiktionary)
Examples
“These include northern logrunner or chowchilla Orthonyx spaldingii, little treecreeper Climacteris minor, Atherton scrubwren Sericornis keri, Australian fernwren Crateroscelis gutturalis, mountain thornbill Acanthiza katherina, bridled honeyeater Lichenostomus frenatus, Bower's shrike-thrush Colluricincla megarhyncha, tooth-billed catbird Ailuroedus dentirostris and golden bowerbird Prionodura newtoniana.”
“Other birds found in this ecoregion include the western thornbill (Acanthiza inornata), and the short-billed black-cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris EN) which inhabits sandplain woodlands and mallee, and the long-billed black-cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus baudinii) which is found in open eucalypt woodland and farmland.”
“The following birds utilize a variety of habitats, including eucalypt woodlands: a subspecies of wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax fleayi), Tasmanian native hen (Gallinula mortierii), Tasmanian thornbill (Acanthiza ewingii), and yellow wattlebird (Anthochaera paradoxa).”
“Endemic species throughout the region include the endangered Ash-breasted tit-tyrant (Anairetes alpinus); the critically threatened royal cinclodes (Cinclodes aricomae); Berlepsch's canastero (Asthenes berlepschi) classified as vulnerable; line-fronted canastero (Asthenes urubambensis), olivaceous thornbill (Chalcostigma olivaceum), scribble-tailed canastero (Asthenes maculicauda), short-tailed finch (Idiopsar bracyurus), and gray-bellied flower-piercer (Diglosa carbonaria), classified as species of least concern.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘thornbill’.
-
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...
-
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 thornbill.
hernesheir Common name for some South American hummingbird species, but also applied to unrelated Australian passeriform birds placed in the the genus Acanthiza. Jul 24, 2010