thunderbird

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A spirit of thunder, lightning, and rain in the form of huge bird in the mythology of certain Native American peoples.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An Australian thick-headed shrike, Pachycephala gutturalis. It is about 6 inches long, rich-yellow below, with a jet-black collar and white throat, black head, and partly black tail. It was called by Latham guttural thrush, Tardus gutturalis, and black-breasted flycatcher, Muscicapa pectoralis, by others white-throated thickhead, and it has also a variety of French and New Latin names. It closely resembles the species figured under Pachycephala.
2. n. In the mythology of some low tribes, an imaginary bird supposed to cause thunder by the flapping of its wings, or considered as personifying it.

Wiktionary

1. n. mythology A mythological bird, often associated with stormy weather, especially in various indigenous North American mythologies.
2. n. An Australian insectivorous songbird (Pachycephala gutturalis), whose male is conspicuously marked with black and yellow, and has a black crescent on the breast.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) An Australian insectivorous singing bird (Pachycephala gutturalis). The male is conspicuously marked with black and yellow, and has a black crescent on the breast. Called also white-throated thickhead, orange-breasted thrust, black-crowned thrush, guttural thrush, and black-breasted flycatcher.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. (mythology) the spirit of thunder and lightning believed by some Native Americans to take the shape of a great bird