Aythya marila
- noun
- Specialized
:
Aythya marila
- Male Aythya marila are recognizable by the greenish iridescence on their heads.
Examples
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The Aythya marila is often seen in coastal bays during migration season.
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Many birdwatchers travel to see the Aythya marila in its natural habitat.
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Birdwatchers spotted several Aythya marila swimming among other waterfowl.
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The Aythya marila is often seen in large flocks during migration.
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Birdwatchers spotted several Aythya marila swimming among other waterfowl.
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Many birdwatchers travel to see the Aythya marila in its natural habitat.
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Male Aythya marila are recognizable by the greenish iridescence on their heads.
Synonyms
1
7.4
A diving duck with a purplish head often seen in lakes
1
9.9
A medium-sized diving duck with a blue-grey bill found in North America, Europe and Asia
A large North American diving duck whose male has a greenish head
A diving duck from North America with a blue-grey bill that lives in lakes and near the sea
Surface Forms
Morphology
Aythya + marila
The binomial form partly signals a biological category: knowing 'Aythya' (a genus of diving ducks) lets a learner infer this is a type of duck, so there is some compositional information. However, the specific epithet 'marila' is an arbitrary Latin label (and not a meaningful English word), so the precise species identity and descriptive sense are not derivable from the parts. Because the genus gives category-level transparency but the full meaning depends on conventional taxonomic labeling, this is best classified as semi-transparent.
Etymology
Aythya marila comes from old words for a sea-diving bird. The genus name Aythya may come from a Greek word for a bird that dives and marila may mean 'of the sea', so the name gives the simple image of a duck that dives in coastal waters and bays.