bird of prey
9
3.8
- noun
- /bɜrd əv preɪ/
:
ave de presa
- The golden eagle is North America's largest bird of prey.
- birds of prey—eagles
- birds of prey, including hawks
- raptors, or birds of prey
And they had the certain kind of bird of prey called a, it's a scavenger really, called a kite.
- And they had the certain kind of bird of prey called a, it's a scavenger really, called a kite.
- You know, he, he actually writes one of the first treatises on birds of prey on falconry.
Examples
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The marsh harrier is a bird of prey that makes its home over fields and reed beds.
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Would want to get them from small mammals to birds of prey to anything.
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When are we gonna get to the birds of prey?
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Even the word raptor means "bird of prey."
Fiction book (1993) -
They call themselves the birds of prey.
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A polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it.
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Mr. Kestrel, you were very aptly named for a bird of prey!
Fiction book (1993) -
Field and Rogers listened hungrily, like two birds of prey.
Fiction book (1990) -
There's a huge bird of prey flying above us, probably looking down to come and grab Bambi by the collar.
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The golden eagle is one of the most powerful birds of prey found in North America.
Synonyms
43
7.3
A bird that hunts and eats other animals like an eagle or hawk
A bird that catches and eats small animals like mice or fish
How Scavenging
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a bird that hunts other animals' is directly and compositionally derived from 'bird' (a flying animal) + 'prey' (animals hunted), with 'of' marking the relationship; a B1 learner who knows both constituent words can infer this interpretation. This noun-of-noun pattern is cross-linguistically common and non-idiomatic, so the expression is immediately comprehensible from its parts.
Etymology
Bird of prey paints a clear picture: the word bird plus prey shows a bird that catches and eats other animals, using strong beaks and sharp claws. So bird of prey means 'a bird that hunts and eats other animals'.