black-billed cuckoo

8.4

A North American bird with a thin black bill that makes its own nest and raises its young

noun
/blæk bɪld ˈkʌku/

: cucú de pico negro

The black-billed cuckoo is often found in wooded areas.

Examples

We spotted a black-billed cuckoo perched quietly in the dense willow thicket.
Unlike many cuckoos, the black-billed cuckoo raises its own chicks rather than parasitizing other birds' nests.
The soft, repetitive song of the black-billed cuckoo is a familiar sound in eastern North American woodlands.
Have you ever seen a black-billed cuckoo in the wild?
The black-billed cuckoo is often found in wooded areas during the summer.
In the park, we spotted a black-billed cuckoo perched on a branch.
The distinctive black bill of the black-billed cuckoo makes it easy to identify.

Synonyms

Coccyzus erythropthalmus

vsblack-billed cuckoo

Specialized

9.9

A North American cuckoo bird that builds a nest and raises its own young

is the common everyday name used by ordinary speakers

Surface Forms

black-billed cuckoo singular

black-billed cuckoos plural

Morphology

black-billed + cuckoo

The phrase denotes a cuckoo that has a black bill, which is directly derivable from combining 'black' (colour) + 'billed' (having a bill) with 'cuckoo' (the bird). This color + body-part + animal compositional pattern is common and cross-linguistically straightforward, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Black-billed cuckoo is a simple descriptive name: black-billed points to its thin black bill and cuckoo is the kind of bird. Picture a small cuckoo with a dark beak sitting on its own nest, and because it builds the nest and raises its young, the name helps you picture the actual bird.