black-necked stilt
- noun
- /blæk-nɛkt stɪlt/
- US
:
cigüeña de cuellinegro
- The black-necked stilt is known for its distinctive black head and long legs, making it a beautiful sight in wetlands.
Examples
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At dawn, the black-necked stilt can often be seen foraging for food in the marsh, its silhouette striking against the rising sun.
-
It is there I photographed the two black-necked stilts mating.
Academic text (2010) -
While walking along the shore, I spotted a black-necked stilt wading gracefully in the shallow waters.
Synonyms
A long-legged bird that wades in shallow water with black head and neck
Surface Forms
Morphology
black-necked + stilt
This is a straightforward compositional compound: a color descriptor attached to a body-part adjective modifying the noun 'stilt'. A B1 learner who knows 'black' and 'stilt' (and can interpret 'black-necked' as 'having a black neck') can readily infer it denotes a stilt with a black neck; the same descriptive pattern is common cross-linguistically.
Etymology
Black-necked stilt is named for the bird's look: it has a dark neck (so black-necked) and very long, thin legs that remind people of a stilt, a 'pole' used to walk high above the ground, so the name describes this long-legged bird.
