🎶 A North American bird 🦜 An Australian bird

grass finch

8.3

A small bright Australian songbird often kept in cages

noun

Australian

: pinzón australiano

Many bird enthusiasts admire the vibrant colors of the grass finch in their aviaries.

Examples

She bought a pair of grass finches to add to her collection of exotic birds.
The grass finch thrives in grassland habitats across Australia.
The grass finch sings beautifully in the morning.
Look at that grass finch on the branch!
Many bird enthusiasts admire the vibrant colors of the grass finch in their aviaries.
She bought a pair of grass finches to add to her collection of exotic birds.
The grass finch thrives in grassland habitats across Australia.

Synonyms

finch

vsgrass finch

39 1.6

A small bird with a short thick beak that eats seeds

is a small Australian weaverbird brightly colored and often kept in cages

grassfinch

vsgrass finch

Australian

9.9

A small colorful Australian bird often kept as a pet in cages

has identical meaning but written as two separate words

Surface Forms

grass finch singular

grass finches plural

Morphology

grass + finch

The phrase 'grass finch' is a straightforward compound noun naming a type of finch associated with grass/habitat; its meaning (a small songbird) is directly inferable from 'grass' + 'finch'. This noun+noun composition is a common, cross-linguistic naming pattern and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.

Etymology

Grass finch likely comes from the image of a bright finch that nests and lives in grassy areas and is often 'kept as a cage bird'. So the name came to mean the small Australian 'weaverbird' many people admire for its colour and song.