Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
green-tailed towhee

green-tailed towhee

9.2
A small brown bird with a yellow-green tail that lives in western mountain areas
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : towhee de cola verde
  • We spotted a green-tailed towhee perched on a low shrub near the trail.

Examples

  • The unmistakable call of the green-tailed towhee can often be heard in the mountain foothills.

  • Birdwatchers hope to see a green-tailed towhee during migration season in Colorado.

  • The green-tailed towhee is a beautiful bird.

  • Did you see the green-tailed towhee yesterday?

  • Birdwatchers hope to see a green-tailed towhee during migration season in Colorado.

  • The unmistakable call of the green-tailed towhee can often be heard in the mountain foothills.

  • We spotted a green-tailed towhee perched on a low shrub near the trail.

Synonyms

towhee
vsgreen-tailed towhee
  • US
2 9.9

A North American songbird with a long tail and bright colors

is a single species limited to Rocky Mountains with greenish upperparts and yellowish-green tail

Surface Forms

green-tailed towhee singular
green-tailed towhees plural

Morphology

green-tailed + towhee

The compound is fully compositional: 'green-tailed' transparently means 'having a green tail' and 'towhee' names the bird, so the phrase denotes a towhee with a green tail. This adjective + animal naming pattern is common cross-linguistically and follows regular English morphology, making it immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.

Etymology

Green-tailed towhee is a name that describes the bird. People noticed its greenish tail, which gives green-tailed, and the bird's call that sounds like 'tow-hee', giving the name towhee, so the whole name tells which bird it is.