sunbird

1 7.5

A small bright bird that drinks nectar from flowers

noun
/ˈsʌnˌbɜrd/

Indian

: suncilla

The orange-breasted sunbird is known for its vibrant colors and is often spotted in the blossoms of tropical plants.

Examples

A type of sunbird (Old World equivalent of a hummingbird), the little spiderhunter suspends its nest underneath a leaf, using a technique familiar to sheet-metal workers: the pop rivet.

Academic text (1994)
While walking through the garden, I saw a sunbird hovering near a bright flower, sipping nectar with its long beak.
The entire exterior of another nest, that of a small sunbird, was covered with membranous white spider cocoons.

Academic text (1994)
During the flowering season, these flowering tree species attract a variety of insects, sunbirds, spider-hunters, and flower-peckers that feed on nectar and hunt for insects.

Academic text (2015)
In our backyard, a small sunbird darted from flower to flower, its iridescent feathers shimmering in the sunlight.

Synonyms

hummingbird

vssunbird

27 1.4

A very small bright bird from the Americas with a long beak that hovers

is found in Africa and Asia and feeds without that same hovering flight

honeycreeper

vssunbird

1 9.4

A small bright songbird from tropical America with a curved bill for sucking nectar

is found in Africa and Asia and is not described as a songbird

Surface Forms

sunbird singular

sunbirds plural

Morphology

sunbird = sun + bird (semi-transparent) = sun + bird

Components 'sun' and 'bird' are obvious so learners will know it's a kind of bird, but the specific sense (a small, nectar-feeding, brightly coloured bird) is specialized and not fully derivable from the parts.

Etymology

Sunbird is a simple English compound of sun ('the star in the sky') and bird ('a flying animal'). These small, brightly colored birds have shiny, sun-like feathers and drink nectar from flowers, so the name helps you picture a little 'bird' that looks like a piece of the sun.