yellow-crowned night heron
- noun
- /ˈjɛloʊˌkraʊnd naɪt ˈhɛrən/
- Specialized
:
garza de corona amarilla
- During the summer evenings, I often spot a yellow-crowned night heron hunting along the shore.
- black-and-yellow-crowned night heron
Examples
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The yellow-crowned night heron can be recognized by its bright yellow crown and long legs as it wades through shallow water.
-
Black-crowned and yellow-crowned night herons can be seen at Shark Valley.
Academic text (2006) -
At dusk, the yellow-crowned night heron emerges from the trees, ready to search for food under the cover of darkness.
Synonyms
11
2.0
A large bird with long legs and neck that wades to catch fish
1
6.8
A heron that hunts at night and in low light
A water bird with a yellow crown that is active at night and lives in marshes near the coast
Surface Forms
Morphology
yellow-crowned + night + heron
The phrase is fully compositional: 'yellow-crowned' describes having a yellow crown, 'night' indicates nocturnal activity, and 'heron' names the bird, so the overall meaning ('a heron with a yellow crown that is active at night') is directly derivable from the parts. This is a descriptive species name following standard adjective+noun compounding patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would understand it.
Etymology
The name yellow-crowned night heron comes from a simple picture: this heron has a bright yellow patch on its head that looks like a tiny crown, and it hunts mostly at night, so people named it for both its color and its habit. So the name tells you the bird is 'active at night' and has a 'yellow crown'.