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Glite Dictionary
ant bird

ant bird

9.9
A South American bird with dull feathers that follows army ant swarms to catch insects
  • noun
translation icon : pájaro hormiguero
  • The ant bird is known for its unique behavior of trailing behind army ants to catch insects.

Examples

  • In the lush jungles of South America, the ant bird searches for food among the disturbed leaf litter.

  • And there's three or four species of these Ant birds that follow that path.

  • Bird enthusiasts often seek to spot the ant bird due to its fascinating feeding habits.

Synonyms

antbird
vsant bird
9.9

A plain brown bird from South America that follows army ants to eat insects

has identical meaning but is written as two separate words
Formicariidae
vsant bird
  • Specialized
9.9

Small to medium birds from Central and South America that follow ants to catch insects

refers to individual species rather than the whole family

Surface Forms

ant bird singular
ant birds plural

Morphology

ant + bird

The noun-noun combination 'ant' + 'bird' transparently denotes a type of bird associated with ants (i.e., a bird that feeds on or follows ants), following a common compositional pattern in English where the first noun specifies the kind of the second. This meaning is directly derivable from the constituents and matches cross-linguistic compounding patterns, so a B1 learner who knows 'ant' and 'bird' would readily infer the MWE's basic sense.

Etymology

The compound noun ant bird comes from a simple scene: small forest birds follow swarms of ants and catch the insects the ants scare up. That's why the name means a bird that 'follows ants' to find food.