butcherbird
1
9.5
- noun
- /ˈbʊtʃərˌbɜrd/
:
pájaro carnicero
- In the afternoon, the butcherbird sang its song while perched on the fence.
Examples
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I watched the butcherbird hunt from the tree branch, looking for its next meal.
-
And then he was gone, and I swam down to Elizabeth, shooed away the butcherbirds, and read the note written on the bottom of her foot: cheep.
Fiction book (1999) -
The butcherbird caught a mouse and impaled it on a thorn.
Synonyms
A small northern North American bird that puts its prey on thorns or wire
A small northern bird that catches insects and small animals and sticks them on thorns
A medium-sized grey bird that eats small animals and often puts them on thorns or barbed wire
A small songbird in Europe that catches insects and small animals and puts them on thorns
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word butcherbird is a simple name: butcher meaning 'someone who cuts and hangs meat' and bird. These birds catch small animals and stick them on thorns or wire like a 'butcher' hangs meat, so the name shows what the bird does.