hedge sparrow
- noun
- /hɛdʒ ˈspærəʊə/
- UK
:
escribano
- During spring, you can hear the hedge sparrow's cheerful song in gardens and parks.
Examples
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The hedge sparrow often builds its nest in dense hedgerows to protect its young.
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While walking through the countryside, I spotted a hedge sparrow hopping along the ground looking for insects.
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It has another name, the Hedge Sparrow.
Blog text (30) -
However, cuckoo's eggs are somewhat smaller than those of hedge-sparrows.
Academic text (1996) -
So great is the disproportion that it is in general smaller than that of the hedge-sparrow; whereas the difference in the size of the birds is nearly five to one.
Academic text (1996) -
Comparing the size of adult birds, Jenner noted that the cuckoo is much larger than the hedge-sparrow.
Academic text (1996) -
June 18, 1787, I examined the nest of a hedge-sparrow, which then contained a cuckoo's and three hedge-sparrow's eggs.
Academic text (1996) -
June 18, 1787, I examined the nest of a hedge-sparrow, which then contained a cuckoo's and three hedge-sparrow's eggs.
Academic text (1996) -
This depression seems formed by nature for the design of giving a more secure lodgement to the egg of the hedge-sparrow, or of its young one, when the young cuckoo is employed in removing either from the nest.
Academic text (1996) -
On inspecting it the day following, I found the bird had hatched, but that the nest now contained only a young cuckoo and one young hedge-sparrow.
Academic text (1996)
Synonyms
A small brown bird that sings and often lives in gardens and hedges
A small brown bird that sings and lives in European gardens, woodlands and hedges
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly built from 'hedge' (a row of shrubs) + 'sparrow' (a small songbird), so a learner can infer it denotes a small bird associated with hedges. Although it names a specific species (the dunnock), the habitat-based composition is transparent and cross-linguistically common, making the meaning predictable for a B1 learner who knows the constituents.
Etymology
Hedge sparrow gets its name from where the bird lives and what it looks like: the small brown bird lived in a hedge, and people called little common birds 'sparrows'. That's why hedge sparrow means 'a small brown songbird' often found in hedges.
