sharp-tailed grouse
- noun
- /ʃɑrp-teɪld ɡraʊs/
- US
:
gallineta de cola afilada
- During the springtime, sharp-tailed grouse in the colonies strut, ruffle their feathers, and inflate air sacs to impress potential mates.
- sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chickens
Examples
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Have you ever seen a sharp-tailed grouse in the wild?
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We spotted a flock of sharp-tailed grouse while hiking through the grasslands.
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Conservation efforts are underway to protect the prairie habitat of the sharp-tailed grouse.
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The sharp-tailed grouse is known for its elaborate courtship dances in the spring.
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The sharp-tailed grouse is known for its distinctive mating dance.
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The nearby wildlife area boasts greater prairie-chickens and plains sharp-tailed grouse.
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North Dakota Bismarck: The hunting season for sharp-tailed grouse, Hungarian partridge, and ruffed grouse begins on Saturday.
Synonyms
A large brown bird that lives on grasslands and open forests in western North America
A large brown bird with long, pointed tail feathers that lives in open grasslands
A North American bird with a pointed tail that lives in grasslands and flies fast
A North American bird that lives in grasslands with a sharp tail and a showy mating dance
Surface Forms
Morphology
sharp-tailed + grouse
The noun phrase is compositionally built from 'sharp-tailed' (having a sharp or pointed tail) and 'grouse' (a type of bird), so its meaning — a grouse with pointed tail feathers — is directly derivable from the constituents. This adjective + noun compounding is a regular, cross-linguistic pattern and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
The name sharp-tailed grouse comes from the bird's pointed tail feathers: people called this grouse sharp-tailed because its tail looks like a small point, so the name means a 'grouse' with a sharp tail.
