robin

Short for robin redbreast. Also from Middle English robynet, robynett (“robin (bird)”), from the Middle English name Robynett, a diminutive of the Middle English name Robyn (“Robin”).
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As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.

1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

Erithacus rubecula
Erithacus rubecula#Translingual

Any of various passerine birds (about 100 species) of the families Muscicapidae, Turdidae and Petroicidae (formerly Eopsaltriidae), typically with a red breast.

Turdus migratorius
Turdus migratorius#Translingual


robin

(organic chemistry) A toxalbumin obtained from the locust tree.


blackbird

From Middle English blakebird, blacbrid (“ouzel; Eurasian blackbird”), equivalent to black + bird.

Turdus merula
Turdus merula#Translingual

A common true thrush, Turdus merula, found in woods and gardens over much of Eurasia, and introduced elsewhere.


thrush

Uncertain; perhaps compare Icelandic þröstur, Danish trøske, from Proto-Germanic *þrastuz, from Proto-Indo-European *trosdos.

Cervical cancer and recurrent vaginal thrush are both strongly linked to the presence of HIV in women.

1991 August 24, Dawn Schmitz, “AIDS Redefined In 1992?”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 6, page 6:

A fungal infection caused by species of genus Candida, affecting the mouth or vagina; candidiasis.


windle

From Middle English windel, shortened from Old English windelstrēaw (“windlestraw, coarse grass or reed”).


merle

From Middle English merle, from Old French merle (French merle), from Latin merula (“blackbird”) (whence the directly borrowed Middle English merule, and compare the taxonomic name Turdus merula), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂mes- (“black, blackbird”). Compare Breton moualch (“ouzel”), Welsh mwyalch (“blackbird, thrush”). Distantly related to the synonymous ouzel.


ouzel

From Middle English osel, from Old English ōsle, from Proto-West Germanic *ą̄slā, *amslā, from Proto-Germanic *amslǭ. Cognate with German Amsel.
For the spelling, compare Early Modern English bloud (“blood”).

(chiefly Canada, US) A water ouzel, an aquatic perching bird (Cinclus mexicanus).


veery

Probably imitative of the bird's call. Attested since the 19th century.

In such safe retreats, when the somber shade is brightened here and there with stray beams of sunlight, in the warmth of which myriad insects bathe their wings and flutter away their little span of life, humming a quaint refrain to the gargle of the rivulet, the Veery meets his mate — the song rises — the wooed is won — the home is made.

1878, Elliott Coues, “Wilson’s Thrush, or Veery”, in Birds of the Colorado Valley, page 42:

Catharus fuscescens
Catharus fuscescens#Translingual

An American thrush (Catharus fuscescens) common in the Northern United States and Canada.


scritch

en-verb

scritch (third-person singular simple present scritches, present participle scritching, simple past and past participle scritched)

scritches (present singular third-person)
scritching (participle present)
scritched (participle past)
scritched (past)

To make a light scratching sound, like a small animal burrowing.


scritch

A light scratching sound, like a small animal burrowing.


kamao

An extinct bird of Hawaii, Myadestes myadestinus.


throstle

From Middle English throstle, throstel, from Old English þrostle, from Proto-West Germanic *þrostlā, possibly altered from or a diminutive of *þurstaz, related to *þrastuz, from Proto-Indo-European *trosdos.

THE RING THROSTLE. / A Throstle under the above title has been recently introduced from America, the principal novel feature of which, is a substitute for the flyer and heavy spindle of the common throstle, and for the cone or cape, and the barrel tube of the Danforth throstle.

1836, James Montgomery, The Theory and Practice of Cotton Spinning, or, The Carding and Spinning Master’s Assistant, page 223:

A machine for spinning wool, cotton, etc., from the rove, consisting of a set of drawing rollers with bobbins and flyers, and differing from the mule in having the twisting apparatus stationary and the processes continuous.


fieldfare

Inherited from Middle English feldefare, from Old English feldefare, from feld (“field”) + ġefara (“traveller”); equivalent to field + fare.

Paul seemed relaxed, scanning the fields on either side of the muddy lane for fieldfares

2007, Diana Athill, “Somewhere Towards the End”, in Granta, 98, p. 20:

Turdus pilaris
Turdus pilaris#Translingual

A large thrush, Turdus pilaris, a bird of Eurasia.


redwing

Turdus iliacus
Turdus iliacus#Translingual

A small thrush, Turdus iliacus, native to Eurasia, with a white eye stripe and red under-wing feathers.


bluebird

Any of various North American birds of the genus Sialia in the thrush family. Their plumage is blue or blue and red.


colly

en-adj

colly (comparative collier, superlative colliest)

collier (comparative)
colliest (superlative)

From Middle English coly, from Old English *coliġ, from Proto-West Germanic *kolig, equivalent to coal + -y. Doublet of coaly.

four colly birds

1780, unknown author, Twelve Days of Christmas:


mistle thrush

It is supposed to be fond of the berries of the mistletoe.

Brian Cox as Logan Roy (2019), 31:28 from the start, in Succession, season 2, episode 8: “I saw a mistle thrush at the bandstand.”

Turdus viscivorus
Turdus viscivorus#Translingual

A large Eurasian thrush, Turdus viscivorus.


solitaire

en-noun

solitaire (countable and uncountable, plural solitaires)

Borrowed from French solitaire, ultimately from Latin sōlitārius. Doublet of solitary.

The early French solitaire boards were marked with thirty-seven holes instead of the modern board's thirty-three; and the problems were more difficult.

1979, R. C. Bell, Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations, revised edition, New York: Dover Publications, →ISBN, page 100:

(board games) A game for one person, played on a board with pegs or balls, in which the object is, beginning with all the places filled except one, to remove all but one of the pieces by "jumping", as in draughts.

Mr. Greenwood said yesterday that he always finished his work in a timely fashion, and that he played solitaire only when there was nothing else left to do, usually a few times a week or during lunch breaks.

2006 February 10, Winnie Hu, “Solitaire Costs Man His City Job After Bloomberg Sees Computer”, in The New York Times:

I learned to play solitaire as a child. Its advantages over other games were obvious, even then. No need to persuade a friend to play or explain the boring rules, no hard feelings when someone won or lost, no lessons required, no costly equipment to badger my parents into buying. I could play whenever and wherever I wanted. All I needed was a deck of cards.

2013 February 23, Francine Prose, “Solitaire: Me vs. Me”, in The New York Times:

(card games, chiefly US) Any of various card games that can be played by one person.

Rodrigues solitaire
Rodrigues solitaire#English

Ellipsis of Rodrigues solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria), an extinct bird related to the dodo.

Rodrigues solitaire

The fellow wears a ſolitaire, uſes paint, and takes rappee with all the grimace of a French marquis.

1771, [Tobias Smollett], The Expedition of Humphry Clinker […], volume II, London: […] W. Johnston, […]; and B. Collins, […], →OCLC, page 88:

(obsolete) A black neck ribbon worn with a bag wig in the 18th century.


screech owl

From the fact that these species are owls which emit screeching calls.

The screech owls winter in the north and are distinctly farsighted in preparing for winter.

1911, Anna Botsford Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study, 24th edition, published 1939, page 102:

And I listened for a voice;— / But my heart was all I heard; / Not a screech-owl, not a loon, / Not a tree-toad said a word.

1921, Edna St. Vincent Millay, “The Blue-Flag in the Bog”, in Second April:

†Virgin Islands screech owl

Puerto Rican screech owl (Megascops nudipes)

(UK) A common barn owl, of species Tyto alba, found almost worldwide.


turdiform

en-adj

turdiform (comparative more turdiform, superlative most turdiform)

more turdiform (comparative)
most turdiform (superlative)

(ornithology, rare) Of, relating to or resembling a thrush, or any other bird of the family Turdidae.


skrike

From Middle English skrike, scryke (also skryche, schryke, shryke). Cognate with Old Frisian skrichte, Middle Low German schrichte.


redbreast

From Middle English redbreste, equivalent to red + breast.

There was a pleasant frosty sun glittering through the twigs of the leafless shrubs, and flashing on the ripples and undulations of the Liffey, and the redbreasts and sparrows were picking up the crumbs which the housekeeper had thrown for them outside.

1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “How a Gentleman Paid a Visit at the Brass Castle, and There Read a Paragraph in an Old Newspaper”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume III, London: Tinsley, Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 17:

I felt comforted by the song of the redbreast, and I thought I felt less lonely and deserted as long as I heard the merry notes of the thrush.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 281:

Any of several unrelated birds that have a red breast


American robin

A New World passerine bird; Turdus migratorius.


mavis

From Middle English mavys, from Anglo-Norman mauvis, from Old French mauvis (“song thrush”).

At midnight the moon cometh, / And looketh down alone; / Her song the lintwhite swelleth, / The clear voiced mavis dwelleth […]

1830, Tennyson Alfred Lord, “"Claribel"”, in Poems Chiefly Lyrical:


song thrush

Turdus philomelos
Turdus philomelos#Translingual

A songbird in the thrush family, found across Eurasia (Turdus philomelos).


turdid

(zoology) Any of the family Turdidae of passerine birds; a thrush


thrusher

(UK, obsolete, dialect) The song thrush.


velverd

(UK, dialect, archaic, rare, West Country, Wiltshire) A bird, the fieldfare.


winnard

(Cornwall, Devon, obsolete) The redwing.


missel

en-noun

missel (countable and uncountable, plural missels)


shortwing

A common name for the family Perilestidae, damselflies in the order Odonata.


thricecock

(UK, dialect, obsolete) the mistle thrush


sycock

(UK, dialect, rare, obsolete) The mistle thrush.


merulid

(zoology) Any bird in the family Merulidae, an old name for the Turdidae; a thrush.


mountain bluebird

mountain bluebird (plural mountain bluebirds)

A bluebird of species Sialia currucoides, found in eastern North America.


Kurrichane thrush

Kurrichane thrush (plural Kurrichane thrushes)

From a corrupted form of Kaditshwene (“a town in the North West province of South Africa”).

Wild begonias and ferns along the road, stumps choked with purple and white convolvuli, a kurrichane thrush massaging the shadows with long liquid glides and quick curt mordents.

1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 336:

Any of species Turdus libonyanus of thrushes, native to sub-Saharan Africa.


hopping Dick

A black thrush (Turdus aurantius), native to Jamaica.


invisible bird

A small songbird (Myadestes genibarbis sibilans), found on the island of Saint Vincent in the Caribbean.


grandala

An insectivorous passerine bird of South Asia, Grandala coelicolor.


common blackbird

common blackbird (plural common blackbirds)

A common bird of the species Turdus merula, native to Eurasia.


hermit thrush

Catharus guttatus
Catharus guttatus#Translingual

A species of solitary thrush native to North America (Catharus guttatus).


dusky thrush

Turdus eunomus
Turdus eunomus#Translingual

A species of thrush, Turdus eunomus, which breeds eastwards from central Siberia.


Eurasian blackbird

Eurasian blackbird (plural Eurasian blackbirds)


ring ouzel

Some birds seem to belong to all scenery alike; others love only the waste common land, the stream, or the sea-shore; while a third division, οἱ εκλετόι (the elect), are only to be found in one or two favoured counties in the whole of England. Of these last are the Ring-Ouzels.

1899 September, C. Trollope, “The Haunt of the Ring-Ouzel (Turdus torquatus)”, in The Zoologist^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:The_Zoologist,_4th_series,_vol_3_(1899).djvu/433), volume 3, page 403f:

In recording my observations on the Ring-Ouzel (Turdus torquatus), I have no expectation of writing anything original. But I think it possible that personal notes on this interesting bird may be acceptable to those ornithologists who are less familiar with it than I am.

1900 January, W. Storrs Fox, “The Ring-Ouzel in Derbyshire.”, in The Zoologist^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:The_Zoologist,_4th_series,_vol_4_(1900).djvu/25), volume 4, number 703, page 1f:

Turdus torquatus
Turdus torquatus#Translingual

Turdus torquatus, a European thrush, similar to the common blackbird, but with a ring of white feathers at its neck.


pale thrush

A thrush (Turdus pallidus), of eastern Asia.


throstlecock

The wind so whirled a weathercock
He could not hold his tail up;
The frost so nipped a throstlecock,
He could not snap a snail up.

1962, J.R.R. Tolkien, “When Winter first begins to bite”, in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil:


varied thrush

A North American passerine bird (Ixoreus naevius).


clay-colored thrush

clay-colored thrush (plural clay-colored thrushes)

A thrush, common in the Americas, of species Turdus grayi; the national bird of Costa Rica.


black-throated thrush

black-throated thrush (plural black-throated thrushes)

Turdus atrogularis
Turdus atrogularis#Translingual

Turdus atrogularis, a migratory Asian thrush with a black throat


White's thrush

White's thrush (plural White's thrushes)

Named after Gilbert White (1720 – 1793), an English clergyman and naturalist.

Zoothera aurea
Zoothera aurea#Translingual

A thrush found mainly in eastern Asia and Siberia and rare vagrant to western Europe, of species Zoothera aurea (or formerly, sometimes of subspecies Zoothera dauma aurea).


screech thrush

screech thrush (plural screech thrushes)


Old World blackbird

Old World blackbird (plural Old World blackbirds)

Old World oriole, passerine birds of family Oriolidae.


throstell

Obsolete spelling of throstle. (song thrush)


scaly thrush

Zoothera dauma
Zoothera dauma#Translingual


Swainson's thrush

Swainson's thrush (plural Swainson's thrushes)

Catharus ustulatus
Catharus ustulatus#Translingual

Catharus ustulatus, a medium-sized thrush of North America.


eyebrowed thrush

eyebrowed thrush (plural eyebrowed thrushes)

Turdus obscurus
Turdus obscurus#Translingual

A species of solitary thrush native to Asia, Turdus obscurus.


Siberian thrush

Siberian thrush (plural Siberian thrushes)

Geokichla sibirica
Geokichla sibirica#Translingual

A species of solitary thrush native to Siberia, Geokichla sibirica.


red-throated thrush

red-throated thrush (plural red-throated thrushes)

Turdus ruficollis
Turdus ruficollis#Translingual


Naumann's thrush

Naumann's thrush (plural Naumann's thrushes)

Turdus naumanni
Turdus naumanni#Translingual


olomao

Originally found on Lanai (last seen in 1933), Maui and Molokai, only a few olomaos survive today as endangered species in remote regions of Molokai […]

1989, Frederick William Frohawk, Scott Barchard Wilson, Frohawk's Birds of Hawaii, page 52:

Myadestes lanaiensis, a small, dark solitaire endemic to parts of the Hawaiian Islands.


omao

The liquid chirps heard in the short song of an Omao.

2018, Les Beletsky, Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song, page 142:

Myadestes obscurus, the Hawaiian thrush.


cochoa

Any member of the genus Cochoa of medium-sized frugivorous, insectivorous and molluscivorous birds.


puaiohi

A bird of the species Myadestes palmeri (small Kauai thrush), native to Kauai.


fruithunter

A bird of the species Chlamydochaera jefferyi, native to Borneo.


Michaelmas blackbird

Michaelmas blackbird (plural Michaelmas blackbirds)


wood thrush

A species of bird, Hylocichla mustelina.