abmigrate

en-verb

abmigrate (third-person singular simple present abmigrates, present participle abmigrating, simple past and past participle abmigrated)

abmigrates (present singular third-person)
abmigrating (participle present)
abmigrated (participle past)
abmigrated (past)

(intransitive, ornithology) To take part in abmigration.


preen oil

en-noun

preen oil (countable and uncountable, plural preen oils)

(ornithology) Oil produced by the uropygial gland in birds, used in preening.


innerweb

When closed, the tail appears dark brown, as the central pair of tail feathers have no or only avery little white at the base of the innerweb (12–18mm) which is in any case obscured by the uppertail-coverts.

(ornithology) (of a plumage) an inner web


outerweb

Tail brown (except for central and outermost feathers) tipped broadly with white, outermost feathers white with brown outerweb.

2010, Peter Clement, Ren Hathway, Thrushes:

(ornithology) (of a plumage) an outer web


life list

life lists (plural)
lifelist (alternative)

I added twenty species for the year, fourteen of which I couldn't hope to see anywhere else but Mike forked out a lot of money to come a long way with not a single addition to his life list to show for it.

2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 112:

(birdwatching) A cumulative list of all the bird species a birder has ever sighted and identified.


life bird

(birdwatching) A bird species seen for the first time by a birder who is keeping a list of all the species he or she has ever seen.


racqueted

Sometimes one finds oneself in the domain of the Motmots, which look at you from their thickets, swinging their curious racqueted tails from right to left after the manner of a clock's pendulum, and uttering bubbling notes...

1922, The Avicultural Magazine, page 163:

All 3 African birds in this group have long outer tail feathers, racqueted in C. spatulata.

2010, Bruce Campbell, Elizabeth Lack, A Dictionary of Birds, →ISBN, page 516:

C. spatulata agrees with abyssinica in its pale blue underparts, but it has a long, forked, racqueted tail which is rather different in pattern, and it has rufous brown (not pale blue) greater wing-coverts.

1978, David William Snow, An atlas of speciation in African non-passerine birds, page 312:

(ornithology) Having a spatulate endpart beyond the main tail section.


vocal tract

Beak motions are not necessarily the only means by which birds might vary the acoustic properties of the vocal tract.

1998, Abbot Gaunt, Stephen Nowicki, “Sound Production in Birds: Acoustics and Physiology Revisited”, in Steven Hopp, Michael Owren, Christopher Evans, editors, Animal Acoustic Communication: Sound Analysis and Research Methods, →ISBN, page 308:

(ornithology) Portion of a bird's anatomy that filters or modifies sound; the syrinx, oral cavity, and beak, plus portions of the esophagus and trachea.


-ptile

Representing the Ancient Greek πτῐ́λον (ptĭ́lon, “feather”, “down”; “leaf”); in the botanical sense denoting leaves, probably after the French -ptile. Compare ptilo-.

der

neossoptile, teleoptile, trichoptile

(ornithology, forming nouns) type of plumage


buteonine

(ornithology) Any bird in the accipitrid subfamily Buteoninae


pterylology

He gives some minute and valuable descriptions of the species, particularly as regards its pterylology and structure in comparison with other birds, as well as a detailed account of its habits, so as almost to justify the use of poisoned grain, which he seems to have tried in order to obtain specimens.

(ornithology, obsolete, rare) The study of distribution of feathers on birds.


funnel trap

(ornithology, hunting) A large funnel-shaped trap constructed of netting or wire mesh and intended to trap ducks, geese, etc.


Sibe

(birdwatching, colloquial) A Siberian crane.


melliphagoid

(ornithology) A bird of the passerine superfamily Meliphagoidea, a diverse group native to Australia and elsewhere in the South Pacific.


contact call

(ornithology) A call made between birds in a flock or a pair in order to maintain contact with one another when foraging, flying, etc.


stomach oil

en-noun

stomach oil (countable and uncountable, plural stomach oils)

(ornithology) The light oil composed of neutral dietary lipids found in the proventriculus of birds in the order Procellariiformes.


eyeband

(ichthyology, ornithology) A vertical colored streak across the eye.


Wulst

(ornithology) An enlarged part of the avian brain that is involved in vision; the hyperpallium.


mist net

Jens-Kjeld sets up a mist net between two lightweight poles at the edge of the boulder field, nearest to the cliffe.

2020, Tim Ecott, The Land of Maybe, Short Books, published 2021, page 128:

(ornithology) A net, made from fine strands that are nearly invisible, used to catch birds so that they may be ringed or studied.


dark-activity

(ornithology) Avian behaviour that occurs at night or in the twilight.


cloacal kiss

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cloacal kiss.wav

(ornithology) The touching together of the cloacas of a male and female bird, during which sperm is transferred.


tracheophone

(ornithology) Relating to birds that sing from the trachea (rather than from the syrinx)


petroicid

(ornithology) Of or relating to the passerine family Petroicidae.


petroicid

(ornithology) Any bird in the family Petroicidae; an Australasian robin.


count circle

(birdwatching) A designated radius in which bird populations are measured as part of a census.


host species

(ornithology) A species utilised by a brood parasite to raise young.


brood-parasitic

(ornithology) Practicing brood parasitism.


orientation cage

orientation cage (plural orientation cages)

migratory restlessness
migratory restlessness

(ornithology) A cage in which a bird experiencing migratory restlessness is kept in order to observe the direction of its migratory impulse.


migratory restlessness

(ornithology, zoology) Anxious behaviour in migratory animals, especially in birds, experienced at the beginning of the normal migration period; zugunruhe.


roding

roding (countable and uncountable, plural rodings)

(ornithology) The mating display of the male woodcock, consisting of a patrolling flight around its territory.


hindcrown

(ornithology) The rear part of a crown (the top of a bird's head).


nidopallium caudolaterale

prefrontal cortex
prefrontal cortex#English

(anatomy, ornithology) The avian equivalent of the primate prefrontal cortex. A region of a bird's brain, located at the rear, that coordinates cognition in the pallium layer of the brain.


kackle

With mated birds, however, the preening bird was not aggressive and approached the partner with appeasement displays such as Head Jerks, Kackles and ambivalent movements.

Females never revealed their sex during greetings; no females solicited copulations or produced calls other than 'kackles'.

1999, Proceedings: Biological sciences, page 546:

Black-throated Finches give 'kackles' in the same situations as do Long-tailed Finches, and they appear to have the same appeasement function.

2012, Joseph Michael Forshaw, Mark Shephard, Grassfinches in Australia, page 181:

(ornithology) A low raspy noise accompanied by head jerks, used to signal appeasement in some species.


kackle

en-verb

kackle (third-person singular simple present kackles, present participle kackling, simple past and past participle kackled)

kackles (present singular third-person)
kackling (participle present)
kackled (participle past)
kackled (past)

A bird 'kackling' while alighting may be ignored or greeted in return with weak 'kackles' and headjerks.

2012, Joseph Michael Forshaw, Mark Shephard, Grassfinches in Australia, page 167:

(ornithology) To make a kackle while jerking the head, signalling appeasement.


sparrows' wedding

en-noun

sparrows' wedding (plural sparrows' weddings)

(ornithology) a group of chirping sparrows (often males around a single female) usually occurring in the spring and early summer


twitchable

en-adj

twitchable (comparative more twitchable, superlative most twitchable)

more twitchable (comparative)
most twitchable (superlative)

(birdwatching, of a bird) Able to be visited and viewed by birders.


grip off

en-verb

grip off (third-person singular simple present grips off, present participle gripping off, simple past and past participle gripped off)

grips off (present singular third-person)
gripping off (participle present)
gripped off (participle past)
gripped off (past)

(birdwatching, transitive) To tease or taunt another birdwatcher about a bird you have seen but they missed out on.


important bird area

en-noun

important bird area (plural important bird areas)

(ornithology, conservation) An area recognised as requiring conservation and management due to its importance for the survival of bird species that are vulnerable to global extinction.


gapeline

(ornithology) The outer edge of a bird's gape, especially when enlarged in a chick or immature bird.


commic tern

Sterna hirundo
Sterna hirundo#Translingual

Sterna paradisaea
Sterna paradisaea#Translingual

(birdwatching) A tern that is either a common tern, Sterna hirundo, or an arctic tern, Sterna paradisaea.


passeridan

(ornithology) Of or relating to the Passerida.


gropper

Enjoyed a wide range of Sedge warblers, heard a gropper, and saw a spoonbill, and our first house martins and swifts of the year. The avocets were grand (nearly 50 of them) and not as argumentative as usual at his time of the year.

2001 April 29, Michael J Davis, “A grand day out and request for help”, in uk.rec.birdwatching (Usenet):

These overwhelmingly male gatherings remind me of paparazzi flocks I’ve encountered. Like a reluctant celebrity, the Pallas’s “gropper” (twitchers have their own language, as well as paparazzi-style ripping yarns about this trip or that shot) was skulking in the bushes.

2017 September 25, Patrick Barkham, “Twitchers and groppers: when birdwatching turns ugly”, in The Guardian:

(UK, informal, birdwatching) The grasshopper warbler.


catastrophic moult

catastrophic moult (plural catastrophic moults)

catastrophic moults (plural)
catastrophic molt (alternative)

(ornithology) A moult, typically in penguins, in which most or all of the feathers are shed at the same time


bird burst

(meteorology, ornithology) A large quantity of birds simultaneously taking off from a single location and flying outwards, producing a radar signature closely resembling that from a microburst.


crow-line

(ornithology) The straight and direct path of a crow's flight.


quincubital

(ornithology) Having a fifth cubital remex.


aquincubital

(ornithology) Lacking a fifth cubital remex.


ptiloerection

(ornithology) Fluffing up of feathers or down so that birds can control heat.


hermit-bird

(ornithology) A hummingbird of the genus Phaethornis.

(ornithology) A Halcyonide bird of the genus Monasa.


powder-down feather

powder-down feather (countable and uncountable, plural powder-down feathers)

(ornithology) A down feather which grows continuously and disintegrates, forming fine particles of keratin, which appear as a powder, or "feather dust".


powder-down patch

powder-down patch (plural powder-down patches)

(ornithology) A patch or tuft of powder-down feathers.


fence hopper

(birdwatching) A bird that has escaped from an enclosure, zoo, or the like, as opposed to a genuine wild bird.


shorb

The first of the rare species of shorb for AZ I started finding this fall was the Semipalmated Sandpiper, an overlooked and overeported species in Maricopa County.

2016 September 10, Caleb Strand, “Fall Madness: Shorebirding And More!!!”, in Birding With Caleb (blog), archived from the original on 2023-11-23:

With it was a much larger curlew species: Long-billed Curlew (the largest regularly occurring shorb in the ABA)

2019 December 20, Jared Conaway, “On The Wesside Feelin Like a Great”, in AK-AZ Birder (blog), archived from the original on 2024-04-12:

Unfortunately people coming back down the beach flushed the small shorb flock but they flew to the golf course and stuck around a bit.

2023 September 24, Mary Walsh, “Archived copy”, in Macaulay Library, archived from the original on 2024-04-12:


Nubian woodpecker

Nubian woodpecker (plural Nubian woodpeckers)

(ornithology) A bird of species Campethera nubica in the family Picidae.


seawatching

From sea + watching, after birdwatching.

(birdwatching) A type of birdwatching where participants observe seabirds from a fixed point on the mainland.


coliiform

(ornithology) Any member of the Coliiformes order of birds.


yellow-green brushfinch

yellow-green brushfinch (plural yellow-green brushfinches)

Calque of translingual Atlapetes luteoviridis.

calque

New World sparrow
New World sparrow#English

(ornithology) Any New World sparrow of the species Atlapetes luteoviridis, endemic to a thin stretch of inland Panama.


king quail

(ornithology) A bird of the species Synoicus chinensis.


iduna

Hundreds of warblers made the mass - mainly Blackcap and Lesser Whitethroat but also quite many Reed Warblers and an assortment of other sylvias, locustellas, idunas and phyllos, plus some other bits and pieces.

2012 April 14, Yoav Perlman, “Busy busy”, in Yoav Perlman (blog):

Most Idunas share a rather peculiar jizz.

2016 August 26, “Focus On: Booted Warbler”, in BirdGuides:

Booted Warblers are the more northerly breeders of the two sibling Idunas.

2019, Sudhir Vyas, Indian BIRDS, Indian BIRDS Monographs, Booted Warbler Iduna caligata Passage migrant (Fairly common), page 92:

(ornithology) Any warbler of the genus Iduna.


untwitchable

en-adj

untwitchable (comparative more untwitchable, superlative most untwitchable)

more untwitchable (comparative)
most untwitchable (superlative)

(birdwatching, of a bird) Unable to be visited and viewed by birders.


facial disc

(ornithology) A concave collection of feathers on the face of some birds, notably owls, surrounding the eyes.


plain-winged

(lepidopterology, ornithology) Of or relating to several species of birds and moths.