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Snowbird   /snˈoʊbˌərd/   Listen
noun
Snowbird  n.  (Zool.)
(a)
An arctic finch (Plectrophenax nivalis syn. Plectrophanes nivalis) common, in winter, both in Europe and the United States, and often appearing in large flocks during snowstorms. It is partially white, but variously marked with chestnut and brown. Called also snow bunting, snowflake, snowfleck, and snowflight.
(b)
Any finch of the genus Junco which appears in flocks in winter time, especially Junco hyemalis in the Eastern United States; called also blue snowbird. See Junco.
(c)
The fieldfare. (Prov. Eng.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Snowbird" Quotes from Famous Books



... the junco, or common snowbird, came into the big barn and built her nest in the side of the haymow, only a few feet from me. The clean, fragrant hay attracted her as it had attracted me. One would have thought that in a haymow she had nesting material near at hand. But no; her nest-building instincts had to ...
— The Wit of a Duck and Other Papers • John Burroughs

... never said among the people that a person has been bitten by a snake, but that he has been "scratched by a brier." In the same way, when an eagle has been shot for a ceremonial dance, it is announced that "a snowbird has been killed," the purpose being to deceive the rattlesnake or eagle spirits ...
— The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees • James Mooney

... woodpeckers come the members of the sparrow family that inhabit the Tahoe region. The little black-headed snowbird, Thurber's junco, is the most common of all the Tahoe birds. The thick-billed sparrow, a grayish bird with spotted breast and enormous bill is found on all the brushy hillsides and is noted for its glorious bursts ...
— The Lake of the Sky • George Wharton James

... called the junco a snowbird, but this name should really be confined to a black and white bunting which comes south only with a mid-winter's rush of snowflakes. Their warm little bodies nestle close to the white crystals, and they seek cheerfully for the seeds which nature has provided for them. Then ...
— The Log of the Sun - A Chronicle of Nature's Year • William Beebe

... the bitterest month of all for the Wood Folk, even Wayeeses was often hard pressed to find a living. Small game grew scarce and very wild; the caribou had wandered far away to other ranges; and the cubs would dig for hours after a mouse, or stalk a snowbird, or wait with endless patience for a red squirrel to stop his chatter and come down to search under the snow for a fir cone that he had hidden there in the good autumn days. And once, when the hunger within was more nipping than the eager cold without, one of the ...
— Northern Trails, Book I. • William J. Long

... bluebird, "don't leave me out! I saw the snow that lay round about." "Yes," chirped a snowbird, "that may be true; But I've seen it all the ...
— The Nursery, Volume 17, No. 100, April, 1875 • Various



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