Wiktionary
n. ''Grus rubicunda'', an Australian crane.
Wikipedia
The brolga (Grus rubicunda), formerly known as the native companion, is a bird in the crane family. It has also been given the name Australian crane, a term coined in 1865 by well-known ornithological artist John Gould in his Birds of Australia.
The brolga is a common, gregarious wetland bird species of tropical and south-eastern Australia and New Guinea. It is a tall, upright bird with a small head, long beak, slender neck and long legs. The plumage is mainly grey, with black wing tips, and it has an orange-red band of colour on its head. It is well known for its intricate mating dance. The nest is built of sticks on an island in marshland and usually two eggs are laid. Incubation takes 32 days and the newly hatched young are precocial. The adult diet is mostly plant matter, but invertebrates and small vertebrates are also eaten.
Although the bird is not considered endangered over the majority of its range, populations are showing some decline, especially in southern Australia, and local action plans are being undertaken in some areas. It is the official bird emblem of the state of Queensland.
Two ships of the Royal Australian Navy have been named Brolga, after the brolga.
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, a fishing vessel acquired as an auxiliary minesweeper in 1917 and returned to owners in 1918
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, a lighthouse tender acquired as an auxiliary minesweeper in 1992 and sold in 2003
Usage examples of "brolga".
Romance, The Buln-buln and the Brolga originally formed a chapter of Such is Life, and was detached with it to reduce the length of that book.
The last-named touches on his boyhood in reminiscences of his first meeting with Rigby and his early friendship with Steve Thompson, but The Buln-buln and the Brolga gives no fewer than four complete glimpses of Tom, in the company of Steve and Fred, at different stages of his boyhood and adolescence.
Buln-buln and Brolga returned to their seat, I looked through the window and proposed a walk along the river.
Therefore the brolga called to all the water birds and they heard the call.
There are birds to watch, brolgas and storks, and water lilies, and there's not a cow for miles, because we've fenced it off from themwe like to think it's our own little equivalent of Kakadu.