Wiktionary
perching bird
n. A passerine.
WordNet
perching bird
n. a bird with feet adapted for perching (as on tree branches); this order is now generally abandoned by taxonomists [syn: Insessores, order Insessores, percher]
Usage examples of "perching bird".
Abelove had to come to lead her to the table, to a seat beside his, his big warm hand light on her shoulder as a perching bird.
Hetty looked at her much in the same way as one might imagine a little perching bird that could only flutter from bough to bough, to look at the swoop of the swallow or the mounting of the lark.