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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
plumage
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
white
▪ The distinctive black and white summer plumage of the male pied flycatcher.
▪ Their white plumage often has a tinge of pink.
▪ Equally striking and unmistakable with its all black and white plumage, but always associated with water.
▪ Striking black and white breeding plumage.
▪ But barn owls, famed in folklore for their eerie screech and ghostly white plumage, are declining in Britain.
▪ He fixed his stare on a shelduck whose white and brown plumage he could easily see.
▪ Unmistakable with its black and white plumage, black on the bare head and neck and plumed wings.
▪ With white plumage gleaming, terns hover, tails fanned, slim red beaks pointing down towards the water.
■ NOUN
breeding
▪ Upperparts spangled with grey or yellowish or black; no white on nape; underparts in breeding plumage largely black.
▪ Striking black and white breeding plumage.
▪ In breeding plumage white of body suffused pink.
▪ We were looking for a bird in brown and white breeding plumage.
summer
▪ The distinctive black and white summer plumage of the male pied flycatcher.
▪ These early parties are nearly always found at Thorney Island and include a high proportion of adults in summer plumage.
▪ Jack, in summer plumage, glowed with colour.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ the duck's colorful plumage
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Curved bill separates from godwits, whose rufous plumage is also distinctive in summer.
▪ He stood around, stiff, resplendent and uncomfortable in the brilliant plumage of a field marshals uniform.
▪ In adult plumage a barn owl is beautiful and Dawn was no exception.
▪ Sometimes a particularly bold individual will risk a real attack, swooping in from behind the owl and striking at its plumage.
▪ The distinctive black and white summer plumage of the male pied flycatcher.
▪ Then an immature gannet came into view away out at sea, a huge bird, still in mottled dark brown plumage.
▪ Waders in winter plumage are not easy.
▪ With her bouffant hairdo, elaborate plumage, gushing charm and bright smile she is a caricature of a countess.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Plumage

Plumage \Plum"age\ (pl[=u]m"[asl]j), n. [F., from plume a feather.] (Zo["o]l.) The entire clothing of a bird.

Note: It consist of the contour feathers, or the ordinary feathers covering the head, neck, and body; the tail feathers, with their upper and lower coverts; the wing feathers, including primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, with their coverts; and the down which lies beneath the contour feathers. See Illust. under Bird.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
plumage

late 14c., "feathers," from Old French plumage "plumage, appearance" (14c.), from plume (see plume (n.)).

Wiktionary
plumage

n. 1 feather, either covering a bird or used ornamentally 2 finery or elaborate dress.

WordNet
plumage

n. the light horny waterproof structure forming the external covering of birds [syn: feather, plume]

Wikipedia
Plumage

Plumage ( " feather") refers both to the layer of feathers that cover a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies, and may vary with age classes, species there can be different colour morphs.

Most birds moult, usually before and after breeding, resulting in a breeding or nuptial plumage and a basic plumage. Many ducks and some other species such as the red junglefowl have males wearing a bright nuptial plumage while breeding and a drab eclipse plumage for some months afterwards. The painted bunting's juveniles have two inserted moults in their first autumn, each yielding plumage like an adult females. The first starts a few days after fledging replacing the juvenile plumage with an auxiliary formative plumage; the second a month or so later giving the formative plumage.

Abnormal plumages include a variety of conditions. Albinism, total loss of colour, is rare, but partial loss of colours is more common. Some species are colour polymorphic, having two or more colour variants. A few species have special types of polymorphism, as in the male ruff which has an assortment of different colours around the head and neck in the breeding season only.

Hen feathering is an inherited plumage character in domestic fowl controlled by a single gene. Plumology (or plumage science) is the name for the science that is associated with the study of feathers.

Usage examples of "plumage".

But to beings like the Ambassadress the occasional parasite plucked from their own plumage is like a salted peanut is to us.

The next time you see a tree waving in the wind, recollect that it is the tail of a great underground, many-armed, polypus-like creature, which is as proud of its caudal appendage, especially in summer-time, as a peacock of his gorgeous expanse of plumage.

Nevertheless, they saw, though unable to get near them, a couple of those large birds peculiar to Australia, a sort of cassowary, called emu, five feet in height, and with brown plumage, which belong to the tribe of waders.

Behind him crouched a Grackle whose frayed and dusty plumage had lost nearly all its iridescence.

This effect is often seen at the top of the sky in a Japanese landscape print where a dark blue band of colour is printed with a soft edge suddenly gradated to white, or sometimes the plumage of birds is printed with sudden gradations.

It was a gyrfalcon, as was to be expected, its plumage as black as night.

It was indeed a jacamar, of which the plumage shines with a metallic luster.

In the silence he heard the silvery call of a bell bird, and a rush of wings as a kereru, a fat native wood pigeon with sleek green plumage and a white bib at its throat, flew overhead.

The water ouzels were bobbing at each other in courtship display, but she always wondered how they could walk underwater without getting their plumage waterlogged.

Into the setting sun he flies, his majestic plumage stained a dilute scarlet and, glancing once more earthward, he sees a dark and tiny shadow limned before the glare of the ice.

Why had he wantoned on his glittering plumage amidst these harsh and ungenial strangers, dazzling the eyes with his gorgeous hues, charming the ear with his blithesome song--thus suddenly to be arrested--caged in darkness--a victim and a prey--his gay flights for ever over--his hymns of gladness for ever stilled!

Black, white, or gray cockatoos, paroquets, with plumage of all colors, kingfishers of a sparkling green and crowned with red, blue lories, and various other birds appeared on all sides, as through a prism, fluttering about and producing a deafening clamor.

Jory, green parrot, and paroquets of different species and sizes, ornamented with the most gay and luxuriant plumage that can be conceived.

It tidied its parroty plumage and aligned its antigravity primaries with fussy movements, then lifted its tail to splatter the ledge beneath the post.

The scorning jay: scorning humbler birds, out of pride of his fine plumage.