Crossword clues for spoonbill
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Shoveler \Shov"el*er\, n. [Also shoveller.]
One who, or that which, shovels.
(Zo["o]l.) A river duck ( Spatula clypeata), native of Europe and America. It has a large bill, broadest towards the tip. The male is handsomely variegated with green, blue, brown, black, and white on the body; the head and neck are dark green. Called also broadbill, spoonbill, shovelbill, and maiden duck. The Australian shoveler, or shovel-nosed duck ( S. rhynchotis), is a similar species.
Ruddy \Rud"dy\, a. [Compar. Ruddier; superl. Ruddiest.] [AS. rudig. See Rud, n.]
-
Of a red color; red, or reddish; as, a ruddy sky; a ruddy flame.
--Milton.They were more ruddy in body than rubies.
--Lam. iv. 7. -
Of a lively flesh color, or the color of the human skin in high health; as, ruddy cheeks or lips.
--Dryden.Ruddy duck (Zo["o]l.), an American duck ( Erismatura rubida) having a broad bill and a wedge-shaped tail composed of stiff, sharp feathers. The adult male is rich brownish red on the back, sides, and neck, black on the top of the head, nape, wings, and tail, and white on the cheeks. The female and young male are dull brown mixed with blackish on the back; grayish below. Called also dunbird, dundiver, ruddy diver, stifftail, spinetail, hardhead, sleepy duck, fool duck, spoonbill, etc.
Ruddy plover (Zo["o]l.) the sanderling.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. 1 Any of various large, long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, which also includes the ibises, that have a large, flat, spatulate bill. 2 (context US English) A species of fish, ''Polyodon spathula'', native to the Mississippi/Ohio/Missouri river basin, or extinct close relatives.
WordNet
n. wading birds having a long flat bill with a tip like a spoon
Wikipedia
Spoonbills are a group of large, long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, which also includes the ibises. The genus name platalea derives from Latin and means "broad", referring to the distinctive shape of the bill. Six species are recognised, all either placed in a single genus or three genera. They are most closely related to the Old World ibises.
A spoonbill is a large, long-legged wading bird in the family Threskiornithidae.
Spoonbill may also refer to:
- Spoonbill catfish, a primitive Chondrostean ray-finned fish
- USS Spoonbill (MSC-202), a Bluebird-class motor minesweeper
- The Spoonbills, a "secret army" of innkeepers and peasants in John Buchan's novel Midwinter
Usage examples of "spoonbill".
From the Channel to the Tyne they call us the Spoonbills, and on Cumbrian moors they know us as the Bog-blitters.
At the farthest tip, near Cape Sable, the sky flashed with wild birds: herons, curlews, ibises, blue egrets, white pelicans, sandpipers and a few roseate spoonbills.
The year had already seen several spoonbills and purple herons, even a cattle egret had put in a couple of appearances.
To take her mind off the riffraff, JoLayne recited for Tom Krome a roster of local birds, resident and migratory: ospreys, snowy egrets, white herons, blue herons, kingfishers, flycatchers, cardinals, grackles, robins, red-tailed hawks, white-crowned pigeons, flickers, roseate spoonbills .
To take her mind off the riffraff, JoLayne recited for Tom Krome a roster of local birds, resident and migratory: ospreys, snowy egrets, white herons, blue herons, kingfishers, flycatchers, cardinals, grackles, robins, red-tailed hawks, white-crowned pigeons, flickers, roseate spoonbills.
So having consulted dear Dr Llers, we viewed the estuary or rather the estuaries of the Ebro - such myriads of flamingoes, Joseph, with two spoonbills and a glossy ibis, all in the course of a single picnic - and so took ship from Valencia to Gibraltar, where we changed to the packet: as brilliant a voyage as could be imagined.
But mostly the island was alive with birds: nighthawks, ospreys, snowy egrets, spoonbills, limpkins, parrots, blue herons, cormorants, the rare owl.
Not only a dozen varieties of duck and geese, but ibis and herons, egrets, spoonbills and openbills were in flight.
Keyes didn't lay eyes on another human being, and he found himself living up to his lie, watching the birds of the Everglades: cormorants, ospreys, grackles, red-shouldered hawks, even a pair of roseate spoonbills.
It was thick and clamorous with birds, shocking-pink flamingos and white spoonbills, greylag geese and wigeon, black-wing stilts wading about on their absurd spindly legs, redshanks dipping their long bills for shellfish and insect "larvae, although they hadn't gotten ahead of the mosquitoes, from the clouds that buzzed about.
It was thick and clamorous with birds, shocking-pink flamingos and white spoonbills, greylag geese and wigeon, black-wing stilts wading about on their absurd spindly legs, redshanks dipping their long bills for shellfish and insect “larvae, although they hadn’t gotten ahead of the mosquitoes, from the clouds that buzzed about.
A roseate spoonbill flew by, its unearthly pink haloed by the sun.
Her heavy breasts had prolapsed slightly, but the prominent nipples were as pink as a roseate spoonbill.
This is the only tropical river I know that is not infested with mosquitoes, although it has some capital marshes close at hand, with such a wealth of wading birds - imagine, my dear, a roseate spoonbill if you can - and of course there is an infinitely great botanical wealth on every hand.
In addition to Tarpon Island, it had been incorporated fleetingly as Snook Island, Dolphin Island, Blue Heron Island, White Heron Island, Little Spoonbill Island, Big Spoonbill Island, Sandpiper Key, Sandpiper Cay, Sandpiper Isle and Sandpiper Shoals.