What is "bird of passage"

Bird \Bird\ (b[~e]rd), n. [OE. brid, bred, bird, young bird, bird, AS. bridd young bird. [root]92.]

1. Orig., a chicken; the young of a fowl; a young eaglet; a nestling; and hence, a feathered flying animal (see 2).

   That ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird.
   --Shak.

   The brydds [birds] of the aier have nestes.
   --Tyndale (Matt. viii. 20).

2. (Zo["o]l.) A warm-blooded, feathered vertebrate provided with wings. See Aves.

3. Specifically, among sportsmen, a game bird.

4. Fig.: A girl; a maiden.

   And by my word! the bonny bird In danger shall not tarry.
   --Campbell.

   Arabian bird, the phenix.

   Bird of Jove, the eagle.

   Bird of Juno, the peacock.

   Bird louse (Zo["o]l.), a wingless insect of the group Mallophaga, of which the genera and species are very numerous and mostly parasitic upon birds. -- Bird mite (Zo["o]l.), a small mite (genera Dermanyssus, Dermaleichus and allies) parasitic upon birds. The species are numerous.

   Bird of passage, a migratory bird.

   Bird spider (Zo["o]l.), a very large South American spider ( Mygale avicularia). It is said sometimes to capture and kill small birds.

   Bird tick (Zo["o]l.), a dipterous insect parasitic upon birds (genus Ornithomyia, and allies), usually winged.

n. 1 A migratory bird, especially a passage migrant. 2 (context figuratively English) Someone passing through; an itinerant.

1. n. someone who leads a wandering unsettled life [syn: wanderer, roamer, rover]

2. any bird that migrates seasonally