Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Leaving the nest a short time after hatching. Used of a bird.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of birds, able to run about when hatched: same as
precocial : contrasted withnidicolous .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective biology, of a bird That leaves the
nest shortly afterhatching
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective (of birds) leaving the nest shortly after hatching
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Latin nīdus, nest; see sed- in Indo-European roots + Latin -fugus, fleeing (from fugere, to flee; see fugitive).]
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word nidifugous.
Examples
-
Prägung, or imprinting, in his seminal paper in 1935, to refer to the process of rapid bound-formation early in the life of the so-called nidifugous birds (the fowl, ducks, geese, and the like).
Dictionary of the History of Ideas W. SLUCKIN 1968
-
'A possible fundamental in the behaviour of young nidifugous birds '- One of the most significant behaviour patterns observed is one which occurs immediately upon hatching.
-
Altricial I lies at one extreme ( 'birth with eyes closed, naked, and nidicolousor nest-dwelling'), and precocial IV at the other ( 'birth with eyes open, haired, and nidifugous or nest-fleeing') [21].
bilby commented on the word nidifugous
For leaving the nest shortly before hatching, see eggroll.
July 13, 2008