Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several long-legged shorebirds of the genus Recurvirostra, characterized by a long, slender, upturned beak.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See avoset.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) A grallatorial bird, of the genus Recurvirostra; the scooper. The bill is long and bend upward toward the tip. The American species is Recurvirostra Americana.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of four species of wading birds in the genus Recurvirostra, of the family Recurvirostridae, with long, slender recurved bills, long legs, and webbed feet.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun long-legged web-footed black-and-white shorebird with slender upward-curving bill

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French avocette, from Italian avocetta.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French avocette, from Italian avosetta.

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Examples

  • Other waterbirds found on Lake Eyasi include yellowbilled stork Mycteria ibis, African spoonbill Platalea alba, avocet Recurvirostra avosetta and greyheaded gull Larus cirrocephalus.

    Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania 2009

  • Specifically the Exe Estuary Special Protected Area (SPA) and Ramsar Site supports over 20,000 wildfowl in the winter months, including the internationally important populations of avocet Recurvirostra avosetta, dark-bellied brent goose Branta bernicla bernicla and the slavonian grebe, Podiceps auritus.

    Dorset and East Devon Coast, United Kingdom 2008

  • Among the most abundant shorebirds in the slough are the western sandpiper, least sandpiper, marbled godwit, dowitchers, willet, American avocet, black-bellied plover, sanderling and long-billed curlew.

    Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, California 2007

  • Avian species such as the blacknecked stilt, black tern, American avocet and black skimmer are relative newcomers to the area.

    Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve 2007

  • A pale avocet, walking the shoreline, coming in from the left.

    grouse Diary Entry grouse 2005

  • Then they headed homeward along the Platte, where Jim showed Canby the marshes in which the avocet hid, and the Texan said he'd never seen such a bird and did Jim want one to stuff.

    Centennial Michener, James 1974

  • Once, with the fingers of his right hand, Potato made dancing little movements, mimicking the avocet, and Jim suspected that he was wishing he could move about as easily as this bird.

    Centennial Michener, James 1974

  • Shorebirds are fond of other insect pests of forage and grain crops, including the army worm, which is known to be eaten by the killdeer and spotted sandpiper; also cutworms, among whose enemies are the avocet, woodcock, pectoral and Baird sandpipers, upland plover, and killdeer.

    Our Vanishing Wild Life Its Extermination and Preservation William Temple Hornaday 1895

  • Yellowlegs, yelper, willet, marlin, dough bird, stilt, and avocet are often common, but they do not begin to be as plentiful as they are in the more fertile lands to the eastward, and the ranchmen never shoot at them or follow them as game birds.

    II. Waferfowl 1885

  • The avocet became the emblem of the RSPB and symbolises the bird protection movement in the

    Wigan Today - News Feed 2010

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