palila

American  

[puh-lee-luh] / pəˈli lə /

noun

1. a stout Hawaiian honeycreeper, Loxioides bailleui, having a thick, stubby bill, yellow head and breast, and gray back: an endangered species.

---

Etymology

Origin of palila

From Hawaiian

Example Sentences

Indeed, there are a number of cases that have been brought by animals—including a palila, a marbled murrelet, and a spotted owl.

From Slate • Dec. 11, 2013

His favorite and longest-running case involved protecting a small finch-billed bird, the palila, by removing wild goats and sheep from the slopes of a volcano.

From New York Times • Dec. 11, 2010

Gnarled koa trees twist up from its tropical slopes, where the endangered palila bird, a tiny yellow honey creeper, crushes rock-hard mamane seeds with its beak.

From Time Magazine Archive