weaverbird

American  

[wee-ver-burd] / ˈwi vərˌbɜrd /

noun

1. any of numerous African and Asian finchlike birds of the family Ploceidae, noted for their elaborately woven nests and colonial habits.

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weaverbird British  

/ ˈwiːvəˌbɜːd /

noun

1. any small Old World passerine songbird of the chiefly African family Ploceidae, having a short thick bill and a dull plumage and building covered nests: includes the house sparrow and whydahs

2. Also called: weaver finch.  any similar bird of the family Estrilidae, of warm regions of the Old World: includes the waxbills, grassfinches, and Java sparrow

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Etymology

Origin of weaverbird

First recorded in 1820–30; weaver + bird

Example Sentences

A weaverbird, yellow as police tape, flitted about, building a nest.

From The New Yorker

The bird may have been a weaverbird—no one knows —and it may have died of a Level 4 virus—no one knows.

From Literature

So, even before moving my books into my new PhD office, I was on a plane to Botswana to collect data on the nest building behaviour of the Southern masked weaverbird.

From Scientific American