dickcissel

American  

[dik-sis-uhl] / dɪkˈsɪs əl /

noun

1. a bunting, Spiza americana, of the eastern and central U.S., having a brownish back streaked with black and a yellowish breast and in the male a black patch on the throat.

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Etymology

Origin of dickcissel

First recorded in 1885–90; said to be imitative of its call

Example Sentences

He also detected the dickcissel, a grassland bird that I have never seen in our area.

From Salon • Sep. 4, 2022

The black-bellied whistling duck, the Swainson's warbler, the pileated woodpecker, the Caspian tern, the chachalaca and the dickcissel were all sighted, and all, says Peterson, were "old friends either by sight or sound."

From Time Magazine Archive

Delaware: Wild turkey, ruffed grouse, passenger pigeon, heath hen, dickcissel, whooping crane, Carolina parrakeet; white-tailed deer, black bear, gray wolf, beaver, Canada lynx, puma.

From Our Vanishing Wild Life Its Extermination and Preservation by Hornaday, William Temple

Near him is the dickcissel, incessantly singing from the twig of a crab-apple; these three make a tireless trio, singing each hour of the day.

From Some Summer Days in Iowa by Lazell, Frederick John

Spiza, spī′za, n. a genus of fringilline birds, including the United States dickcissel or black-throated bunting, &c.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various