oilbird

«oilbird» in Mova's school dictionary: A brown, night-flying bird of South America and Trinidad… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

noun (an oilbird, oilbirds)

meaning for a pupil

A brown, night-flying bird of South America and Trinidad that lives in caves, eats fruit and finds its way in the dark by clicking, a bit like a bat. tree →

sense in the lessons

A science word in lessons on echolocation and adaptations: oilbirds are among the few birds that echolocate. They are called oilbirds because the chicks get very fat, and long ago people boiled them to make oil for lamps and cooking.

examples

• The oilbird lives in dark caves in South America. tree →
• Oilbirds make clicking sounds to find their way, like bats. tree →
• Oilbirds eat fruit, not insects. tree →
• Thousands of oilbirds come out of the cave at night. tree →
• Oilbird chicks are very fat, which is how they got their name. tree →
• We learnt that oilbirds and swiftlets can both echolocate. tree →

note

Countable; one word. Use «an» (an oilbird). It is the only bird of its family. Oilbirds are protected; people no longer use them for oil.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «oilbird» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.