α. 1800s– scissor bird.
β. 1800s– scissors-bird.
scissor birdn.
/ˈsɪzə bəːd/, U.S. /ˈsɪzər ˌbərd/ 1. = scissortail n. 1a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > [noun] > family Tyrannidae (tyrant-bird) > genus Tyrannus > tyrannus forficatus (scissor-bird)
swallow-tailed flycatcher1678
scissor bird1838
the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > [noun] > family Tyrannidae (tyrant-bird) > genus Tyrannus > tyrannus tyrannus (scissor-tail)
swallow-tailed flycatcher1678
scissortail1827
scissor bird1838
1838 P. C. Scarlett S. Amer. & Pacific I. xii. 197 We also saw some scissor birds. Their long tails open and shut as they are flying, just like a pair of scissors.
1869–73 T. R. Jones tr. A. E. Brehm Cassell's Bk. Birds II. 161 The Scissor Bird of the Brazilians (Milvulus tyrannus),..is occasionally met with in the United States.
1908 Geogr. Jrnl. 32 333 Blackbirds, meadow-larks, ‘scissor-birds’, and large orioles were common.
1992 C. Gidley Crying of Wind xxii. 223 She spent as much time as possible out of the house,..sometimes strolling alone in the park, pausing to watch the flight of a scissors bird.
2002 K. Singh Truth, Love & Little Malice viii. 171 The Tijereta, the scissor bird,..has two long tails that criss-cross like a pair of scissors.
2. Any of various other birds with a tail, bill, or call that is reminiscent of scissors; esp. a frigate bird (genus Fregata).
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the world > animals > birds > unspecified and miscellaneous birds > [noun] > miscellaneous
night-raveneOE
cold-finch1676
crane1678
diver1694
solitary1708
wheat-bird1747
yellow-bill1775
Chinese thrush1781
whidah thrush1781
tomtit1789
solitaire1797
year-bird1798
softbill1830
swift-shrike1841
scissor bird1843
seed finch1862
sea-flyer1869
stalker1872
seven sisters1873
dicky bird1879
baboon bird1883
1843 B. F. Thompson Hist. Long Island (ed. 2) II. 265 Scissor Bird, Oyster Catcher, Hæmatophus Palliatus.
1893 G. D. Leslie Lett. to Marco vii. 46 I hear to-day..the sedge-warbler in the shrubbery, keeping up that incessant ‘cheep-cheep, chissock- cheep’ etc., that caused us to christen him ‘the scissors bird’.
1997 N. Lefranc Shrikes 171/1 There is a constantly repeated scis scis which has given the bird [sc. the Yellow-billed Shrike] the local name of Scissor-bird in Uganda.
2005 Times Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) (Nexis) 5 Nov. e6 Sitting in the sun at the bow of the boat, we watch scissor birds dive for fish.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1838