bluebirdn.
/ˈbluːbəːd/, U.S. /ˈbluˌbərd/ 1. Any of three small hole-nesting thrushes constituting the genus Sialia, having predominantly blue plumage with (in two species) a reddish breast, native to North and Central America.eastern, mountain, western bluebird: see the first element.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > family Muscicapidae (thrushes, etc.) > subfamily Turdinae > [noun] > genus Sialia
bluebird1694
blue robin1807
mountain bluebird1861
1694 Philos. Trans. 1693 (Royal Soc.) 17 996 A Bird they call a Blew-bird, of a curious azure colour, about the bigness of a Chafinch.
1732 R. Lewis Food for Criticks in Pennsylvania Gaz. 10 July Observe the bluebird for a roundelay, The chatt'ring pie, or ever babling jay.
1778 T. Anburey Let. 10 May in Trav. Amer. (1789) II. 200 The Blue-bird is of the size, and nearly as numerous as the sparrow.
1808 A. Wilson Amer. Ornithol. I. 59 When winter's cold tempests and snows are no more,..O then comes the Blue-bird, the herald of spring!
1842 H. W. Longfellow Not always May in Ballads & Other Poems 109 The blue-bird prophesying spring.
1881 J. Hawthorne Fortune's Fool (1883) i. xxxiii Blue-birds, with a flash of sky on their backs.
1907 ‘N. Blanchan’ Birds Every Child should Know i. 11 The bluebirds hunt for a cavity in a fence rail, or a hole in some old tree.
1962 R. Bradbury Something Wicked this Way Comes (1985) xv. 44 Flags and banners bright as bluebirds snapped above lion-colored canvas.
2007 N.Y. Times Mag. 22 Apr. 58 They [sc. European starlings] thrive at the expense of other cavity nesters like bluebirds and woodpeckers.
2. South African.† b. The sooty albatross, Phoebetria fusca. Obsolete. rare.
a. Any of several glossy starlings of the genus Lamprotornis; esp. the Cape glossy starling, L. nitens, which has iridescent blue-green plumage. Now rare.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > larger song birds > [noun] > family Sturnidae > miscellaneous types of
banana bird1713
bluebird1731
locust bird1756
1731 G. Medley tr. P. Kolb Present State Cape Good-Hope II. 152 The description Raphael Seuler has given of the Cape Blue Bird, being a very exact one, I shall copy it here. The bird, says he, is of the Size of a Sterling. The Feathres [sic] are blue.
1899 R. B. Woodward & J. D. S. Woodward Natal Birds 63 This and the following species are popularly known as Blue-birds.
1905 A. T. Bryant Zulu–Eng. Dict. 217/1 i(li)-Gwintsi or Gwintsana, Bluebird, or Green starling (Lamprocolius phœnicopterus).
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the world > animals > birds > order Procellariiformes > [noun] > family Diomedeidae (albatross)
man-of-war hawk1657
albatross1681
gony1839
bluebird1867
1867 E. L. Layard Birds S. Afr. 365 Diomedea Fuliginosa, Gmel... Blue-Bird of sailors.
1867 E. L. Layard in Ibis 3 458 Diomedea fuliginosa... This species is called ‘Blue bird’ by the sealers, who readily distinguish it from the equally sooty Giant Petrel.
3. In full fairy bluebird. Either of two tropical Asian songbirds constituting the genus Irena, the males of which have black and iridescent blue plumage.Formerly of uncertain relationship, the fairy bluebirds are now thought to be allied to the leafbirds ( Chloropseidae) and are usually assigned to their own family, Irenidae.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > [noun] > member of
fincha700
fairy bird1809
fairy bluebird1839
passerine1840
cataract-bird1868
1839 Madras Jrnl. Lit. & Sci. 10 262 The fairy blue bird lives generally in small parties of four or five, or more.
1873 Jrnl. Royal Geogr. Soc. 43 6 The beautiful Irena puella, or fairy blue-bird, sat in numbers upon a bare tree near the breakfast place: this bird is one of the most lovely of our Indian avi-fauna.
1922 F. E. Younghusband Heart of Nature i. iv. 44 The beautiful fairy bluebird [is] a large bird 10 inches in length with a glistening cobalt-blue upper part and velvet black beneath.
1968 Jrnl. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 65 331 We located the bluebird in Jhapa District in the lower foothills a little west of the Mechi River.
2001 Bird Keeper Feb. 47 (caption) The male fairy bluebird..has iridescent plumage, while the female's feathers lack such a sheen.
Phrases
the bluebird of happiness: happiness symbolized as a bluebird, frequently considered elusive. [Originally with allusion to Maurice Maeterlinck's play L'Oiseau bleu (The Blue Bird) of 1908; compare quot. 1909.]
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the mind > emotion > pleasure > happiness > [noun]
selthc888
bliss971
eadinessOE
seleOE
eadilaikc1175
blissfulnessc1374
seelinessc1374
felicityc1386
seelihead14..
beneurte1480
brightnessa1500
happinessa1500
glee1579
faustity1656
eudemony1727
a song in one's heart1862
the bluebird of happiness1911
1909 A. T. de Mattos tr. M. Maeterlinck Blue Bird iii. ii. 131 You are looking for the Blue Bird, that is to say, the great secret of things and of happiness.]
1911 C. H. Henderson Pay-day xxvii. 263 Our profit-taker..goes here and there, but the bluebird of happiness still eludes him.
1914 Bookseller, Newsdealer & Stationer 1 May 453/1 There are embossed parchment effects, cards decorated with branches of holly and the bluebird of happiness, seals and scrolls, bars of music and Christmas carols.
1968 K. O'Hara Bird-cage vi. 46 A little blue dickey-bird. A bluebird of happiness, a love-bird of happiness.
2000 Time 25 Sept. 82/2 Are Americans a nation of frivolous divorcers who selfishly pursue the bluebird of happiness, oblivious to their children's needs?
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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