ˈsugar-bird
[G. zuckervogel is used in senses 1 and 2. Sense 3 is after Du. suikervogel.]
A name applied to various small birds which feed (or were supposed to feed) on the nectar of flowers.
† 1. = canary-bird. Obs.
| 1688 Holme Armoury ii. xi. 242/2 The Canary Bird, or Sugar Bird..is as big as a common Titmouse. |
2. A bird of the genus Certhiola, belonging to the family Cærebidæ, in the W. Indies and S. America; also applied to the genera Certhia and Dacnis.
| 1787 Latham Gen. Synop. Birds Suppl. 128 Famous Creeper... A Specimen of this, in the collection of the late Mr. Boddam, was called by the name of Sugar-Bird. 1879 E. P. Wright Anim. Life 255 The Sugar-birds, or Cerebidæ, are confined to the tropical parts of America. 1894 Newton Dict. Birds iii. 761 The Banana Quit is the Sugar-bird. 1902 Nature 25 Sept. 541/2 A Blue Sugar-bird (Dacnis cayana) from Brazil. |
3. Applied to various members of the family Nectariniidæ or Sun-birds of Africa; also, an African honey-eater of the genus Promerops.
| 1798 A. Barnard Jrnl. Apr. in Lives of Lindsays (1849) III. 408 The sugar-bird's tail..is long and elegantly formed. 1822 W. J. Burchell Trav. S. Afr. I. ii. 18 The delicate Humming-birds (Trochili) of South America are, in Southern Africa, represented by the Nectariniæ, here called by the Dutch colonists Suiker-vogels (sugar-birds), from having been observed..to feed principally on the honey of the flowers of the Suiker-bosch (sugar-bush). 1834 Pringle Afr. Sk. 22 Brilliant as the glancing plumes Of sugar-birds among its blooms. 1908 Chr. Express 1 Apr. 55/1 A male Long⁓tailed sugar-bird (Promerops cafer). 1913 D. Fairbridge That which hath Been 30 The emerald-throated sugar-birds..darted from one pink protea to another. 1973 S. Cloete Company with Heart of Gold 155 A sugar bird returned to its infinitesimal nest in the grey bush. |