moonbird
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From moon + bird, apparently because the birds return to nesting sites after nightfall.
Noun[edit]
moonbird (plural moonbirds)
- (Australia) The mutton bird. [from 20th c.]
- 2001, Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish, Vintage, published 2016, page 167:
- He survived for several months upon the moonbirds’ fatty mutton-like meat & the solace provided by the one book washed up with him […] .