bobolink

English

A male bobolink in breeding plumage

Etymology

Imitative of its song. Compare Bob Lincoln.

Noun

bobolink (plural bobolinks)

1. An American migratory songbird, Dolichonyx oryzivorus, resembling a blackbird with the bill of a finch.
   • a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “(please specify the chapter or poem)”, in M[abel] L[oomis] Todd and M[illicent] T[odd] Bingham, editors, Bolts of Melody, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, published 1945, page 330:

     Lethe in my flower / Of which they who drink / In the fadeless orchards / Hear the bobolink.

   • 1993, TC Boyle, The Road to Wellville, Penguin, published 1994, page 297:

     The San's feeders were mobbed with sparrows and jays and the starlings that had just begun to colonize the area, but there was no sign of robin, bobolink or oriole.

Synonyms

• Bob Lincoln, butterbird, ricebird, rice bunting

Translations

songbird

• Arabic: ممراح
• Asturian: charrán (ast) m, chambergo m, tordu arroceru m
• Basque: arroz-txori, bobolinko
• Catalan: bobolinc m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 刺歌雀

• Dutch: rijsttroepiaal (nl) f, bobolink (nl) f
• Esperanto: dolikonikso
• Estonian: heinaturpial
• Faroese: gulnakki
• Finnish: heinäturpiaali (fi)
• French: goglu des prés m
• German: Reisstärling m
• Haitian Creole: gwo bèk ke pwenti
• Hebrew: ארוך טופר
• Hungarian: bobalink, seregélysármány
• Icelandic: rísstarli
• Irish: bobóilinc
• Italian: doliconice m
• Japanese: ボボリンク (boboringu)
• Lithuanian: ryžinis trupialas, bobolinkas
• Mohawk: tsitakon’kó:wa’
• Persian: برنج‌خورک
• Polish: ryżojad m
• Portuguese: triste-pia
• Russian: рисовая птица f (risovaja ptica), боболинк m (bobolink), рисовый трупиал (risovyj trupial), рисовый желтушник (risovyj želtušnik)
• Spanish: charlatán (es) m, chambergo (es) m, tordo arrocero m
• Turkish: pirinç kuşu
• Welsh: bobolinc m

Further reading

• bobolink on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Dolichonyx oryzivorus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Dolichonyx oryzivorus on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons