mother-bird

English

Noun

mother-bird (plural mother-birds)

1. A female parent of a chick or chicks.
   • 1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 5:

     From the branch of a tree overhead she heard a watchful mother-bird's warning call, and the twitter of the disturbed nestlings.