wheat·ear

(wēt′îr′, hwēt′-)

Any of several flycatchers of the genus Oenanthe primarily of Eurasia and Africa, having a gray back, buff breast, and white rump.

[Back-formation from earlier wheatears (taken as pl.) : probably by folk etymology from white + arse.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

wheatear

(ˈwiːtˌɪə)

(Animals) any small northern songbird of the genus Oenanthe, esp O. oenanthe, a species having a pale grey back, black wings and tail, white rump, and pale brown underparts: subfamily Turdinae (thrushes)

[C16: back formation from wheatears (wrongly taken as plural), probably from white + arse; compare Dutch witstaart, French culblanc white tail]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

wheat•ear

(ˈʰwitˌɪər, ˈwit-)

n.

any of several small thrushes of the genus Oenanthe, having a distinctive white rump, esp. O. oenanthe, of Eurasia and N North America.

[1585–95; probably back formation from wheatears, for *whiteers white rump. See white, arse]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

wheatear - small songbird of northern America and Eurasia having a distinctive white rump

thrush - songbirds characteristically having brownish upper plumage with a spotted breast

genus Oenanthe, Oenanthe - wheatears

Translations

cul-blanc

wheatear

[ˈwiːtɪəʳ] N (Orn) → collalba f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

wheatear

[ˈwiːtˌɪəʳ] n (Zool) → culbianco

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

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References in periodicals archive

The desert wheatear is a relative of the more familiar wheatear, or northern wheatear as it is also known, which wisely spend its winters in Africa but comes here to breed.

GO WILDWITH ERIC PAYLOR

A few, such as the Northern Wheatear and WillowWarbler, travel from the very southern tip of Africa where they have spent the winter all the way to Alaska and Northwestern Canada to nest; and they do the reverse journey again in the autumn.

"(Birdwatching) is a hugely spiritual thing"

Among the remarkable individual journeys that have been observed using new technology are an 18,000-mile round-trip migration from Alaska to sub-Saharan Africa by a bird that weighs just under one ounce, the northern wheatear. These tiny birds fly, on average, 180 miles nightly on each leg of their trip for up to three months to reach their destination.

On the move: Animal migration in the 21st century

I saw Desert Wheatear, at Sur and Northern Wheatear at Wadi Tiwi.

Surprise Element

Key words: second brood, Northern Wheatear, Oenanthe oenanthe, Arctic passerine, life-history theory

Double brooding by the Northern Wheatear on Baffin Island

Of those species surveyed the worst performers are snipe, meadow pipit, brambling, willow tit, lapwing, thrush, nightingale, wood warbler, nutcracker, northern wheatear and lesser spotted woodpecker.

The birds flying in the face of climate change; But species suffer as the world warms

The competition featured contestants aged between 10 and 15 years and the participating teams hunted migratory birds such as quail, northern wheatear and Isabelline wheatear by using traditional traps made from tree branches.

Katara honours Al Habbal contest winners

Doublebrooding by the Northern Wheatear on Baffin Island.

Papers to appear in arctic

Another example of Old World bird species that have spread from Asia to North America, along with the northern wheatear and arctic warbler mentioned on page 43, is the bluethroat, which is well established as a breeding bird in northwestern Alaska.

A Complete Guide to Arctic Wildlife

Conversely, 21 species occurred after 1950 that had not been reported prior to that year: green-winged teal, northern pintail, greater scaup, common goldeneye, red-breasted merganser, golden eagle, gyrfalcon, black-bellied plover, ruddy turnstone, sanderling, least sandpiper, white-rumped sandpiper, Thayer's gull, Iceland gull, glaucous gull, American robin, northern wheatear, yellow-rumped warbler, blackpoll warbler, Harris's sparrow, and white-crowned sparrow.

Effects of urbanization on bird populations in the Canadian Central Arctic