bird of paradise

See also: bird-of-paradise

English

Lesser bird-of-paradise Paradisaea minor (1)
Strelitzia reginae (2)

Alternative forms

Etymology

The first Europeans to encounter their skins were the voyagers in Ferdinand Magellan's circumnavigation of the Earth. Antonio Pigafetta wrote that "The people told us that those birds came from the terrestrial paradise, and they call them bolon diuata, that is to say, 'birds of God"."

Pronunciation

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Noun

bird of paradise (plural birds of paradise)

  1. Any of various passerine birds of the family Paradisaeidae native to Oceania. In many of the species the breeding plumage of the males is brightly coloured.
    • 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 187:
      She had a jonquil silk pelisse, a bonnet of the same colour, with a bird of paradise plume, looking very much like an illuminated butterfly.
  2. A showy tropical flower of the genus Strelitzia, native to South Africa.

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