bloodbird

plural bloodbirds

1. An Australian honeyeater, the scarlet myzomela (Myzomela sanguinolenta).

   At first only one bloodbird dipped low to catch insects in the last of the milkweed bursting their pods in the fields.

   2013, Alyxandra Harvey, “Anywhere”, in Colleen Anderson, Steve Vernon, editor, Tesseracts Seventeen

   1 more example

   I was watching a lovely little read-headed honey-eater—that beautiful scarlet and black bird, familiarly known as the bloodbird— feeding busily in the top of a small turpentine tree, and ceasing operations now and again to utter his little running call.

   1914, Amy Eleanor Mack, A Bush Calendar, page 29