Meanings
noundoctor bird (plural doctor birds)
plural doctor birds
- Trochilus polytmus; a red-billed streamertail; scissor-tail hummingbird; scissors tail hummingbird (hummingbird)
He listened to the zip of doctor birds at the window and the peach trees in the wind.
2021, Leone Ross, This One Sky Day, Faber & Faber Limited, page 125
Origin
Compound of doctor + bird. The bird, endemic to Jamaica, is so named because its tail resembles a stethoscope.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Dutch wimpelstaartkolibrie
- wimpelstaartkolibriehummingbird
Finnish jamaikanpyrstökolibri
- jamaikanpyrstökolibrihummingbird
French colibri à tête noire
- colibri à tête noirehummingbird
German Wimpelschwanz, Jamaika-Kolibri
- Wimpelschwanzhummingbird
- Jamaika-Kolibrihummingbird
- Rotschnabel-Jamaikasylphehummingbird
Russian вымпелохвостый коли́бри
- вымпелохвостый коли́бри (vympeloxvostyj kolíbri)hummingbird
Spanish colibrí portacintas piquirrojo
- colibrí portacintas piquirrojohummingbird
Cite this entry
APA
doctor bird. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/doctor%20bird
MLA
“doctor bird.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/doctor%20bird. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “doctor bird,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/doctor%20bird.
Source: doctor bird on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.