quawk

plural quawks

1. USThe black-crowned night heron, Nycticorax nycticorax.
2. The harsh call of this or other birds.

present singular third person quawks · participle present quawking · participle past quawked · past quawked

1. Of birds, to give loud, harsh vocalisations.

   The old crows quawked for men had cut / Among the oak wood trees.

   1964, John Clare, The Later Poems of John Clare, page 203

   2 more examples

   […] they were rejoiced to see one of the two lost nestlings sitting on the window ledge near his old home. […] "I have much to tell, father," said the young one; "but I am so exhausted, my food having been of the scantiest, that I have hardly breath to quawk."

   1873, A. C. Chambers, Life underground, in the church tower, the woods, and the old keep, page 71

   How often, at an outdoor barbecue, or when having drinks on the terrace after some Washington dinner party, have I heard, above the buzz of conversation, night herons quawking overhead on their way from Rock Creek Park[.]

   1998, Paul Hutchens, The White Boat Rescue, page 19