crocodile bird
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Related to crocodile bird: Egyptian Plover
crocodile bird
n.
See Egyptian plover.
[From the unsubstantiated traditional belief that crocodiles allow the bird to fly into their open jaws unharmed so that it can clean their teeth or remove leeches.]
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.
crocodile bird
n
(Animals) an African courser, Pluvianus aegyptius, that lives close to rivers and is thought to feed on insects parasitic on crocodiles
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
croc′odile bird`
n.
a short-legged African courser, Pluvianus aegyptius, inhabiting sandy riverbanks and lake shores.
[1865–70]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
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| Noun | 1. | crocodile bird - African courser that feeds on insect parasites on crocodiles courser - swift-footed terrestrial plover-like bird of southern Asia and Africa; related to the pratincoles genus Pluvianus, Pluvianus - coursers |
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