pauraque

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pau·ra·que

(pō-rä′kā)

An insectivorous nocturnal bird (Nyctidromus albicollis) found from southern Texas through tropical Central and South America and having brown, black, and gray plumage with a white bib.

[American Spanish, perhaps from pauraque, huaraque, the name of a Native American people that once inhabited the Rio Grande region in Texas and northeast Mexico, or perhaps akin to dialectal Mexican Spanish (Rio Grande region) parruaca, pauraque, ultimately imitative of the bird's call.]

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.

References in periodicals archive ?

In addition to common nighthawks, whip-poor-wills and chuck-will's-widows, five other species of goatsuckers live in North America: the lesser and Antillean nighthawks, buff-collared nightjar, common pauraque, and the common poorwill, one of only a handful of birds known to go into torpor, a state akin to mammalian hibernation.

Goatsuckers of New York

pauraque nestled in the leaf litter, are finely honed.

Bird by bird

A preference for river habitats was detected for the common pauraque ([chi square] = 6.38, P = 0.012).

DISCUSSION-The nine species of night birds we documented (including two, the common pauraque and elf owl, with restricted ranges within the USA) was greater than in most other parts of the country.

Numbers of lesser nighthawks were twice those of the common pauraque on Galvan Ranch.

We examined habitat preferences (river versus pond) of great horned owls (Bubo virginianus), eastern screech-owls (Megascops asio), elf owls, lesser nighthawks, common poorwills (Phalaenoptilus nuttallii), and common pauraques (Nyctidromus albicollis) by determining presence and absence for each species at each of the 19 sites (evaluated for each species using a two by two chi-square test).

Species richness, relative abundance, and habitat associations of nocturnal birds along the Rio Grande in Southern Texas

Among the many species named for their vocalizations are the boobook owl, chachalaca, chickadee, chiffchaff, chowchilla, curlew, dickcissel, hoopoe, kiskadee, pauraque, pipit, towhee, veery, whip-poor-will, willet, and wompoo pigeon.

Translating the language of birds

texana) and provides habitat for a variety of birds, including the buff-bellied hummingbird, pheasant-like chachalaca, green jay, groove-billed ani, and pauraque. Migrant birds include blue-winged and cinnamon teals and many species of warblers.