Reports from Crane WMA in Falmouth included 2 American kestrels, 9 Eastern phoebes, 2 grasshopper sparrows, 18 Eastern towhees, 2 bobolink, 4 Eastern meadowlarks, a dickcissel, and 2 blue grosbeaks.BostonGlobe.com, 11 Sep. 2019 Parker River National Wildlife Refuge: Among reports were four Northern shovelers, a Eurasian wigeon, a ruddy duck, a pectoral sandpiper, three American woodcocks, an Eastern phoebe, and a Lapland longspur.BostonGlobe.com, 3 Nov. 2019 They are joined by birds such as phoebes and hermit thrushes who have the amazing ability to switch from insect diets to fruits and seeds. Cori Brown, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, 7 Sep. 2019 Birds are adaptable and make nests in countless buildings in the city, but not every nesting site has a staff that takes a keen interest in the welfare of the phoebes and their chicks. Weldon Johnson, azcentral, 4 June 2019 In 2011, a U.S. attorney in North Dakota charged Hamm with a criminal misdemeanor after a Say’s phoebe got stuck and died in a pond of oil waste. Dino Grandoni, Washington Post, 12 Jan. 2018 In 1804, a young naturalist named John James Audubon tied silver threads to the legs of the eastern phoebes, tiny white-and-brown songbirds, that lived in a nest near his home near Philadelphia. Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 20 Sep. 2017 DEAR JOAN: Last summer a neighbor removed some evergreens and several displaced black phoebes found their way to our yard. Joan Morris, The Mercury News, 14 Mar. 2017 A phoebe is a kind of bird, and my little girl also happened to arrive 8 weeks before her due date, making her a true early bird. Liz Krieger, Town & Country, 10 July 2017 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun (1)
imitative
Noun (2)
Latin, from Greek Phoibē, from phoibē, feminine of phoibos