tick-bird, noun

Forms:
Also tic-bird.
Origin:
AfrikaansShow more Perhaps translation of Afrikaans bosluisvoël (bush)tick bird.
1. The cattle egret, Bubulcus ibis of the Ardeidae, often seen near (or perching upon) grazing cattle or game.
Note:
Despite its name, the bird feeds mainly upon grasshoppers, caterpillars, earthworms, and frogs.
1863 W.C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting 389I was much amused by watching the tick birds trying to alarm an old white rhinoceros.
1899 H. Rider Haggard Swallow 101I remember..the tic-bird that came and sat near you.
1939 S. Cloete Watch for Dawn 366The light flashed on some white wings as a flock of tick-birds flew past in the distance...Where there were tick-birds there was water.
1949 J. Mockford Golden Land 224One lone sable, with far-curving scimitar-like horns, knelt in the shallow water...On his shoulders and rump two tick-birds rummaged his chocolate-dark hair with their beaks.
1953 D. Rooke S. Afr. Twins 25Tickbirds, flying up from the donkeys’ backs, cried out shrilly.
1961 Redwing (St Andrew’s College, Grahamstown) 33The egrets, or tick-birds as most people call them, are the main form of bird life on the island.
1973 S. Afr. Panorama May 14The beak of a tick-bird is long and strong — capable of gripping and disposing of a mouse.
1987 Personality 15 June 57Most South Africans refer to cattle egrets as ‘tickbirds’.
2. obsolete. rare. oxpecker.
1905 W.L. Sclater in Flint & Gilchrist Science in S. Afr. 137Among the Starlings or Spreuws..are the curious Oxpeckers, also called Tick birds (Bulphaga africana).
1907 J.P. Fitzpatrick Jock of Bushveld (Glossary) 474Tick, or Rhinoceros, Bird, the ‘ox-pecker’ (Buphaga Africana).
The cattle egret, Bubulcus ibis of the Ardeidae, often seen near (or perching upon) grazing cattle or game.
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obsolete or obsolescent
rare or nonce
TIC, nounn.tick-bite fever, noun phrasen. phr.
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