word of the day: whimbrel

The word of the day is whimbrel:

Etymology:  ? < whimp v. or whimper v., from the bird's cry. Compare for the ending dotterel, titterel.
Applied to various small species of curlew, esp. the European Numenius phæopus. (OED)


"Birds are sometimes blown astray, but many apparently have a coping strategy. Hurricane Katrina destroyed the habitat of breeding colonies in Louisiana's Pearl River Basin, for instance, but bird numbers held steady, researchers noted in the journal Forest Ecology and Management. Some birds are especially adept: Scientists at the College of William & Mary Center for Conservation Biology tracked a migratory shorebird, a whimbrel, as it flew through Hurricane Irene in 2011."

 - Marissa Fessenden, "Myth-Conceptions: 5 Falsehoods about Superstorm Sandy", 7 November 2012 Scientific American