Avifaunae

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A collective term referring to the various bird species inhabiting a specific region or ecosystem
2. describing the overall diversity and characteristics of native and migratory birds in a particular area
3. encompassing the assemblage of avian life within a defined geographical location or habitat

Etymology: "Avifaunae" is the plural of "avifauna," so it refers to several bird populations or regional bird lives at once, and it is built from two Latin-derived parts. The first, "avis," is the ordinary Latin word for "bird," which also gives English "aviary" and "aviation." The second part, "fauna," is a Latin-based term for the animal life of a place, but its history runs back to a figure in Roman religion. Faunus was a rural deity in Roman myth, a god of herdsmen, fields and woodlands, sometimes associated with the Greek Pan. Latin writers used his name to form "fauna" for the animals of a region, and later scholars adopted that sense as a scientific label. "Fauna" was thus a learned coinage built on a god's name rather than an everyday Latin word for animals. "Avifauna" itself is a New Latin formation, meaning the bird life of a given area, and English took it up as a technical term for ornithologists describing the birds of a region. The plural form, "avifaunae," follows the Latin pattern for words ending in "-a."