Dendrocolaptidae

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family of small to medium-sized climbing birds native to Central and South America that forage along tree trunks and branches
2. A taxonomic family of neotropical songbirds characterized by curved bills and the habit of ascending tree trunks in search of insects and arthropods
3. The family comprising woodcreepers, a diverse group of New World birds known for their creeping locomotion and specialized adaptations for gleaning prey from bark

Etymology: Woodcreepers, a family of small birds from Central and South America, are named for the Greek word "kolaptes," which meant a hewer or carver, from "kolaptein," to chisel or hack at something. The "kolaptes" in the name is also the source of the genus name for the flickers, woodpeckers that peck into wood for insects. The birds in this family climb tree trunks in the same way, probing bark with their curved bills. The family name itself is a modern scientific coinage, built the way zoologists name taxonomic families. It combines "dendron," Greek for "tree," with the Latinized form of "kolaptes," and adds the suffix "-idae," which marks a family in animal classification. So the name says, in effect, "tree-chisel family." Ancient Greeks had no such word for these birds, since the family was named by taxonomists long after the classical period.