Steatornis
stee-uh-TOR-nis
Genus
the grease bird (or fat bird), referring to the famously obese nestlings harvested for their oil
Literally: fat bird
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| steato- | fat, suet, tallow | Greek (stea, =r, -t, -to) | combining form steato- built on the stem steat- (cf. stear → steat + connecting -o-) |
| ornis | a bird | Greek (orni, =s, -th, -tho) | standalone form =s; serves as the head noun; nominative singular |
A compound Greek noun: steato- (combining form of stea/stear, 'fat') + ornis (nominative 'bird'). The first element modifies the head noun as an attributive, giving the sense 'fat-bird' or 'grease-bird'. As a genus name it is treated as a Latin feminine noun (ornis is grammatically feminine in Greek), following standard nomenclatural convention.
Pronunciation
- stee-uh-TOR-nis Rule 5: the penult syllable 'tor' contains a short vowel (o) closed by two consonants (r + n), so the penult is stressed.
Commonly: English birders sometimes say stee-AT-or-nis, shifting stress to the antepenult 'a', but this does not follow classical stress rules.
Other readings
No credible alternative segmentation exists; the only ambiguity is where the syllable boundary between steat- and -ornis falls, but both elements are unambiguous.
Steatornis caripensis, the Oilbird (or Guácharo), is the sole species in this monotypic genus. Its chicks accumulate extraordinary fat reserves; indigenous peoples of northern South America and Trinidad historically boiled the nestlings to render lamp oil — hence the name. The root stea/stear (Greek: fat) also appears in medical terms such as steatosis and steatorrhea. The root ornis (Greek: bird) also appears in Ornithology, Ornithorhynchus (platypus), and many fossil-bird genera.