killdeer

• kildeer, killdee, kill-deer

Imitative of the bird's call.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɪldɪɹ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɪldɪə/

killdeer (plural killdeers or killdeer)

1. A North American plover (Charadrius vociferus) with a distinctive cry and territorial behavior that includes feigning injury to attract predators and spare the young in the nest.
   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 50:

     A kill-deer, flying so low as to dip its wings, ever and anon alighted on the margin, its stilt-like legs half submerged as it ran hither and thither, now and then bending to dig in the sand with its long slender bill.

• rekilled