A type of duck or waterfowl identified by a green-colored tail feather or tail marking.
Compound of 'green' and 'tail,' combining Old English 'grēne' (green color) with 'tægel' (tail). The term descriptively names birds based on their visible plumage characteristics, a common practice in folk ornithology.
Many common bird names are literally just descriptions of what they look like—greentail, redstart, yellowhammer—which means ornithologists in different languages often arrived at the same bird using completely different words, all accurate!
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