A green woodpecker, a bird species found in Europe known for its loud laughing call and habit of pecking into wood.
From Middle English and Old English origins; 'hick' may derive from imitative sounds or the bird's name in Germanic languages, while 'wall' refers to its pecking behavior (from Old English 'wealh,' meaning to strike or roll). Regional dialectal term, especially in British English.
The hickwall's name actually describes its behavior—the 'hick' is the sound it makes and 'wall' is what it does to trees. Ancient people named animals based on what they observed, so the hickwall is literally 'the bird that hick-walls.'
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