Definition of jacamar:

part of speech: noun

One of a genus of birds, of brilliant plumage, allied to the kingfishers, and having the habits of the bee- eaters.

Usage examples:

• There are four species of jacamar in Demerara; they are all beautiful; the largest, rich and superb in the extreme. Charles Waterton in "Wanderings in South America".

• A bird called jacamar is often taken for a kingfisher, but it has no relationship to that tribe; it frequently sits in the trees over the water, and as its beak bears some resemblance to that of the kingfisher, this may probably account for its being taken for one; it feeds entirely upon insects; it sits on a branch in motionless expectation, and as soon as a fly, butterfly, or moth passes by, it darts at it, and returns to the branch it had just left. Charles Waterton in "Wanderings in South America".

• The piping call of the cheerful jacamar was changed at intervals for the deep, full note of the red- billed shrike, as he sat hidden in the thicket; bright yellow weaver- birds twittered in crowds on the boughs, whilst from the depth of the shade came the cooing murmur of the turtle- dove. W. H. Davenport Adams in "Celebrated Women Travellers of the Nineteenth Century".