uira

Updated: June 7, 2025

Those species which are arranged by ornithologists under the genus Bucco are called by the Indians, in the Tupi language, Tai-assu uira, or pig-birds. They remain seated sometimes for hours together on low branches in the shade, and are stimulated to exertion only when attracted by passing insects.

Henry Walter Bates - The Naturalist on the River Amazons

In the yearly submerged gapo forests and the plains of the Upper Amazon, a singularly deep and long-sustained flute-like sound is often heard. It might be supposed that it was produced by the pan-pipes used by the natives of that region. It is, however, the note of a bird, named by the Indians uira mimbeu, or fife-bird, from the peculiar tone of its voice.

William Henry Giles Kingston - The Western World: Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North: and South America