rare bird

noun

: rarity sense 2, rara avis

Example Sentences

The little diner is a rare bird in a city full of expensive restaurants.

Recent Examples on the Web

With any luck, a rare bird with a broken wing is going to take flight again. —Steve Rubenstein, SFChronicle.com, 31 May 2020

With life spans in past centuries hovering around 30 or 40 years, finding cancer in the fossil record is like sighting a rare bird. —George Johnson, Discover Magazine, 30 July 2013

The parrot's unique feathers are highly prized by collectors and therefore make the rare bird a treasured target. —Donna Sarkar, Discover Magazine, 27 Oct. 2022

For the first time in 140 years, researchers have sighted and scientifically documented a rare bird, the black-necked pheasant pigeon. —Sabrina Weiss, WIRED, 30 Dec. 2022

What ocean mammal is a rare bird but not a lone wolf? —Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 8 Oct. 2013

But just two days before the researchers were scheduled to leave the island, a camera trap captured footage of the exceptionally rare bird. —Zoe Sottile, CNN, 19 Nov. 2022

The aficionado turned critic, in the Lester Bangs mold, who exhibits a mania around holding their favorites artistically accountable, is a rare bird. —John Semley, The New Republic, 18 Nov. 2022

But like Louis Kahn or William Le Baron Jenney (steel frame), Cartier is one rare bird willing to put in the time—close to a decade on the Masse Mystérieuse—and resources to push watch design forward. —Charles Curkin, ELLE Decor, 29 Aug. 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1631, in the meaning defined above