Any of several African songbirds of the genus Vidua, the male of which grows long, drooping, predominantly black tail feathers during the breeding season.
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Name for various African, black-and-white weaverbirds with distinctive drooping long tail-feathers on males in mating season, suitable as cage birds.
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Other Word Forms
Noun
Singular:
whydah
Plural:
whydahs
Origin of whydah
Probably alteration of widow (bird)
From
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
alteration of the first component of widow bird
From
Wiktionary
Whydah Sentence Examples
By the conquest of Whydah the Dahomeyans were brought in contact with a people of serpent worshippers, and ended by adopting from them the cult which they at first despised.
At Whydah, the chief centre, there is a serpent temple, tenanted by some fifty snakes; every python of the danh-gbi kind must be treated with respect, and death is the penalty for killing one, even by accident.
Far more noteworthy is the cult of the Python Danh-gbi of Whydah, which after taking root in Dahomey, became the most remarkable example of a thoroughly organic serpent-cult.
Every snake of its kind receives the profound veneration of the native of Whydah, who salutes it as master, father, mother and benefactor.
Herons, hawks, terns, Egyptian geese, fishing eagles (Gypohierax), the weaver and the whydah bird are found in the lower and middle Congo.