Word.ws English Dictionary

ornithocoprophilous

ornithocoprophilous adjective: thriving in habitats rich in bird feces.

Adjective

ornithocoprophilous (not comparable)

  1. (uncommon) Thriving in habitats rich in bird feces.
    • Guano accumulated on bird rookeries or perches or in dust on trees near farms are rich sources of organic nitrogen, […] This phenomenon has given rise to a large literature on nitrophilous or ornithocoprophilous lichens.1967, Mason E. Hale, Jr., “Physiology and Nutrition” (chapter 4), in The Biology of Lichens, London: Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd., page 58
    • The colonization of the different types of materials by lichens was induced, to a great extent, by the input of bird excrements, giving rise to a characteristic ornithocoprophilous flora.1991, J. Garcia-Rowe, C. Saiz-Jimenez, “Lichens and bryophytes as agents of deterioration of building materials in Spanish cathedrals [pages 151-163]”, in International Biodeterioration, volume 28...

Origin of ornithocoprophilous

From ornitho- + copro- + -philous.

Questions about ornithocoprophilous

What does ornithocoprophilous mean?
Ornithocoprophilous means thriving in habitats rich in bird feces.
What part of speech is ornithocoprophilous?
Ornithocoprophilous is an adjective.

Words near ornithocoprophilous in the dictionary

  1. ornithochores
  2. ornithochoric
  3. ornithochorous
  4. ornithochory
  5. ornithocoprophilic
  6. ornithocoprophilous
  7. ornithodiran
  8. ornithodirans
  9. ornithodorid
  10. ornithodorids
  11. ornithodorin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ornithocoprophilous (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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