the.com/wattle
The fleshy flap dangling under a bird's chin that's basically a built-in radiator.
means A wattle is the loose, fleshy fold of skin hanging from the throat or chin of certain birds (and some lizards), or alternatively a framework of interwoven sticks and twigs used in building.
from From Old English 'watul,' meaning a hurdle or woven framework of rods and twigs — the kind of lattice you'd plaster with mud to make a wall (hence 'wattle and daub'). The dangling-throat-flap sense came later, an 18th-century borrowing of the same word, presumably because the wobbly skin reminded people of a hanging, loosely-woven thing. The Australian wattle tree got its name the same way: early settlers used its pliable branches for building wattle fences.
- cooling system
- Helps roosters and turkeys dump excess body heat
- sex signal
- Brighter, redder wattles mean a healthier mate
- plant impostor
- Australia's acacia trees also claim the name
- old building trick
- Wattle and daub walled homes for millennia
- mood ring
- Turkey wattles flush blue when scared or excited
acacia pycnantha — golden wattle, official floral emblem of australia since 1912
wattle and daub — medieval building technique using interwoven branches and clay, found throughout england and europe
wattles on turkeys — the fleshy red appendages hanging from wild turkeys' necks and chests