noun
Rare term for horned owl, synonymous with the much more common ミミズク. Likely encountered only in older literature or specialized contexts.
See also: ミミズク
古い和歌に「木菟鳥」が詠まれているのを見つけた。
I found 'horned owl' used in an old waka poem.
The standard modern word for horned owl; 木菟鳥 is a rare, literary synonym.
The reading つくとり is of uncertain origin; the kanji 木菟 is an ateji compound for 'owl', and 鳥 is added to clarify the meaning. The variant 木兎鳥 uses 兎 (rabbit) possibly due to phonetic or visual similarity.