How to Write 鸨 (bǎo) — Meaning “Bustard”

Imagine a bird (鸟) that is so big it needs to be bundled up (㐤) like a package—the bustard is a large, heavy bird. This mental image links the radical to the sound component and the bird's size.

The left radical 鸟 has 5 strokes; write the top 'cliff' stroke, then the dot, then the leftward hook, then the inner dot, and finally the bottom line. The right side 㐤 has 4 strokes: left-falling, horizontal, vertical, horizontal; make sure the right component is slightly narrower than the left. A common mistake is confusing the order of the dots inside 鸟.

鸨 (bǎo) has 鸟 on the left and 㐤 on the right, meaning a bustard bird. 袅 (niǎo) has 鸟 at the bottom and 衣 (clothing) on top, meaning 'slender' or 'wispy'. 鸠 (jiū) has 鸟 on the left and 九 (nine) on the right, meaning turtledove or pigeon. The right-side components are visually and phonetically distinct.

鸨 appears in bird names like 鸨鸟 (bustard) and 大鸨 (great bustard). It also has a cultural usage in 鸨母 (bǎo mǔ), meaning a brothel madam, derived from an old association with the bird. This character is rare in daily conversation but appears in ornithology and classical literature.

Common words containing 鸨 include: 鸨鸟 (bǎo niǎo) — Bustard bird; 大鸨 (dà bǎo) — Great bustard; 鸨母 (bǎo mǔ) — Procuress; madam of a brothel.