Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Red-necked Grebe
A robust, medium-large grebe with a rich chestnut neck and white cheek patch in breeding plumage, larger and bulkier than most other grebes.
waterfowl
Black Redstart
A dusky, rock-loving chat that has adapted well to towns and industrial sites, the male dark sooty-grey with a constantly quivering rust-red tail.
songbird
Bonelli's Eagle
A powerful, agile eagle of Mediterranean cliffs and gorges, Bonelli's Eagle is a fast, low-flying hunter of rabbits and gamebirds across southern Europe, Africa, and Asia.
raptorDemoiselle Crane
The smallest and most delicately built of the crane species, with blue-grey plumage, a black neck, and striking white ear-tuft plumes.
wading-bird
Black-throated Sparrow
A striking desert sparrow with a bold black throat framed by crisp white eyebrow and whisker stripes.
songbird
Greater Bird-of-paradise
A spectacular New Guinea bird-of-paradise famed for the male's cascading golden-yellow flank plumes, displayed in dramatic communal courtship dances high in the rainforest canopy.
songbird
Red-billed Quelea
A small, sparrow-like African weaver famous for forming the largest flocks of any wild bird species, sometimes numbering in the millions.
songbirdKiwi
A small, flightless, nocturnal bird endemic to New Zealand, famed for its long probing bill, hair-like feathers, and keen sense of smell.
other
Greater Scaup
A rounded-headed diving duck of large open waters, the drake showing a glossy greenish-black head and pale gray back, closely resembling the smaller Lesser Scaup.
waterfowl
Rock Ptarmigan
A circumpolar tundra grouse of barren, rocky terrain that turns snow-white in winter, with breeding males showing a distinctive black eye-line in spring.
gamebirdWhite-plumed Antbird
A striking chestnut Amazonian antbird with a shock of white plumes on its face, famous as a dominant attendant at army ant swarms.
songbird
Peruvian Pelican
A large, dark pelican of the cold Humboldt Current, closely tied to the rich anchoveta fisheries off Peru and Chile and vulnerable to periodic El Nino-driven food shortages.
seabird
Purple Heron
A slender, reddish-necked relative of the Grey Heron that hides among reedbeds across Africa, Europe, and Asia.
wading-bird
Blue Tit
A small, acrobatic songbird with a vivid blue cap, yellow underparts, and white cheeks, a familiar visitor to European bird feeders.
songbird
Reddish Egret
An animated, shaggy-necked coastal egret famous for its erratic, staggering 'dancing' feeding style used to startle fish into range.
wading-bird
Blue-gray Tanager
A common and familiar tropical tanager with soft powder-blue and gray plumage and brighter blue shoulder patches, often seen in gardens and parks.
songbird
Blackburnian Warbler
A dazzling warbler with a blazing orange throat and face on breeding males, often glimpsed high in conifer treetops and nicknamed the 'firethroat.'
songbird
Horned Grebe
A small, striking grebe that in breeding plumage sports golden "horn" tufts of feathers behind bright red eyes.
waterfowl
Band-tailed Pigeon
A large, plain gray forest pigeon of the western mountains, told by its yellow bill, white nape crescent, and pale terminal tail band, often gathering in flocks at acorn-rich oak groves.
other
Long-tailed Tit
A tiny, round-bodied songbird with an extremely long tail and soft pink, black, and white plumage, usually seen in noisy roving flocks.
songbird
Eurasian Nuthatch
A compact, blue-grey woodland bird famous for its ability to climb head-first down tree trunks, and for wedging nuts into bark crevices to hammer them open.
songbird
Keel-billed Toucan
A spectacular Central American toucan with glossy black plumage, a lemon-yellow breast, and an enormous, boldly rainbow-colored bill.
other
Malachite Sunbird
A dazzling metallic-green sunbird of African highlands, with breeding males trailing long tail streamers as they feed on nectar-rich Proteas and aloes.
songbird
Brown Pelican
A familiar coastal seabird known for its dramatic head-first plunge-dives from height into the ocean to catch fish, once endangered by DDT but now fully recovered.
seabird
Pyrrhuloxia
A close desert relative of the Northern Cardinal, gray overall with red highlights and a stubby, parrot-like yellow bill, common in arid brushland of the Southwest.
songbird
Bluethroat
A dazzling relative of the robin, the breeding male showing a brilliant blue throat patch with a central spot, and rufous flashes at the base of the tail.
songbird
Black-winged Stilt
The Old World stilt, with black wings and back set against pure white underparts and extremely long pink legs.
shorebird
Bonaparte's Gull
A small, tern-like gull with a delicate black bill that is unusual among gulls for nesting in trees in the boreal forest.
seabirdEclectus Parrot
A large rainforest parrot famous for extreme sexual dimorphism, with males bright green and females vivid red and purple.
parrot
Blacksmith Lapwing
The Blacksmith Lapwing is a striking black, white, and grey wetland plover named for its metallic "tink-tink" alarm call that resembles a blacksmith's hammer on an anvil.
shorebird
Boat-billed Heron
A bizarre, wide-eyed nocturnal heron of Latin American swamps, instantly recognizable by its enormous broad, boat-shaped bill.
wading-bird
Black Vulture
A stocky, all-black scavenger with a bare gray head and short, broad wings, recognized in flight by white patches near the wingtips and quick, choppy flapping.
raptor
Curl-crested Aracari
An unmistakable toucan relative with a crown of glossy, curled black feathers resembling patent-leather curls, plus a vividly patterned yellow-and-black bill.
otherCongo Peafowl
A secretive rainforest pheasant endemic to the Congo Basin, notable as the only peafowl species native to Africa and for lacking the elaborate train of its Asian relatives.
gamebird
Blue-headed Vireo
A crisply marked eastern vireo with a blue-gray head, bold white spectacles, and a slow, sweet, warbling song.
songbird
Black Scoter
An all-black sea duck whose males show a bright orange-yellow knob at the base of the bill.
waterfowl
Whinchat
A migratory chat of rough grassland and moorland edges, identified by its bold white eyebrow stripe and orange-buff breast.
songbird
Razorbill
A stocky black-and-white North Atlantic auk with a deep, blunt bill crossed by a white line, the closest living relative of the extinct Great Auk.
seabird
White-tailed Kite
A pale, elegant hawk with black shoulder patches that hunts by hovering gracefully over open fields on beating wings.
raptor
Willet
A plain gray-brown sandpiper that transforms in flight, flashing a bold black-and-white wing pattern unlike any other North American shorebird.
shorebird
White-eyed Vireo
A skulking thicket-dweller with a pale eye, yellow spectacles, and a sharp, variable song, more often heard than seen.
songbird
Eurasian Wren
A tiny, energetic brown songbird with a characteristically cocked tail and a surprisingly loud, powerful song.
songbird
Townsend's Solitaire
A slim, gray, upright thrush relative famous for defending juniper berry territories in winter and singing a long, warbling song.
songbird
Common Gull
A gentle, medium-sized gull widespread across northern Eurasia, closely related to but geographically separate from the North American Mew (Short-billed) Gull.
seabird
Willow Ptarmigan
A tundra grouse and Alaska's state bird, turning pure white in winter and rich mottled rufous-brown in summer, with males retaining a chestnut head and neck longest into spring.
gamebird
Blue-crowned Motmot
A striking, sluggish forest bird with a black-bordered blue crown, greenish body, and a long, distinctive racket-tipped tail that it swings like a pendulum.
other
Yellow-billed Magpie
A California endemic magpie nearly identical to the Black-billed Magpie but distinguished by its bright yellow bill.
songbird
Virginia's Warbler
A plain gray warbler of dry southwestern mountain scrub, with a bold white eyering, a small yellow breast patch, and yellow undertail coverts.
songbird