Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Wrentit
A drab, long-tailed skulker of Pacific coastal chaparral, far more often heard than seen, with a distinctive bouncing-ball song.
songbird
Violet-backed Starling
A small African starling with a striking sexual difference: males glow amethyst-violet while females are streaky brown and white.
songbird
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
A plain olive-grey honeyeater with a bold black-and-yellow stripe across the face, best known for forming huge migratory flocks along the east coast each autumn.
songbird
Varied Tit
A striking, boldly patterned tit with chestnut underparts, a black-and-white face, and a habit of caching seeds for later.
songbird
Swainson's Warbler
A plain, secretive brown warbler of dense southeastern thickets, more often heard than seen thanks to its loud, ringing song.
songbird
Zebra Finch
A tiny, boldly patterned Australian finch famous for its orange cheek patch, fine barring, and near-constant chattering calls.
songbird
White-crowned Sparrow
A crisply marked sparrow with bold black-and-white crown stripes, a plain gray breast, and a pink or yellowish bill.
songbird
White-cheeked Starling
A sooty grey-brown starling with a bold white face patch and orange-yellow bill, common in farmland and cities across East Asia.
songbird
Variable Sunbird
A small, widespread East African sunbird whose male plumage pattern shifts noticeably from one region to the next, giving the species its name.
songbird
Western Kingbird
A pale gray-headed, lemon-bellied flycatcher commonly seen perched on wires and fence posts across open western landscapes.
songbird
Whitehead
A small, sociable North Island endemic songbird with a plain grey-brown body and a distinctive whitish head, usually encountered in noisy, active foraging flocks.
songbird
Vinous-throated Parrotbill
A tiny, cinnamon-brown, long-tailed songbird with a stubby parrot-like bill, usually seen moving through scrub in noisy, gregarious flocks.
songbird
Tomtit
A small, big-headed New Zealand forest bird, the male boldly black-and-white or black-and-yellow depending on region, often seen perched quietly before darting after insects.
songbird
White-winged Crossbill
A boreal finch with a crossed bill and two bold white wing bars, specialized for feeding on spruce cones.
songbird
Western Tanager
A vivid yellow-and-black tanager of western coniferous forests, with breeding males showing a striking orange-red head produced from a diet-derived pigment.
songbird
Woodchat Shrike
A striking Mediterranean shrike with a chestnut crown, black mask, and bold white wing patches.
songbird
Yellow-headed Blackbird
A striking marsh blackbird with a brilliant yellow head and breast on males, forming dense breeding colonies over open water.
songbird
Violet-green Swallow
A shimmering western swallow with an iridescent green back, violet rump, and white patches that nearly wrap around the face and flanks.
songbird
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
The brightest and most yellow of the eastern Empidonax flycatchers, breeding in boggy boreal forest and giving a soft, plaintive whistled call.
songbird
Yellow-rumped Warbler
An abundant, adaptable warbler nicknamed 'butter-butt' for its bright yellow rump, able to survive winter farther north than most warblers by eating berries.
songbird
Woodlark
A short-tailed lark of heathland and woodland edge known for its rich, melancholy, fluting song.
songbird
Water Pipit
A gray-toned mountain pipit that breeds above the treeline and descends to lowland wetlands in winter.
songbird
Yellowhammer
A vividly yellow-headed bunting of farmland hedgerows, famous for its song often rendered as "a little bit of bread and no cheese."
songbird
Yellow Warbler
A brilliant, all-yellow warbler of streamside willows and wet thickets, with breeding males showing fine rusty streaks on the breast.
songbird
Willow Flycatcher
A plain, greenish-brown Empidonax flycatcher best identified by its sneezy 'fitz-bew' song, breeding in dense willow thickets across North America.
songbird
Three-wattled Bellbird
A Central American cotinga whose male sports three long, worm-like black wattles dangling from the base of the bill and delivers an explosive, far-carrying call.
songbird
Varied Thrush
A striking Pacific Northwest thrush resembling a robin dressed in slate-gray and burnt orange, known for its eerie, single-note whistled song.
songbird
Willow Tit
A small, plain tit nearly identical to the Marsh Tit but with a duller matte-black cap, favoring damp woodland and willow or birch scrub.
songbird
Winter Wren
A tiny, dark, almost tailless woodland wren of eastern North America known for its remarkably long, bubbling song.
songbird
Swamp Sparrow
A rusty-winged, gray-breasted sparrow closely tied to marshes and wetlands, with a slow, musical trill.
songbird
Yellow-breasted Chat
A large, oddly proportioned warbler relative with a bright yellow breast and a bizarre, varied song of whistles, cackles, and mimicry.
songbird
Tufted Titmouse
A gray, crested songbird with a black forehead patch, white underparts, and rusty flanks, common at eastern U.S. feeders.
songbird
Willow Warbler
A delicate, greenish leaf warbler best known for its sweet, descending, cascading song, one of the clearest signs of spring across much of Europe.
songbird
White-breasted Nuthatch
A compact, short-tailed bird with blue-gray upperparts and white underparts, famous for creeping headfirst down tree trunks.
songbird
Yellow-billed Oxpecker
A stocky African bird closely related to the Red-billed Oxpecker, identified by its yellow-based, red-tipped bill and lack of a bright eye-ring.
songbird
Yellow-throated Warbler
A gray-backed warbler with a bright yellow throat and bold black-and-white face pattern, well adapted for creeping along bark and probing pine needle clusters and Spanish moss.
songbird
Yellow-billed Grosbeak
A stocky finch with an oversized yellow bill tipped in black, a black head (in males), and grey-brown body plumage.
songbird
Wood Warbler
The brightest and most sharply patterned of the leaf warblers, with a vivid yellow throat and breast, white belly, and a distinctive accelerating trill song delivered while quivering its wings.
songbird
Waxwing
A crested, silky pinkish-grey bird with a black mask, yellow-tipped tail, and waxy red wingtips, best known for irruptive winter berry-feasting flocks.
songbird
Western Bluebird
A vivid blue thrush of the West with a blue (not orange) throat, chestnut breast and shoulders, and often a chestnut patch on the back.
songbird
Wilson's Warbler
A small, bright yellow warbler with an olive back and, in males, a neat round black cap, often seen flicking its tail as it forages actively in low shrubs.
songbird
Yellow-hooded Blackbird
A marsh-dwelling blackbird whose males show a brilliant yellow head and breast contrasting sharply with an otherwise glossy black body.
songbird
Superb Starling
A common, strikingly colorful East African starling with a metallic blue-green back, chestnut belly, and a bold white breast band, familiar around safari camps and towns.
songbird
Village Weaver
A widespread, noisy African weaver whose breeding males show a black hood, a mottled black-and-yellow back, and red eyes, best known for large, busy nesting colonies.
songbird
Vermilion Flycatcher
A tiny, brilliant scarlet-red flycatcher of southwestern deserts and riverbanks, among the most vividly colored songbirds in North America.
songbird
Varied Bunting
A desert bunting whose male appears deep purple-blue with a rosy nape patch in good light, but nearly black in shade, found in thorny borderland scrub.
songbird
White-winged Chough
A glossy black, red-eyed Australian woodland bird that forages in noisy cooperative flocks and flashes white wing patches in flight.
songbird
Yellow-rumped Cacique
A noisy, colonial black-and-yellow icterid with a bright yellow rump and wing patch, often nesting near wasp colonies for protection.
songbird