Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Blue-headed Vireo
A crisply marked eastern vireo with a blue-gray head, bold white spectacles, and a slow, sweet, warbling song.
songbird
Black Phoebe
A sooty-black flycatcher with a crisp white belly that is almost always found perched near water, pumping its tail.
songbird
Western Wood-Pewee
A drab, grayish-olive flycatcher of western woodlands best identified by its harsh, nasal 'peeer' call given from an exposed perch.
songbird
Veery
A uniformly tawny thrush of moist woodlands, named for its breezy, downward-spiraling song of repeated "veer" notes.
songbird
Mourning Warbler
A skulking gray-hooded warbler of dense northern thickets, whose breeding males show a dark, mourning-veil-like patch on the throat and breast.
songbird
Gray Flycatcher
A pale, long-tailed Empidonax flycatcher of sagebrush and pinyon-juniper country, distinguished by its habit of slowly dipping its tail downward.
songbird
Bicknell's Thrush
A rare, high-elevation thrush of northeastern mountaintop spruce forests, nearly identical to Gray-cheeked Thrush but with a much smaller, more threatened range.
songbird
Bohemian Waxwing
A sleek, crested, silky-plumaged bird of the northern boreal forest that erupts south in unpredictable, nomadic winter flocks to feast on berries.
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
Gray-cheeked Thrush
A cold gray-toned northern thrush that breeds in remote subarctic forest and passes through the US mainly as an inconspicuous migrant.
songbird
Boat-tailed Grackle
A large, glossy coastal grackle with a distinctive keel-shaped tail and dramatic size difference between the sexes.
songbird
Brown-capped Rosy-Finch
A stocky pink-tinged finch of the highest Rocky Mountain peaks, found nowhere else on Earth.
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
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
Hoary Redpoll
A pale, frosty-looking arctic finch, closely resembling the Common Redpoll but adapted to even colder, higher-latitude habitat.
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
Couch's Kingbird
A south Texas specialty nearly indistinguishable from Tropical Kingbird in plumage, but recognized by its distinctive burry 'breeer' call.
songbird
Painted Redstart
A striking black warbler with a bright red breast patch and bold white wing patch, common in oak canyons of the Southwest.
songbird
Olive Warbler
A pine-forest specialist with a tawny-orange head and black mask, now classified in its own unique family separate from true warblers.
songbird
Hammond's Flycatcher
A small, grayish Empidonax flycatcher of mature western conifer forests, often foraging high in the canopy and best identified by voice.
songbird
Thick-billed Longspur
A stocky, heavy-billed shortgrass prairie longspur, the current official name (since 2020) for the species formerly called McCown's Longspur.
songbird
Hooded Oriole
A slender, long-tailed oriole strongly associated with palm trees, with males showing bright orange-yellow plumage and a black face and bib.
songbird
Cordilleran Flycatcher
A yellowish interior-mountain flycatcher virtually identical to the Pacific-slope Flycatcher, found in shaded coniferous canyons of the Rockies and Great Basin.
songbird
Eastern Meadowlark
A grassland songbird with a bright yellow breast crossed by a bold black V and a rich, flute-like whistled song.
songbird
Great-tailed Grackle
A large, glossy, long-tailed blackbird with a loud, varied voice that has rapidly expanded across urban and agricultural North America.
songbird
Swainson's Thrush
A buffy-faced forest thrush known for its upward-spiraling flute-like song and heavy nocturnal migration through much of North America.
songbird
Hepatic Tanager
A dusky, brick-red tanager of southwestern mountain pine-oak forests, named for a rich red color reminiscent of liver tissue, with a distinctive dark gray cheek patch.
songbird
Bullock's Oriole
The common western oriole, with males showing brilliant orange plumage, a bold black eyeline, and a large white wing patch.
songbird
Gray Jay
A fluffy, tame boreal-forest jay, officially renamed Canada Jay, known for its curiosity around campsites and its habit of hoarding food year-round.
songbird
Bronzed Cowbird
A stocky blackbird with a distinctive ruff of neck feathers and striking red eyes that, like other cowbirds, lays its eggs in the nests of other birds.
songbird
Curve-billed Thrasher
A common, noisy desert thrasher with a long downcurved bill and orange-red eyes, often seen atop cactus in the Southwest.
songbird
Cerulean Warbler
A sky-blue, canopy-dwelling warbler of mature eastern forests, among the fastest-declining North American warblers due to habitat loss on both its breeding and wintering grounds.
songbird
Yellow-billed Magpie
A California endemic magpie nearly identical to the Black-billed Magpie but distinguished by its bright yellow bill.
songbird
Lucy's Warbler
One of North America's smallest warblers, a pale gray desert species with a chestnut rump and crown patch, unusual among warblers for nesting in tree cavities.
songbird
Great Crested Flycatcher
A large canopy flycatcher of eastern woodlands with a lemon-yellow belly, rufous tail, and a loud, whistled call, famous for weaving shed snakeskin into its nest.
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
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
Evening Grosbeak
A bulky, big-billed finch with bold black, white, and gold plumage, once a common winter visitor to feeders but now sharply declining.
songbird
Townsend's Warbler
A boldly patterned warbler of Pacific Northwest conifer forests, with a black-and-yellow face pattern, dark cheek patch, and streaked yellow breast.
songbird
Swamp Sparrow
A rusty-winged, gray-breasted sparrow closely tied to marshes and wetlands, with a slow, musical trill.
songbird
Cassin's Sparrow
A plain grassland sparrow of the southern Plains famous for its fluttering nocturnal 'sky dance' flight song.
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
Chestnut-collared Longspur
A shortgrass prairie specialist whose breeding male shows black underparts, a chestnut collar, and a striking black-and-white tail pattern.
songbird
Sage Thrasher
The smallest thrasher and a sagebrush-obligate songster of the arid interior West, singing long warbling songs from atop shrubs.
songbird
Purple Finch
A stocky finch with a raspberry-red wash over the head, back, and breast in males, often confused with the House Finch.
songbird
Western Meadowlark
The state bird of six U.S. states, prized for its rich, bubbling, flute-like song delivered across open western grasslands.
songbird
Mountain Bluebird
A slender thrush of open western landscapes, the male an unbroken sky blue overall without any orange or chestnut markings.
songbird
Eastern Bluebird
A small thrush with vivid blue upperparts and a warm rusty-orange breast, often seen perched on fences and wires over open fields.
songbird