Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Spotted Sandpiper
A small, constantly bobbing sandpiper of North American shorelines, easily recognized in breeding plumage by the bold dark spots covering its white underparts.
shorebird
Satin Bowerbird
A songbird best known for the male's glossy, satiny blue-black plumage, violet eyes, and elaborate stick bower decorated almost exclusively with blue objects to attract a mate.
songbird
Pied Butcherbird
A bold black-and-white songbird with a hooked bill, celebrated for one of the most beautiful and flute-like songs of any Australian bird.
songbird
Sun Conure
A vividly orange-and-yellow Neotropical parakeet of northeastern South America, prized for its striking sunset-colored plumage.
parrot
Red-cockaded Woodpecker
A rare cooperative-breeding woodpecker of the southeastern pine forests that excavates its nest exclusively in living, old-growth pines.
woodpecker
Orange-winged Amazon
A common and widespread Amazon parrot with a blue-and-yellow face and an orange patch visible in the wing during flight.
parrot
Society Finch
A small, domesticated estrildid finch derived from the wild White-rumped Munia, bred over centuries into a range of plumage colors and patterns.
songbird
Speckled Mousebird
The Speckled Mousebird is a common African bird with a long tail and soft grey-brown plumage that scurries through foliage in acrobatic little flocks, mouse-like.
other
Rufous-crowned Sparrow
A chunky, non-migratory sparrow of rocky hillsides marked by a rusty cap and a black-and-white striped face.
songbird
Scaled Quail
A bluish-gray desert quail nicknamed "cottontop" for its bushy white crest, with feathers edged to create a distinctive scaly look.
gamebird
Rainbow Bee-eater
A slender, jewel-colored bird with a rainbow of green, blue, and chestnut plumage that hawks bees and other insects on the wing.
other
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
A yellowish-toned Empidonax flycatcher of shady Pacific coastal forests, nearly identical to the Cordilleran Flycatcher and best told apart by range and call.
songbird
Stock Dove
A blue-grey pigeon of farmland and parkland, smaller and neater than the Woodpigeon, lacking any white in the plumage.
other
Song Sparrow
A heavily streaked brown sparrow with a central breast spot, known for its rich, varied song from low perches.
songbird
Red-backed Fairywren
The smallest fairywren, with breeding males a striking combination of jet black plumage and a vivid scarlet back patch.
songbird
Rusty Blackbird
A boreal-breeding blackbird that turns rusty-edged in fall plumage, now one of the most steeply declining songbirds in North America.
songbird
Pionus Parrot
A stocky, short-tailed parrot genus from Central and South America, typified by the Blue-headed Parrot's cobalt-blue head and red undertail coverts.
parrot
Ocellated Antbird
The largest and most dominant of the Neotropical ant-following antbirds, patterned with scaly chestnut-and-black "ocelli" and bare blue facial skin.
songbird
Red Grouse
A reddish-brown grouse of British and Irish heather moorland, a distinctive subspecies of the Willow Ptarmigan found nowhere else.
gamebird
Short-billed Dowitcher
A medium-large sandpiper with a long, straight bill and a distinctive rapid up-and-down probing action likened to a sewing machine, favoring coastal habitats.
shorebird
Red Wattlebird
A large, noisy honeyeater with streaky grey-brown plumage, a bright yellow belly patch, and a fleshy pinkish-red wattle hanging below the eye.
songbird
Pacific Golden-Plover
A slender, long-legged golden-plover that migrates from Siberian and Alaskan tundra to a vast wintering range spanning Pacific islands, coastal Asia, and Australia.
shorebird
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
A plain brown swallow that nests in burrows in dirt banks, distinguished from other swallows by its uniform pale throat and lack of a breast band.
songbird
Ringneck Dove
A pale, gentle dove marked by a narrow black half-collar on its nape, long domesticated from wild African collared-dove stock and popular in aviculture.
other
Redhead
A round-headed diving duck whose drake has a rounded rusty-red head, gray body, and black breast, and which often nests parasitically in other ducks' nests.
waterfowl
Raggiana Bird-of-paradise
The national bird of Papua New Guinea, known for the male's spectacular fanned display of orange-red flank plumes.
songbird
Pelagic Cormorant
A slim, iridescent black-green cormorant of rugged North Pacific coastlines, showing a thin bill and small head crests in breeding plumage, nesting precariously on narrow sea cliff ledges.
seabird
Slaty-tailed Trogon
A large lowland trogon with a plain slaty undertail, a red belly, and a bright yellow bill in the male.
other
Rufous-tailed Jacamar
A slender, iridescent green bird with a needle-thin bill and rufous underparts that hawks insects from perches along forest edges.
other
Saffron Finch
A bright yellow, open-country finch-like tanager with an orange-tinged crown in males, common in parks, savanna, and grassland across South America.
songbird
Scarlet Macaw
A large, brilliantly red macaw with blue and yellow wing patches, ranging from Mexico through Central America into the Amazon Basin.
parrot
Rainbow Lory
A vividly colored lorikeet of Indonesia, New Guinea, and the southwest Pacific, closely related to Australia's Rainbow Lorikeet and often known by the same common name.
parrot
Rock Dove
The wild cliff-dwelling ancestor of all domestic and feral pigeons, native to Europe, North Africa, and Asia.
other
Sandwich Tern
A slender, crested tern easily told from relatives by its long black bill with a distinctive yellow tip, named for the English town of Sandwich, Kent.
seabird
Rock Pigeon
The familiar city pigeon, a highly variable dove descended from wild cliff-dwelling stock, now found in cities and towns worldwide.
other
Northern Waterthrush
A boreal-breeding, thrush-like warbler of still-water wetlands and swamps, closely resembling Louisiana Waterthrush but favoring quieter water and showing a finely streaked throat.
songbird
Royal Albatross
A huge white albatross of New Zealand waters, nearly the size of the Wandering Albatross, best known for the mainland colony at Taiaroa Head.
seabird
Northern Pintail
An elegant, slender dabbling duck named for the male's long, needle-like tail, marked by a chocolate-brown head and a crisp white neck stripe.
waterfowl
Northern Mockingbird
A slender gray songbird famous for endlessly mimicking the songs and calls of other birds, with bold white wing patches visible in flight.
songbird
Northern Pygmy-Owl
A tiny, fierce diurnal owl of western mountain forests, notable for the false 'eyespots' on the back of its head.
owl
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
An elegant pale gray flycatcher with an extraordinarily long, deeply forked tail and salmon-pink flanks, a signature bird of Texas and Oklahoma grasslands.
songbird
North Island Kokako
A slate-blue-grey New Zealand forest bird with striking blue wattles, a weak flier that instead leaps and glides gracefully through the canopy, once nearly lost but now recovering thanks to intensive conservation.
songbird
Ruddy Duck
A small, chunky stiff-tailed diving duck; breeding males show a chestnut body, black cap, white cheeks, and a bright blue bill.
waterfowl
Sprague's Pipit
A secretive, pale grassland songbird of the northern Great Plains, best known for its extraordinary high, circling flight song.
songbird
Spotted Flycatcher
An unassuming grey-brown songbird best known for its habit of darting from an exposed perch to snap up flying insects and returning to the same spot.
songbird
Pukeko
A large, deep blue-purple swamphen with a bright red bill and frontal shield, a common and conspicuous sight striding through New Zealand wetlands and roadside paddocks.
wading-bird
Northern Flicker
A large, brown, ground-foraging woodpecker with a bold black crescent bib and a flashing white rump patch visible when it flies.
woodpecker
Northern Bald Ibis
A dramatic, bald-headed ibis with glossy black plumage and a shaggy neck ruff, once widespread but now one of the world's rarest birds outside a handful of strongholds.
wading-bird