Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Wompoo Fruit Dove
The largest of Australia's fruit doves, a spectacular rainforest bird with a grey head, deep purple-magenta breast, yellow-green back, and yellow-striped belly.
other
Tawny Frogmouth
A nocturnal bird with mottled grey, brown, and white plumage that mimics broken bark, a wide gaping mouth, and large yellow eyes, often mistaken for an owl.
other
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
Sunbittern
A cryptically patterned streamside bird that, when it spreads its wings, reveals stunning chestnut, black, and white "sunburst" eye-spots used in dramatic display.
wading-bird
Chimney Swift
A dark, cigar-shaped aerial bird that nests almost exclusively in chimneys across eastern North America, spending nearly its entire life on the wing.
other
Peregrine Falcon
The fastest animal on Earth, this powerful falcon stoops on other birds at speeds exceeding 300 km/h (200 mph).
raptor
Great Black-backed Gull
The largest gull in the world, an imposing, dark-backed predator of the North Atlantic coast that preys on other birds as readily as it scavenges.
seabird
European Bee-eater
One of Europe's most vividly colored birds, a swallow-shaped hunter of flying insects with chestnut, yellow, and turquoise plumage.
other
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
African Harrier-Hawk
A grey African raptor famed for its unusually flexible, double-jointed legs, which let it reach deep into tree holes and weaver-bird nests to extract prey.
raptor
Wilson's Snipe
A stocky, cryptically patterned North American marsh bird with an extremely long bill, best known for the eerie winnowing sound males make during display flights.
shorebird
Whooping Crane
North America's tallest bird, a rare, snow-white crane with black wingtips that has become a flagship symbol of wildlife conservation after nearly going extinct.
wading-bird
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
Pileated Woodpecker
North America's largest common woodpecker, a crow-sized, mostly black bird with a flaming red crest, famous for excavating large rectangular holes in dead trees.
woodpecker
Hudsonian Godwit
A dark, elegant godwit famed for one of the longest nonstop migratory flights of any bird, connecting subarctic breeding grounds with wintering areas in southern South America.
shorebird
Meadow Pipit
A streaky, unassuming ground bird of open moorland and grassland, often first noticed by its rising, parachuting song-flight or its thin call as it flushes underfoot.
songbird
Hoatzin
A bizarre, prehistoric-looking bird with a spiky crest, bare blue face, and a highly unusual digestive system that ferments leaves like a cow, giving it a distinctive odor.
other
Great Blue Heron
North America's largest and most widespread heron, a tall blue-grey wading bird often seen standing motionless at the water's edge waiting to strike prey.
wading-bird
Black-faced Antthrush
A plump, ground-dwelling forest bird with a black face and a short cocked tail, more often heard than seen as it walks quietly through leaf litter.
songbird
Common Nightingale
A plain brown bird famed above all for its powerful, richly varied song, often delivered at night as well as by day from dense scrub cover.
songbird
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
Merlin
A compact, fast-flying falcon that chases down small birds with relentless, low-level pursuit rather than a high stoop.
raptor
Saddleback
A glossy black New Zealand forest bird with a bold chestnut "saddle" across its back and bright orange-red wattles, now surviving mainly on predator-free islands after near extinction on the mainland.
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