Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Southern Fiscal
A black-and-white shrike of southern Africa known for impaling prey on thorns and barbed wire as a food cache.
songbird
Redwing
The smallest European thrush, easily told by its bold cream eyebrow stripe and warm red-orange flanks, arriving in large flocks each winter from the north.
songbird
Purple Honeycreeper
A small tanager relative whose male plumage is a deep, velvety purple set off by black wings and bright yellow legs.
songbird
Southern Cassowary
A large, flightless rainforest bird with glossy black plumage, a vivid blue-and-red neck, and a tall bony casque atop its head.
other
Ruff
A striking, highly dimorphic sandpiper whose males grow ornate, colorful neck ruffs and head tufts for elaborate communal courtship displays at a lek.
shorebird
Pied Wagtail
The black-backed British and Irish form of the White Wagtail, a familiar sight bobbing its long tail across car parks, farmyards, and riverside paths.
songbird
Ring Ouzel
A blackbird of high, wild upland moors and crags, the male distinguished by a striking white crescent across the breast.
songbird
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
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
New Zealand Fantail
A tiny, energetic New Zealand bird best known for its wide, fan-shaped tail and its habit of following walkers through the bush to snap up disturbed insects.
songbird
Pink-backed Pelican
A relatively small, drab greyish pelican of African wetlands, named for a subtle pink tinge on the back that is often difficult to see in the field.
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
Red-naped Sapsucker
A western sapsucker closely resembling the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, distinguished by a red patch extending onto the nape, and closely tied to mountain aspen groves.
woodpecker
Song Sparrow
A heavily streaked brown sparrow with a central breast spot, known for its rich, varied song from low perches.
songbird
Roseate Spoonbill
A vivid pink wading bird with an unmistakable spoon-shaped bill, often mistaken for a flamingo when glimpsed at a distance in coastal marshes.
wading-bird
Spectacled Owl
A large, dark-headed owl named for the bold white "spectacles" that ring its eyes, with a strikingly different all-white juvenile plumage.
owl
Rufous Whistler
A grey-backed, rufous-breasted songbird whose loud, cheerful, far-carrying whistled song is a signature sound of Australian woodlands.
songbird
Snow Goose
A bright white goose with black wingtips, often traveling in enormous flocks; a dark 'blue' color morph also exists.
waterfowl
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
A small, mostly green lorikeet of eastern Australia named for the scalloped yellow "scaly" pattern across its breast.
parrot
Northern Pygmy-Owl
A tiny, fierce diurnal owl of western mountain forests, notable for the false 'eyespots' on the back of its head.
owl
Sacred Ibis
A striking white ibis with a bare black head and neck, revered in ancient Egypt, now widespread across African wetlands and farmland.
wading-bird
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
Sagebrush Sparrow
A gray-headed, sagebrush-obligate sparrow that runs on the ground with its tail cocked, split from Bell's Sparrow in 2013.
songbird
Splendid Fairywren
A small songbird of Australia's dry interior whose breeding males turn an almost impossibly vivid all-over cobalt and violet blue.
songbird
Ortolan Bunting
A warm-toned migratory bunting with a grey-green head, yellow throat, and pink-buff underparts, breeding across open, sun-baked farmland of Europe.
songbird
Nelson's Sparrow
A secretive marsh sparrow with an orange face triangle and soft, blurry streaking, breeding in both interior prairie marshes and coastal salt marsh.
songbird
Owl Finch
A small Australian grass finch with a distinctive white, black-ringed face resembling an owl's, paired with two crisp black breast bars.
songbird
Northern Gannet
The largest seabird in the North Atlantic, gleaming white with black wingtips and a golden-buff wash on the head, famous for spectacular high-speed plunge dives after fish.
seabird
Red-billed Leiothrix
A vividly colored, red-billed songbird nicknamed the Pekin Robin, olive-green above with orange-yellow throat and colorful wing patches.
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
Red-legged Honeycreeper
A small, vivid violet-blue tanager relative with bright red legs and a slender curved bill, common at flowering and fruiting trees.
songbird
Sun Parakeet
A dazzling small parakeet clothed in vivid golden-yellow and orange, with green and blue flight feathers, now endangered in the wild due to trapping for the pet trade.
parrot
Southern Masked Weaver
A common, widespread southern African weaver whose breeding males are bright yellow with a black face mask and red eyes, known for its intricately woven grass nests.
songbird
Snowy Plover
A pale, delicate plover of Pacific and Gulf Coast beaches and interior salt flats, once considered the same species as the Old World Kentish Plover.
shorebird
Superb Fruit Dove
A small, jewel-colored fruit dove; the male combines a purple crown, orange nape, grey chest band, and green back into a dazzling patchwork of color.
other
Red Phalarope
The most brightly colored and most pelagic of the three phalaropes, with brick-red breeding females that spend most of the year far out at sea.
shorebird
Oriental Turtle Dove
A large, richly patterned dove with a scaly, chestnut-and-black back and a distinctive black-and-white striped neck patch.
other
Red-footed Booby
The smallest and most variably plumaged booby, easily told by its bright red feet and habit of nesting in trees on remote tropical islands.
seabird
Striated Pardalote
Australia's most widespread pardalote, a tiny streak-headed canopy bird with a distinctive repeated 'pick-it-up' call.
songbird
New Zealand Bellbird
A plain olive-green New Zealand honeyeater renowned for its clear, melodious, bell-like song, often one of the first sounds heard at dawn in native forest.
songbird
Sarus Crane
The world's tallest flying bird, a grey crane with a bare red head and neck, revered in South Asian culture as a symbol of marital fidelity.
wading-bird
Striated Heron
A small, stocky, dark greenish heron found on tropical shorelines worldwide, notable for occasionally using bait to lure fish.
wading-bird
Spotted Pardalote
A tiny, jewel-like bird spangled with white spots, best detected by its high, rhythmic three-note call from the treetops.
songbird
Paradise Shelduck
A large, strikingly dimorphic New Zealand duck, the female with a bright white head and chestnut body and the male mostly black with a grey-flecked back, commonly seen grazing on farmland.
waterfowl
Northern Goshawk
The largest and most powerful accipiter, a fierce forest hawk of mature woodlands with a bold white eyebrow and blazing red eyes.
raptor
Northern Shoveler
A dabbling duck instantly identified by its oversized, spoon-shaped bill, used to filter tiny invertebrates and seeds from shallow water.
waterfowl
Superb Bird-of-paradise
A montane bird-of-paradise whose male transforms into an oval black cape with a glowing blue breast shield during his famous dancing display.
songbird
Prairie Warbler
A bright yellow, tail-wagging warbler of shrubby old fields and scrub, with bold black facial markings and chestnut streaking on the back despite its misleading name.
songbird