Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
American Crow
A highly intelligent, all-black corvid famous for its adaptability, problem-solving, and complex social behavior.
songbird
Burrowing Owl
A small, long-legged owl that nests underground in abandoned burrows and is often seen standing bolt upright by day.
owl
Red-shouldered Hawk
A colorful woodland buteo with rich rufous shoulders and underparts, closely tied to river bottoms and swampy forest.
raptor
Chipping Sparrow
A small, slender sparrow with a bright rufous cap, black eye-line, and clean gray underparts, common in yards with conifers.
songbird
Rock Wren
A pale, grayish-brown wren of arid rocky landscapes, known for bobbing on boulders and building pebble-paved nest paths.
songbird
Sedge Wren
A tiny, secretive wren of wet sedge meadows, notable for its erratic breeding movements and finely streaked crown.
songbird
Boat-tailed Grackle
A large, glossy coastal grackle with a distinctive keel-shaped tail and dramatic size difference between the sexes.
songbird
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
A montane bird of western peaks, famous for the male's rose-magenta throat and a loud, metallic wing trill heard in flight.
hummingbird
Dusky Flycatcher
A gray-olive Empidonax flycatcher of open western mountain shrublands and forest edges, closely resembling several relatives and best told apart by voice.
songbird
Eurasian Collared-Dove
A pale, sandy-gray dove with a thin black half-collar on the neck, native to Eurasia and now widely established across North America after a rapid range expansion.
other
Brown-crested Flycatcher
The largest of the North American Myiarchus flycatchers, a bushy-crested, cavity-nesting bird of desert washes and saguaro country with a rolling 'whit-will-do' call.
songbird
Bobolink
A grassland songbird famous for the breeding male's striking black-and-white "backward tuxedo" plumage and one of the longest migrations of any North American songbird.
songbird
European Starling
A stocky, iridescent black songbird introduced to North America in the 1890s, known for its speckled winter plumage, versatile mimicry, and massive flocks.
songbird
Common Pauraque
A master of camouflage, this widespread nocturnal nightjar of the Americas is famous for its distinctive nighttime whistling call and bright orange face patches.
other
Brant
A small, dark sea goose with a black head, neck, and breast broken only by a small white neck patch, tightly tied to coastal eelgrass beds in winter.
waterfowl
Cackling Goose
A small goose nearly identical in plumage to the Canada Goose but noticeably smaller, with a shorter neck and a stubby, often steep-fronted bill.
waterfowl
White-tailed Ptarmigan
The smallest North American grouse, a hardy alpine specialist and the only ptarmigan with an all-white tail in every season.
gamebird
Least Flycatcher
The smallest and most vocal of the eastern Empidonax flycatchers, easily located by its emphatic, repetitive 'che-BEK' call.
songbird
Band-tailed Pigeon
A large, purple-gray wild pigeon of western mountain forests, marked by a white crescent on the nape and a pale band across the tip of the tail.
other
Bell's Vireo
A small, drab, hyperactive vireo of dense willow and mesquite thickets, known for its fast, chattering, question-and-answer song.
songbird
Northwestern Crow
A small, coastal crow of the Pacific Northwest closely resembling the American Crow and often found foraging along tidelines.
songbird
Black-billed Magpie
A striking black-and-white corvid with an extremely long tail and iridescent wings, common across open western rangeland.
songbird
Say's Phoebe
A soft cinnamon-bellied flycatcher of open, dry western landscapes that often nests on cliffs, barns, and abandoned buildings.
songbird
Montezuma Quail
A round, secretive quail of southwestern oak woodlands, with a bold black-and-white harlequin facial pattern on males.
gamebird