Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Australian Owlet-nightjar
A small, big-eyed nocturnal bird with soft grey-brown mottled plumage and whisker-like facial bristles, often seen peering from a tree hollow entrance by day.
other
Black Skimmer
A unique black-and-white coastal bird with an oversized red-and-black bill whose lower mandible is longer than the upper, used to skim fish from the water's surface in flight.
seabird
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
Hill Myna
A glossy black forest myna with vivid yellow head wattles, renowned as one of the most accomplished vocal mimics among wild birds.
songbird
Eurasian Nuthatch
A compact, blue-grey woodland bird famous for its ability to climb head-first down tree trunks, and for wedging nuts into bark crevices to hammer them open.
songbird
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
A slender, secretive woodland bird nicknamed the 'rain crow' for its habit of calling before summer storms, marked by a downcurved yellow lower bill and rufous flight feathers.
other
Great Bowerbird
The largest bowerbird species, plain grey-brown overall with a usually concealed lilac-pink nape crest, famed for building and decorating the largest avenue bowers of any bird.
songbird
Paradise Tanager
One of the most vividly multicolored birds in the Amazon, with a turquoise head, black back, sky-blue underparts, and a glowing yellow-to-red rump.
songbird
Regent Bowerbird
A striking rainforest songbird; the male is patterned in bold black and rich golden-yellow, one of the most vividly colored birds of eastern Australia.
songbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
A brood-parasitic blackbird whose glossy brown head contrasts with the male's black body, famous for laying eggs in other birds' nests.
songbird
Caspian Tern
The largest tern in the world, a gull-sized bird with a massive coral-red bill and a harsh, crow-like call, found on coasts and large lakes across every continent except Antarctica.
seabird
Roseate Tern
A slender, pale tern with very long tail streamers and a faint rosy blush on the breast, prized by birders for its elegant, almost ghostly flight.
seabird
Lapland Longspur
A circumpolar Arctic breeder that winters in large flocks across open fields, with striking black-faced breeding males and rusty-naped winter birds.
songbird
Green Heron
A small, stocky, secretive heron with a dark greenish back, chestnut neck, and a reputation as one of the few birds known to use tools to catch fish.
wading-bird
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
California Condor
North America's largest flying land bird, an enormous black scavenger with a naked orange-pink head, brought back from the brink of extinction through intensive captive breeding.
raptor
Bar-tailed Godwit
A long-billed godwit famous for making the longest recorded nonstop migratory flights of any bird, connecting Arctic breeding grounds with wintering coasts across the Old World and Australasia.
shorebird
Tawny Eagle
A variably colored savanna eagle of Africa known for its highly opportunistic feeding, from scavenging carcasses to stealing prey from other birds.
raptor
Goldcrest
One of Europe's smallest birds, a tiny olive-green sprite with a vivid black-bordered crown stripe, constantly flitting through conifer foliage.
songbird
Tomtit
A small, big-headed New Zealand forest bird, the male boldly black-and-white or black-and-yellow depending on region, often seen perched quietly before darting after insects.
songbird
New Zealand Robin
A tame, upright New Zealand forest bird, dark grey-black above with a pale belly, well known for boldly following walkers and foraging on the forest floor within easy view.
songbird
Golden Bowerbird
The smallest bowerbird species, restricted to Queensland's Wet Tropics uplands; the male is golden-yellow and olive-brown and builds the tallest maypole-style bower relative to its size of any bird.
songbird
Australian Brushturkey
A large, black-bodied mound-building bird with a bare red head and neck and a yellow throat wattle, well known for the huge leaf-litter mounds it builds to incubate its eggs.
gamebird