Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Sage Grouse
A large, sagebrush-dependent grouse known for the male's spectacular strutting display with inflated yellow air sacs on a lek.
gamebird
Northern Hawk Owl
A long-tailed, falcon-shaped boreal owl that hunts by day from exposed treetop perches like a hawk.
owl
Ring-billed Gull
A medium-sized, highly adaptable gull common far from the coast, easily told from larger gulls by its yellow legs and the black ring encircling its bill.
seabird
Piping Plover
A tiny, pale, sand-colored plover of North American beaches, named for its plaintive piping whistle.
shorebird
Pink-footed Goose
A medium-sized grey goose with a compact dark head, pink legs and bill band, best known for spectacular wintering flocks in Britain.
waterfowl
Purple Sunbird
A tiny, hyperactive sunbird whose breeding male glitters iridescent purple-black in the sun.
songbird
Pacific Loon
A mid-sized loon with a smooth pale grey nape and a crisp black chin strap, common along the Pacific coast in winter.
seabird
Red-rumped Parrot
A common southeastern Australian grass parrot with bright green upperparts and a small red rump patch in males.
parrot
Rhinoceros Hornbill
A striking Southeast Asian rainforest hornbill named for its large, upward-curving red-and-yellow casque resembling a rhinoceros horn.
other
Scarlet Honeyeater
A tiny, brilliant honeyeater in which the male is a vivid scarlet-red with black wings, one of the smallest and most colorful honeyeaters in Australia.
songbird
Stitchbird
A small, striking New Zealand honeyeater-like bird, the male boldly patterned in black, yellow, and white, now surviving only on predator-free islands and in reintroduced mainland sanctuaries.
songbird
Savannah Sparrow
A streaky, ground-dwelling sparrow with a yellow eyebrow patch and short notched tail, widespread across open grassy habitats in North America.
songbird
Red-billed Chough
A glossy black corvid of coastal cliffs and mountains, easily recognized by its curved red bill, red legs and buoyant, acrobatic flight.
songbird
Scarlet-rumped Tanager
A glossy black Central American tanager with a glowing scarlet rump patch; males and females differ strikingly in plumage.
songbird
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
A large, all-white Australasian cockatoo with a tall, upright yellow crest and a loud, raucous voice.
parrot
Straw-necked Ibis
A striking black-and-white Australian ibis famous for forming huge nomadic flocks that follow outbreaks of grasshoppers and locusts.
wading-bird
Patagonian Conure
A large, olive-brown South American parrot famous for nesting colonially in burrows dug into cliff faces.
parrot
Spur-winged Goose
The Spur-winged Goose is Africa's largest waterfowl species, named for the sharp spurs on its wings and its bare red facial skin.
waterfowl
Red-capped Cardinal
A striking black-and-white bird with a brilliant red head, throat, and nape, commonly seen along Amazonian rivers and lake edges despite not being a true cardinal.
songbird
Short-toed Treecreeper
A close relative of the Eurasian Treecreeper, nearly identical in appearance but favouring broadleaf woodland at lower elevations and best identified by its distinct voice.
songbird
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
The only hummingbird that regularly breeds in eastern North America, with males showing a brilliant iridescent ruby-red throat that can flash black in poor light.
hummingbird
Jungle Myna
A grey-brown myna with a distinctive tuft of feathers on the forehead and pale blue-white eyes, common across South and Southeast Asian towns and farmland.
songbird
Kentish Plover
A small, pale plover of Old World coasts and salt pans, the Eurasian and African counterpart of the American Snowy Plover.
shorebird
Ring-necked Duck
A compact diving duck best identified by the bold white ring on its bill rather than its subtle chestnut neck collar, along with a peaked head shape.
waterfowl
Masked Booby
The largest booby species, brilliant white with black flight feathers, a dark facial mask, and a bright yellow bill.
seabird
Least Flycatcher
The smallest and most vocal of the eastern Empidonax flycatchers, easily located by its emphatic, repetitive 'che-BEK' call.
songbird
Great Reed Warbler
A large, powerful reed-dwelling warbler with a loud, harsh, croaking song that carries far across the reedbeds it calls home.
songbird
Green Bee-eater
A slender emerald-green bird with elongated central tail feathers and a black eye stripe, an agile aerial hunter of bees and wasps.
other
Shy Albatross
A pale, white-headed mollymawk that breeds only on a handful of islands off Tasmania, identifiable by its grey-washed nape and pale yellowish bill.
seabird
Southern Brown Kiwi
A shaggy, flightless, nocturnal New Zealand kiwi of the South Island and Stewart Island, known locally as tokoeka, that finds food entirely by smell.
other
Kori Bustard
The Kori Bustard is Africa's heaviest flying bird, a stately grassland giant known for its intricate grey plumage and elaborate male courtship display.
other
Purple Gallinule
A vividly colored marsh bird with iridescent purple-blue plumage, a pale blue frontal shield, and oversized bright yellow feet.
wading-bird
Smith's Longspur
A warmly buff-colored longspur with an unusual multi-male mating system, wintering in a very restricted range of south-central US grasslands.
songbird
Green-headed Tanager
A jewel-toned Atlantic Forest tanager with a shimmering turquoise-green head, golden back band, and orange throat patch.
songbird
Lesser Prairie-Chicken
A small, pale prairie grouse of sandy southern-plains grassland, closely related to but smaller and paler than the Greater Prairie-Chicken, with reddish-orange display air sacs.
gamebird
Little Egret
A small, elegant, all-white egret of the Old World with a slim black bill and striking yellow feet on black legs.
wading-bird
Mandarin Duck
One of the world's most ornately colored waterfowl, the Mandarin Duck drake sports orange 'sail' feathers, a fan-shaped crest, and intricate facial patterning.
waterfowl
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
Grey Wagtail
A slender, strikingly long-tailed wagtail with bright yellow underparts, closely tied to fast-flowing streams and rivers where it bobs along rocks and weirs.
songbird
Musk Lorikeet
A small, fast-flying green lorikeet of southeastern Australia distinguished by its red face patch and namesake musky scent.
parrot
Mallard
The most familiar and widespread duck in the world, with the male's glossy green head, yellow bill, and white neck ring recognizable on ponds nearly everywhere.
waterfowl
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
Greylag Goose
A large bulky gray-brown goose, ancestor of most domestic geese, with a heavy orange bill.
waterfowl
Great Potoo
The largest potoo, a nocturnal bird that perches upright on bare branches by day, camouflaged as a broken stub, and gives an eerie, growling call at night.
other
Great Crested Flycatcher
A large canopy flycatcher of eastern woodlands with a lemon-yellow belly, rufous tail, and a loud, whistled call, famous for weaving shed snakeskin into its nest.
songbird
Guianan Toucanet
A small toucan of the Guiana Shield forests, with males showing a black head and a mostly greenish bill, and females bearing a rich chestnut cap.
other
Marsh Tit
A small, plain brown-gray tit with a glossy black cap and neat black bib, closely resembling the Willow Tit but favoring drier, more mature woodland.
songbird
Mistle Thrush
Europe's largest common thrush, a bold, greyish, heavily spotted bird nicknamed the 'stormcock' for singing loudly even in wild, wintry weather.
songbird