Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
White Wagtail
A slim, long-tailed black, white, and grey bird, constantly wagging its tail as it darts about open ground catching insects, equally at home in farmland or city centres.
songbird
Resplendent Quetzal
A dazzling, iridescent green cloud-forest bird with a crimson breast and, in the male, spectacular tail streamers that can trail well beyond a meter in length.
other
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
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
Firecrest
A tiny, jewel-like woodland bird closely related to the Goldcrest, but brighter and more boldly patterned with a striking white eyebrow stripe and black eye mask.
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
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
Wattled Jacana
A chestnut-and-black marsh bird with extraordinarily long toes that let it walk across floating lily pads, notable for its role-reversed breeding system.
wading-bird
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
Purple Martin
North America's largest swallow, a glossy blue-black aerial insectivore whose eastern population now nests almost entirely in birdhouses provided by people.
songbird
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
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
Bay-breasted Warbler
A boreal-forest warbler whose breeding males show rich chestnut on the crown, throat, and flanks, while fall birds turn plain greenish and are easily confused with Blackpoll Warbler.
songbird
Booted Eagle
A small, buzzard-sized eagle occurring in pale and dark color morphs, the Booted Eagle is a long-distance migrant that hunts small birds and reptiles over open country near woodland.
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
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