Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Least Tern
The smallest tern in North America, a fast, energetic flier that nests in open sand and gravel and is especially vulnerable to disturbance and habitat loss.
seabird
Green-winged Teal
North America's smallest dabbling duck, with the male showing a chestnut head, an iridescent green eye patch, and a vertical white shoulder stripe.
waterfowl
Green-winged Macaw
A large red macaw distinguished from the similar Scarlet Macaw by a green band on the wing and fine red feather lines across the bare face.
parrot
Long-billed Thrasher
A darker, longer-billed cousin of the Brown Thrasher found in dense brush of south Texas and northeastern Mexico.
songbird
Gull-billed Tern
A stocky, gull-billed tern with a stout black bill, pale plumage, and an unusual habit of hawking insects over dry land far from water.
seabird
Kookaburra
A group of large, terrestrial-hunting kingfishers native to Australia and New Guinea, best known for their loud, laugh-like calls.
other
Lawrence's Goldfinch
A gray-and-yellow goldfinch with a black face, restricted to California and Baja California and famously unpredictable in its movements.
songbird
Morepork
New Zealand's only surviving native owl, a small, compact brown owl named for its distinctive, far-carrying "more-pork" call heard after dark.
owl
Great Grey Shrike
A predatory grey-and-white songbird nicknamed the "butcher bird" for its habit of impaling prey on thorns to store for later.
songbird
Hyacinth Macaw
The world's largest flying parrot species, a deep cobalt-blue macaw of central South America specialized for cracking tough palm nuts.
parrot
Nashville Warbler
A small, active warbler with a gray head, bold white eyering, olive back, and bright yellow underparts, occurring in two disjunct eastern and western breeding populations.
songbird
Merlin
A compact, fast-flying falcon that chases down small birds with relentless, low-level pursuit rather than a high stoop.
raptor
Great Hornbill
One of the largest hornbills, instantly recognizable by its massive yellow-and-black casque and deep, whooshing wingbeats audible from a distance.
other
Gyrfalcon
The largest falcon in the world, a powerful Arctic hunter that ranges from pure white to dark slate-gray in color.
raptor
House Wren
A small, plain brown wren with fine dark barring on the wings and tail, known for its bubbly song and readiness to nest in birdhouses.
songbird
Lanner Falcon
A medium-large falcon of Africa and southern Eurasia recognized by its rusty crown and fast, agile flight in open country.
raptor
Lesser Nighthawk
A desert-dwelling nighthawk, smaller and buffier than the Common Nighthawk, with a low, soft trilling call and lower flight.
other
Indian Robin
A small, confiding chat of dry open country, the male glossy black with a white shoulder flash and chestnut under the tail.
songbird
Greater Rhea
South America's largest bird, a flightless grassland species with shaggy gray-brown plumage resembling a smaller relative of the Ostrich.
other
Mexican Jay
A plain blue-and-gray jay of southwestern mountain oak woodlands that lives in cooperative family flocks year-round.
songbird
Indian Golden Oriole
A brilliant golden-yellow oriole with black wings and a black eye-stripe, closely related to the Eurasian Golden Oriole.
songbird
Himalayan Bulbul
A crested bulbul of Himalayan foothill gardens and scrub, with a black head, a white cheek patch, and a bright yellow vent.
songbird
Hairy Woodpecker
A medium-sized black-and-white woodpecker closely resembling the smaller Downy Woodpecker but with a proportionally much longer, chisel-like bill.
woodpecker
Grey-headed Woodpecker
A medium-sized green woodpecker with a plain grey head and, in males, a small red patch on the forecrown.
woodpecker
Marbled Godwit
A large, cinnamon-buff shorebird with a long, slightly upturned bicolored bill, breeding on North American prairie wetlands and wintering along coasts.
shorebird
Magellanic Penguin
A medium-sized South American banded penguin, marked by a single black band across the chest, that nests in burrows along the coasts of Argentina, Chile, and the Falklands.
seabird
Magnolia Warbler
A boldly patterned warbler with a black-streaked yellow breast and a distinctive black-and-white tail band, best identified from below in flight.
songbird
Lesser Yellowlegs
A slim, delicate sandpiper with bright yellow legs, essentially a smaller, daintier version of the Greater Yellowlegs with a shorter, straighter bill.
shorebird
Intermediate Egret
A medium-sized white egret of Africa, Asia, and Australia whose size and proportions fall neatly between the larger Great Egret and smaller Little Egret.
wading-bird
Mourning Warbler
A skulking gray-hooded warbler of dense northern thickets, whose breeding males show a dark, mourning-veil-like patch on the throat and breast.
songbird
Great Blue Turaco
The largest of all turacos, a heavy-bodied, slate-blue rainforest bird with a tall black crest and a huge yellow-and-red bill.
other
Hooded Crow
A pale grey-bodied crow with a contrasting black head, wings and tail, closely related to and interbreeding with the Carrion Crow.
songbird
Hoary Redpoll
A pale, frosty-looking arctic finch, closely resembling the Common Redpoll but adapted to even colder, higher-latitude habitat.
songbird
Japanese White-eye
A tiny, olive-green songbird instantly recognizable by the bold white ring encircling each eye.
songbird
Great Gray Owl
One of the tallest owls in the world, with an enormous facial disk and the extraordinary ability to hear and catch rodents hidden beneath snow.
owl
Lesser Flamingo
The smallest and most numerous flamingo in the world, famous for the vast pink flocks that gather on East Africa's Rift Valley soda lakes.
wading-bird
Mexican Whip-poor-will
A southwestern mountain nightjar, virtually identical to the Eastern Whip-poor-will but distinguished by a slower, huskier song.
other
Lewin's Honeyeater
An olive-green rainforest honeyeater with a distinctive yellow crescent-shaped ear patch and a loud, rattling call.
songbird
Green Sandpiper
A dark, sharply contrasting Eurasian sandpiper that flushes explosively from small woodland pools with a loud, ringing call and a bold white rump.
shorebird
Lark Bunting
A gregarious prairie songbird whose breeding male turns entirely black with a bold white wing patch, Colorado's state bird.
songbird
Manx Shearwater
A small, sharply black-and-white shearwater of the North Atlantic that skims low over waves with stiff wingbeats, nesting in burrows on grassy offshore islands.
seabird
Lilac-crowned Amazon
A green Mexican Amazon parrot with a maroon forehead and a lilac-blue crown, restricted to the Pacific slope.
parrot
Hermit Warbler
A plain-faced, bright yellow-headed warbler of Pacific mountain conifer forests, with a black throat and gray, unstreaked back, that hybridizes with the closely related Townsend's Warbler.
songbird
Lewis's Woodpecker
An unusually crow-like woodpecker with iridescent greenish-black plumage, a pink belly, and a habit of catching insects on the wing.
woodpecker
Greater Roadrunner
A large, fast-running ground cuckoo of the desert Southwest, made famous in cartoons, that sprints after prey with its shaggy crest raised and long tail trailing behind.
other
Little Blue Heron
A small heron of American wetlands, slate-blue as an adult but confusingly all-white as a juvenile, undergoing a mottled transition in its second year.
wading-bird
Jungle Babbler
A drab, noisy, sociable babbler almost always seen in chattering flocks of half a dozen or more, earning it the nickname 'Seven Sisters.'
songbird
Helmeted Hornbill
A rare Southeast Asian rainforest hornbill famed for its unique solid ivory casque, extremely long tail streamers, and eerie cackling call, now critically endangered from poaching.
other