Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Great Spotted Woodpecker
A striking black-and-white woodpecker with a bold red vent patch, the most widespread and familiar woodpecker across Europe.
woodpecker
Japanese White-eye
A tiny, olive-green songbird instantly recognizable by the bold white ring encircling each eye.
songbird
Hammond's Flycatcher
A small, grayish Empidonax flycatcher of mature western conifer forests, often foraging high in the canopy and best identified by voice.
songbird
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
Laughing Kookaburra
A large, stocky Australian kingfisher famous for its raucous, human-like laughing call.
other
Greater Coucal
A large, crow-sized cuckoo-family bird with glossy black body, chestnut wings, and a deep, resonant booming call.
other
Great Crested Grebe
A large, elegant Old World grebe with ornate double head plumes and chestnut-and-black facial tippets, famed for its elaborate courtship dances.
waterfowl
Hooded Oriole
A slender, long-tailed oriole strongly associated with palm trees, with males showing bright orange-yellow plumage and a black face and bib.
songbird
Little Blue Penguin
The world's smallest penguin, with slate-blue upperparts, found nesting in burrows along the coasts of southern Australia and New Zealand.
seabird
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
Major Mitchell's Cockatoo
A softly pink and white cockatoo of Australia's dry interior, best known for its brilliant red, yellow, and white banded crest.
parrot
Least Bittern
The smallest heron in North America, an elusive marsh dweller that clambers through cattails with the help of long grasping toes.
wading-bird
Harris's Sparrow
North America's largest sparrow, with a black hood and bib framing a pink bill, breeding only in Canada and wintering on the Great Plains.
songbird
Lappet-faced Vulture
Africa's largest vulture, instantly recognizable by its massive bill and bare pink-red head draped with fleshy folds of skin.
raptor
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
Great Blue Heron
North America's largest and most widespread heron, a tall blue-grey wading bird often seen standing motionless at the water's edge waiting to strike prey.
wading-bird
Little Penguin
The world's smallest penguin species, with slate-blue upperparts and white underparts, that comes ashore only after dark to avoid predators.
seabird
Little Bee-eater
A tiny, brilliantly colored African bee-eater with a green back, yellow throat, and black gorget, often seen perched low over grassland.
other
King Vulture
A large, boldly colored Neotropical vulture with a strikingly multicolored bare head that dominates carcasses in tropical forests.
raptor
Henslow's Sparrow
A secretive prairie sparrow with a large flat head, olive face, and one of the most unimpressive songs of any North American bird.
songbird
Le Conte's Thrasher
The palest of the thrashers, a shy, sandy-colored bird of the open Mojave and Sonoran Desert flats that prefers running to flying.
songbird
Little Owl
A small, flat-headed owl of open farmland that is often active by day, bobbing and staring with piercing yellow eyes.
owl
Lesser Frigatebird
The smallest frigatebird, black overall with distinctive white patches on the flanks, found across the tropical Indo-Pacific.
seabird
Little Gull
The smallest gull in the world, a dainty, tern-like bird best known for its distinctive blackish underwings, unique among gulls.
seabird
Long-billed Corella
A white cockatoo of southeastern Australia with a distinctively long, slender bill and pink-red markings across the face and throat.
parrot
Harris's Hawk
A dark chocolate-brown desert hawk famous for hunting cooperatively in family groups, unlike almost any other raptor.
raptor
Great Horned Owl
A powerful, large-eared owl found across nearly every habitat in the Americas, capable of taking prey larger than itself.
owl
Inca Dove
A tiny, pale dove of the desert Southwest whose feathers appear scalloped like fish scales and whose flight flashes rusty wing patches.
other
Meyer's Parrot
A widespread African savanna parrot with mostly brown-grey plumage set off by turquoise underparts and yellow shoulder patches.
parrot
Lucy's Warbler
One of North America's smallest warblers, a pale gray desert species with a chestnut rump and crown patch, unusual among warblers for nesting in tree cavities.
songbird
Martial Eagle
Africa's largest and most powerful eagle, the Martial Eagle is a formidable savanna predator capable of taking prey as large as small antelope.
raptor
Green Woodpecker
A large, ground-feeding woodpecker with vivid green plumage, a red crown, and a loud laughing call known as the "yaffle".
woodpecker
Long-tailed Duck
An Arctic sea duck known for the male's long slender tail streamers and unusually complex seasonal plumages.
waterfowl
Humboldt Penguin
A banded penguin of the cold Humboldt Current off Peru and Chile, recognized by a single black chest band and a patch of bare pink skin at the base of its bill.
seabird
Nankeen Kestrel
Australia's smallest falcon, a rufous-backed kestrel famous for hovering motionless in the air while scanning for prey.
raptor
Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker
The smallest woodpecker in Japan, a sparrow-sized bird finely barred in brown and white, with males showing a tiny red spot on the head.
woodpecker
Great Shearwater
A trans-equatorial migrant shearwater with a sharply defined dark cap and white collar, breeding on remote South Atlantic islands and wintering across the North Atlantic.
seabird
Greater Prairie-Chicken
A heavily barred prairie grouse famous for the male's booming courtship display, featuring orange air sacs and erect pinnae feathers on communal leks.
gamebird
Long-billed Dowitcher
A close relative of the Short-billed Dowitcher, best told apart by its sharp single-note call and preference for freshwater wetlands over coastal habitats.
shorebird
Little Wattlebird
A streaky brown-grey honeyeater with a rufous wing patch, one of Australia's larger honeyeaters, despite lacking the fleshy face wattles of its close relatives.
songbird
Grey Go-away-bird
A pale grey, crested relative of the turacos, named for its nasal, far-carrying call that sounds like it is saying "go-away."
other
Lincoln's Sparrow
A shy, finely streaked sparrow with a buffy breast band, often described as the best-dressed sparrow, that skulks low in dense cover.
songbird
Le Conte's Sparrow
A tiny, brightly colored, mouse-like sparrow of wet prairie and sedge marsh, more often glimpsed scurrying through grass than seen in the open.
songbird
Masked Trogon
A brilliantly colored Andean trogon with a glossy green back, black face mask, and a bright red belly.
other
Greater Sage-Grouse
The largest North American grouse, famous for males' spectacular strutting display with inflated air sacs on communal leks scattered across the sagebrush sea.
gamebird
Kaka
A large, olive-brown New Zealand forest parrot with brilliant crimson underwings, related to the alpine kea and known for its raucous calls and playful, acrobatic behavior.
parrot
Great White Pelican
A massive white pelican of Old World wetlands with a wingspan among the largest of any bird, tinged pink in breeding season and prone to spectacular coordinated group fishing.
seabird
Horned Lark
A ground-loving open-country songbird named for the tiny black feather tufts, or "horns," on its head.
songbird