Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Barnacle Goose
A compact black, white, and grey goose with a striking cream-white face, famous for nesting on sheer Arctic cliffs.
waterfowl
Cirl Bunting
A scarce, sedentary bunting of warm farmland, the male showing a black-and-yellow striped face and an olive breast band.
songbird
American Avocet
An elegant black-and-white shorebird with a slender upturned bill and, in breeding season, a warm cinnamon-orange head and neck.
shorebird
American Three-toed Woodpecker
A boreal woodpecker with a barred black-and-white back, three toes per foot, and a taste for beetle-infested spruce.
woodpecker
Rock Ptarmigan
A circumpolar tundra grouse of barren, rocky terrain that turns snow-white in winter, with breeding males showing a distinctive black eye-line in spring.
gamebird
Violet Sabrewing
One of the largest hummingbirds in its Central American range, with males glowing deep violet-blue overall and a heavy, slightly curved black bill.
hummingbird
Orchard Oriole
The smallest North American oriole, with adult males showing a deep chestnut-and-black plumage rather than the bright orange of most other orioles.
songbird
Ruddy Duck
A small, chunky stiff-tailed diving duck; breeding males show a chestnut body, black cap, white cheeks, and a bright blue bill.
waterfowl
Superb Bird-of-paradise
A montane bird-of-paradise whose male transforms into an oval black cape with a glowing blue breast shield during his famous dancing display.
songbird
Indian Skimmer
A striking black-capped skimmer of South Asian rivers, now Endangered due to widespread loss of undisturbed sandbar habitat along major waterways.
seabird
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
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
Eurasian Spoonbill
An elegant white wading bird with a distinctive flat, spoon-shaped black-and-yellow bill, found sweeping shallow wetlands from Europe to Asia.
wading-bird
Australian Pelican
A large black-and-white pelican with the longest bill of any bird in the world, wandering widely across Australia's inland waterways in response to rainfall and flooding.
seabird
Baltimore Oriole
A brilliant flame-orange and black songbird of eastern North America, named for the heraldic colors of Lord Baltimore, known for its hanging pouch nest.
songbird
Cape Petrel
A striking black-and-white checkered petrel of the Southern Ocean, often called the Pintado Petrel, well known for following ships far from land.
seabird
Bobolink
A grassland songbird famous for the breeding male's striking black-and-white "backward tuxedo" plumage and one of the longest migrations of any North American songbird.
songbird
Sora
A secretive, plump little marsh rail with a short yellow bill, black face mask, and gray-brown streaked body.
wading-bird
Painted Redstart
A striking black warbler with a bright red breast patch and bold white wing patch, common in oak canyons of the Southwest.
songbird
Red-legged Partridge
A boldly patterned partridge with a striped black-and-white throat patch, a red bill, and red legs, native to southwestern Europe.
gamebird
Painted Stork
A colorful South and Southeast Asian stork with a white and pink body, black-barred wings, and a curved orange-yellow bill.
wading-bird
Oilbird
A unique nocturnal, cave-dwelling fruit-eater that navigates pitch-black caverns using echolocation clicks like a bat.
other
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
One of the most common hummingbirds of Central America, with iridescent green upperparts, a rufous tail, and a reddish bill tipped in black.
hummingbird
Saddle-billed Stork
A tall, dramatically colored African stork with a huge black, red, and yellow bill and a yellow frontal shield resembling a saddle.
wading-bird