Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Gunnison Sage-Grouse
A rare, range-restricted sage-grouse confined to a handful of sites in southwestern Colorado and adjacent Utah, distinguished from its larger relative by longer, showier display plumes.
gamebird
Laughing Gull
A common, noisy coastal gull of the eastern and Gulf coasts, named for its raucous, laugh-like call.
seabird
Military Macaw
A mostly green macaw with a red forehead patch, found in mountainous forest and river canyons from Mexico south to Argentina.
parrot
Monk Parakeet
A small green Neotropical parakeet uniquely known for building large, elaborate communal stick nests rather than nesting in tree cavities.
parrot
Harpy Eagle
One of the largest and most powerful eagles on Earth, the Harpy Eagle is a massive gray-and-white raptor of the Neotropical rainforest canopy, famed for hunting sloths and monkeys.
raptor
Guanay Cormorant
A black-and-white cormorant of the Humboldt Current whose massive colonies historically produced the guano that gave the bird its name.
seabird
Hooded Merganser
The smallest North American merganser, with males sporting a dramatic fan-shaped black-and-white crest.
waterfowl
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
A sparrow-sized woodpecker with a barred black-and-white back, elusive and easily overlooked high in the tree canopy.
woodpecker
Hen Harrier
A slim, long-winged harrier of open moorland; the pale grey male is nicknamed the 'grey ghost', while the streaky brown female is known as a 'ringtail'.
raptor
McCown's Longspur
A thick-billed prairie longspur historically named for a 19th-century army officer; in 2020 the American Ornithological Society officially renamed the species Thick-billed Longspur.
songbird
Magpie-lark
A common black-and-white Australian bird, smaller than a magpie, known for its distinctive 'pee-wee' call and mud-bowl nest.
songbird
Malleefowl
A ground-dwelling mound-building bird of arid mallee scrub, camouflaged in intricately mottled grey, brown, black, and chestnut plumage.
gamebird
Montezuma Oropendola
A large Central American icterid with a chestnut body, black head, orange-tipped bill, and bare blue-and-pink facial skin, known for colonial hanging nests and loud gurgling calls.
songbird
Great Cormorant
A large, widespread cormorant with glossy black-and-bronze plumage, a white throat patch, and a white breeding-season thigh patch, found across much of the Old World.
seabird
Laughing Falcon
A cream-headed, masked falcon specialized in hunting snakes, famous for its loud, laughing duets that ring across Neotropical woodlands.
raptor
Homing Pigeon
A domestic pigeon breed selectively developed for a strong, fast flight and an exceptional ability to navigate back to its home loft over long distances.
other
Hooded Vulture
A small, drab, bare-faced vulture of Africa that scavenges close to towns and villages and has suffered catastrophic population declines.
raptor
Lammergeier
A huge Old World vulture famous for dropping bones onto rocks to crack them open and feeding almost exclusively on bone marrow.
raptor
Killdeer
A widespread shorebird recognized by its double black breast bands and its dramatic 'broken-wing' display to lure predators from the nest.
shorebird
Knysna Turaco
A shy emerald-green forest turaco of South Africa's southern and eastern woodlands, best known for its far-carrying koorrr call and crimson wing flash.
other
Marico Sunbird
A robust southern African sunbird with a broad maroon breast band and jet-black belly, common in acacia savanna and dry woodland.
songbird
Helmeted Guineafowl
A gregarious, ground-dwelling African gamebird instantly recognizable by its bare bluish head, red facial wattles, and bony helmet-like casque.
gamebird
Kea
A large, highly intelligent olive-green mountain parrot from New Zealand's South Island, the world's only alpine-dwelling parrot.
parrot
Muscovy Duck
A large, heavy-bodied waterfowl native to the American tropics, wild birds glossy black-green with white wing patches and bare red facial skin.
waterfowl
Green Jay
A dazzlingly colored jay of south Texas brushlands with a green back, sky-blue head markings, and lemon-yellow outer tail feathers.
songbird
Mountain Bluebird
A slender thrush of open western landscapes, the male an unbroken sky blue overall without any orange or chestnut markings.
songbird
Lucifer Hummingbird
A rare desert hummingbird with a distinctly curved bill and, in males, an elongated glittering purple gorget.
hummingbird
Maned Duck
A common Australian duck, also called the Australian Wood Duck, known for its dark maned head and its habit of grazing on grass far from water.
waterfowl
Indigo Bunting
A small finch-like songbird whose breeding male appears brilliant all-over blue, produced entirely by feather structure rather than blue pigment.
songbird
Middle Spotted Woodpecker
A mid-sized pied woodpecker of old oak woodland, with a red crown in both sexes and softer, streakier underparts than its relatives.
woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
A small desert woodpecker with a finely barred black-and-white 'ladder' back pattern, well adapted to arid scrub, mesquite, and cactus habitat.
woodpecker
Hill Myna
A glossy black forest myna with vivid yellow head wattles, renowned as one of the most accomplished vocal mimics among wild birds.
songbird
Island Scrub-Jay
A large, deep-blue scrub-jay found only on Santa Cruz Island off the California coast, the most range-restricted bird in the continental United States.
songbird
Long-tailed Sylph
An Andean hummingbird whose males trail a spectacularly long, deeply forked, iridescent blue-green tail nearly three times the length of the body.
hummingbird
Grey Fantail
A small, restless grey-brown bird known for constantly fanning and flicking its long, white-edged tail while chasing insects through the foliage.
songbird
Lesser Rhea
A large flightless bird of the southern South American steppe, smaller and paler than the Greater Rhea, with grayish-brown plumage flecked with white.
other
Leach's Storm-Petrel
A small, dark, forked-tailed storm-petrel with an erratic, bat-like flight, spending nearly its entire life far out at sea and visiting nesting burrows only at night.
seabird
Lesser Black-backed Gull
A medium-large European gull with a dark slate mantle and yellow legs, increasingly common as a wintering visitor to North America in recent decades.
seabird
Grey Butcherbird
A grey-backed relative of the Pied Butcherbird with a black mask and white underparts, known for its musical, flute-like calls.
songbird
Meadow Bunting
A warm chestnut-backed bunting with a bold black-and-white striped face and a rufous wash across the breast.
songbird
Jabiru
The largest flying bird of the Americas, a towering white stork with a bald black head and a striking red band at the base of the neck.
wading-bird
Grey Shrikethrush
A plain grey-brown songbird with a rich, melodious song that belies its understated plumage.
songbird
Magnificent Frigatebird
A huge black seabird with an enormous wingspan and deeply forked tail, best known for the male's inflatable scarlet throat pouch.
seabird
Herring Gull
A large, familiar gray-backed gull with pink legs and a yellow bill marked by a red spot, widespread and adaptable across coasts, lakes, and cities.
seabird
King Penguin
The second-largest penguin species, sporting bold, sharply defined orange ear patches and a slender, elegant build.
seabird
Great Bowerbird
The largest bowerbird species, plain grey-brown overall with a usually concealed lilac-pink nape crest, famed for building and decorating the largest avenue bowers of any bird.
songbird
Long-eared Owl
A slender, secretive woodland owl with long, close-set ear tufts and a strikingly thin, upright roosting posture.
owl
Great Bustard
One of the heaviest flying birds in the world, a massive steppe and farmland bird famous for the male's elaborate courtship display of inflated white plumes.
other