Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Great Horned Owl
A powerful, large-eared owl found across nearly every habitat in the Americas, capable of taking prey larger than itself.
owl
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
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
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
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
Little Grebe
A tiny, round, chestnut-faced grebe of the Old World, often heard giving a whinnying trill from dense waterside vegetation before it is seen.
waterfowl
Meadow Bunting
A warm chestnut-backed bunting with a bold black-and-white striped face and a rufous wash across the breast.
songbird
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
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
Mountain Bluebird
A slender thrush of open western landscapes, the male an unbroken sky blue overall without any orange or chestnut markings.
songbird
Killdeer
A widespread shorebird recognized by its double black breast bands and its dramatic 'broken-wing' display to lure predators from the nest.
shorebird
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
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
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
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
Hooded Vulture
A small, drab, bare-faced vulture of Africa that scavenges close to towns and villages and has suffered catastrophic population declines.
raptor
Military Macaw
A mostly green macaw with a red forehead patch, found in mountainous forest and river canyons from Mexico south to Argentina.
parrot
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
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
Kea
A large, highly intelligent olive-green mountain parrot from New Zealand's South Island, the world's only alpine-dwelling parrot.
parrot
Hooded Merganser
The smallest North American merganser, with males sporting a dramatic fan-shaped black-and-white crest.
waterfowl
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
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
Horned Lark
A ground-loving open-country songbird named for the tiny black feather tufts, or "horns," on its head.
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
Laughing Gull
A common, noisy coastal gull of the eastern and Gulf coasts, named for its raucous, laugh-like call.
seabird
Hooded Warbler
A vivid yellow-faced warbler of eastern forest understory whose males wear a bold black hood, and which flashes white outer tail feathers as it flicks its tail while foraging.
songbird
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
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
Green-tailed Towhee
A shy, olive-green towhee with a rufous cap and white throat, the smallest and most colorful of the towhees.
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
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
Long-tailed Widowbird
A grassland songbird whose breeding male grows an extravagant tail up to half a metre long, displayed in slow, labored flight over his territory.
songbird
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
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
Grey Shrikethrush
A plain grey-brown songbird with a rich, melodious song that belies its understated plumage.
songbird
Lesser Frigatebird
The smallest frigatebird, black overall with distinctive white patches on the flanks, found across the tropical Indo-Pacific.
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
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
Long-tailed Shrike
A grey, black, and rufous predatory songbird with a black mask, long tail, and a habit of impaling prey on thorns.
songbird
Little Spotted Kiwi
The smallest and rarest widely known kiwi species, now surviving only on predator-free islands and sanctuaries after being wiped out from the mainland.
other
Masked Trogon
A brilliantly colored Andean trogon with a glossy green back, black face mask, and a bright red belly.
other
King Penguin
The second-largest penguin species, sporting bold, sharply defined orange ear patches and a slender, elegant build.
seabird
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
A sparrow-sized woodpecker with a barred black-and-white back, elusive and easily overlooked high in the tree canopy.
woodpecker
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
Monk Parakeet
A small green Neotropical parakeet uniquely known for building large, elaborate communal stick nests rather than nesting in tree cavities.
parrot