Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Stitchbird
A small, striking New Zealand honeyeater-like bird, the male boldly patterned in black, yellow, and white, now surviving only on predator-free islands and in reintroduced mainland sanctuaries.
songbird
Golden-winged Warbler
A gray-and-white warbler with a bold golden wing patch and yellow crown, once common in shrubby eastern habitat but now steeply declining and prone to hybridizing with Blue-winged Warbler.
songbird
Cattle Egret
A stocky, short-necked white egret closely associated with grazing livestock, whose remarkable natural range expansion made it one of the most successful bird colonizations in modern history.
wading-bird
Black Skimmer
A unique black-and-white coastal bird with an oversized red-and-black bill whose lower mandible is longer than the upper, used to skim fish from the water's surface in flight.
seabird
Olive-sided Flycatcher
A large, big-headed flycatcher known for its exuberant 'quick, THREE BEERS!' song, often perched high atop a dead conifer snag.
songbird
Brant
A small, dark sea goose with a stubby black bill and neck, closely tied to coastal eelgrass beds.
waterfowl
Least Flycatcher
The smallest and most vocal of the eastern Empidonax flycatchers, easily located by its emphatic, repetitive 'che-BEK' call.
songbird
Willow Flycatcher
A plain, greenish-brown Empidonax flycatcher best identified by its sneezy 'fitz-bew' song, breeding in dense willow thickets across North America.
songbird
Eurasian Skylark
A streaky brown ground bird famous for its prolonged, high-flying song delivered while hovering far overhead.
songbird
Common Pheasant
A large, long-tailed gamebird; males are strikingly iridescent with a bare red face, while females are cryptically mottled brown.
gamebird
Eurasian Blackbird
A common European thrush; the male is glossy black with a bright orange-yellow bill and eye-ring, while the female is dusky brown.
songbird
Common Kestrel
A familiar, russet-backed falcon best known for its ability to hover motionless in mid-air while scanning the ground for prey.
raptor
Blue Rock Thrush
A stocky, solitary thrush of rocky habitats; the male is an overall slate-blue, while the female is grey-brown with fine scaly barring.
songbird
Nankeen Kestrel
Australia's smallest falcon, a rufous-backed kestrel famous for hovering motionless in the air while scanning for prey.
raptor
Red-winged Blackbird
A glossy black marsh bird whose males display bold red-and-yellow shoulder patches while perched and singing atop cattails.
songbird
Eastern Phoebe
A plain grayish-brown flycatcher that pumps its tail while perched and famously nests on bridges, eaves, and other man-made structures.
songbird
Shoebill
An enormous, prehistoric-looking wading bird of African swamps, famous for its massive shoe-shaped bill and statue-like patience while hunting.
wading-bird
Sungrebe
A secretive aquatic bird best known for the male's habit of carrying chicks in skin pouches under his wings while swimming.
other
Rough-legged Hawk
A large arctic-breeding hawk with feathered legs, seen across open fields and marshes farther south in winter, known for its habit of hovering while hunting.
raptor
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
American Redstart
An acrobatic warbler often called 'the butterfly bird' for its habit of fanning bold orange or yellow tail and wing patches while flushing insects.
songbird
Brown-crested Flycatcher
The largest of the North American Myiarchus flycatchers, a bushy-crested, cavity-nesting bird of desert washes and saguaro country with a rolling 'whit-will-do' call.
songbird
Bay-breasted Warbler
A boreal-forest warbler whose breeding males show rich chestnut on the crown, throat, and flanks, while fall birds turn plain greenish and are easily confused with Blackpoll Warbler.
songbird
Australasian Figbird
A stocky oriole relative with a patch of bare red or pink skin around the eye; males show a grey head and olive-green body, while females are streaky brown, and both gather in noisy flocks at fruiting fig trees.
songbird