Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Jenday Conure
A vividly colored Brazilian parakeet with a golden-orange head and body and contrasting green wings.
parrot
Little Pied Cormorant
A small black-and-white Australasian cormorant with a short stubby yellow bill, common on both fresh and salt water.
seabird
Marbled Murrelet
A small North Pacific seabird unique among auks for nesting solitarily high in the mossy branches of old-growth conifers, far from the coast.
seabird
Little Bunting
A diminutive, chestnut-faced bunting of the far northern taiga, a scarce but regular vagrant to western Europe outside its core Siberian and Asian range.
songbird
Kelp Gull
A widespread Southern Hemisphere gull with a black back and white head, ecologically similar to the Great Black-backed Gull of the north, and a rare vagrant to the Gulf Coast of North America.
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
Double-crested Cormorant
A widespread North American waterbird often seen perched with wings held out to dry, identified by its dark plumage, hooked bill, and orange throat pouch.
seabird
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
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
Eurasian Bullfinch
A stocky, shy European finch; the male shows a vivid rosy-pink breast, black cap, and gray back set off by a bright white rump.
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
Eurasian Hobby
A sleek, fast-flying falcon with scythe-shaped wings, famed for catching dragonflies and swallows on the wing at high speed.
raptor
Elf Owl
The world's smallest owl, a sparrow-sized desert dweller that nests in old woodpecker holes in saguaro cacti.
owl
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
Eurasian Skylark
A streaky brown ground bird famous for its prolonged, high-flying song delivered while hovering far overhead.
songbird
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
Glossy Ibis
The world's most widespread ibis, a dark, iridescent wading bird with a long down-curved bill found on wetlands across the globe.
wading-bird
Dusky Grouse
A large, gray-toned interior mountain grouse whose males give a deep, far-carrying series of hoots from conifer perches during spring display.
gamebird
Lesser Whitethroat
A neat, grey-toned warbler distinguished from its cousin the Common Whitethroat by a darker face mask and a distinctive, unmusical rattling song.
songbird
Garden Warbler
A deliberately plain, featureless warbler whose lack of markings is itself the best clue to its identity, best appreciated for its rich, sustained song.
songbird
Golden Tanager
A glowing golden-yellow Andean tanager patterned with black markings on the face, back, and wings.
songbird
Eastern Rosella
A strikingly colorful Australian parrot with a bright red head and breast, white cheek patches, and a scalloped yellow-green back.
parrot
Firecrest
A tiny, jewel-like woodland bird closely related to the Goldcrest, but brighter and more boldly patterned with a striking white eyebrow stripe and black eye mask.
songbird
Gilded Flicker
A large, desert-dwelling flicker with golden-yellow underwings that nests in the towering saguaro cactus.
woodpecker
Eurasian Golden Oriole
A brilliant golden-yellow songbird with black wings, surprisingly hard to spot despite its vivid color thanks to its shy, canopy-dwelling habits.
songbird
Eastern Towhee
A striking sparrow relative with a black hood, rufous flanks, and white belly, known for its 'drink-your-tea' song and rustling leaf-litter foraging.
songbird
Eurasian Reed Warbler
A plain, unstreaked, warm brown warbler of dense reedbeds, best known for its steady, rhythmic, chattering song and as a frequent host of the Common Cuckoo.
songbird
Flightless Cormorant
A uniquely flightless Galapagos cormorant with tiny, useless wings, adapted entirely for swimming and diving.
seabird
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
Elegant Tern
A slender crested tern with a long, drooping orange bill, concentrated in enormous colonies on just a handful of islands in the Gulf of California.
seabird
Golden-crowned Sparrow
A large sparrow with a bold black-and-yellow crown stripe, best known for its mournful three-note whistled song, 'oh-dear-me'.
songbird
European Greenfinch
A stocky, olive-green European finch with bright yellow flashes in the wings and tail, and a heavy seed-cracking bill.
songbird
Eurasian Eagle-Owl
One of the largest owls in the world, a powerful, ear-tufted predator of cliffs and forests with a deep booming call.
owl
Double-barred Finch
A small, round, white-faced finch marked with two bold black breast bars, often called the 'owl finch' for its facial pattern.
songbird
Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
A small, reddish, day-active owl of arid borderland scrub, distinguished from its close relative by a streaked (not spotted) crown and rusty tail.
owl
Eurasian Wryneck
A cryptically patterned, bark-colored relative of woodpeckers named for its ability to twist its head almost fully around.
woodpecker
Eastern Kingbird
A bold, crisp black-and-white flycatcher known for fearlessly attacking hawks and crows that stray near its nest.
songbird
European Pied Flycatcher
A crisp black-and-white migratory flycatcher of oak woodland, the male boldly patterned and readily taking to nest boxes across much of Europe.
songbird
Eastern Spinebill
A small honeyeater with a long, slender downcurved bill, a chestnut throat patch, and black, white, and rufous plumage, often seen hovering at flowers.
songbird
Eurasian Wigeon
A Eurasian dabbling duck with a rich chestnut head and creamy forehead, an uncommon but regular visitor to North American coasts among flocks of American Wigeon.
waterfowl
Golden-crowned Kinglet
A tiny, hyperactive conifer-dwelling songbird with a bright orange or yellow crown patch bordered in black.
songbird
Forster's Tern
A medium-sized tern that breeds almost entirely within North America, distinguished from the similar Common Tern by its pale, silvery wingtips and orange legs.
seabird
Downy Woodpecker
North America's smallest woodpecker, a friendly black-and-white bird with a small bill, common at backyard feeders across the continent.
woodpecker
Dusky Flycatcher
A gray-olive Empidonax flycatcher of open western mountain shrublands and forest edges, closely resembling several relatives and best told apart by voice.
songbird
Dunnock
An unassuming, streaky brown European songbird with a gray head and breast, often seen shuffling quietly beneath hedges and shrubs.
songbird
Goldcrest
One of Europe's smallest birds, a tiny olive-green sprite with a vivid black-bordered crown stripe, constantly flitting through conifer foliage.
songbird
Five-striped Sparrow
A boldly patterned, black-throated sparrow found in the US only in a handful of remote southeastern Arizona canyons.
songbird
Golden-hooded Tanager
A dazzling tanager with a golden crown, black face mask, and turquoise body crossed by a dark blue-black band.
songbird