Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
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
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
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
Little Pied Cormorant
A small black-and-white Australasian cormorant with a short stubby yellow bill, common on both fresh and salt water.
seabird
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
Golden-crowned Kinglet
A tiny, hyperactive conifer-dwelling songbird with a bright orange or yellow crown patch bordered in black.
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
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
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
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
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
Jenday Conure
A vividly colored Brazilian parakeet with a golden-orange head and body and contrasting green wings.
parrot
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
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
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
Dunnock
An unassuming, streaky brown European songbird with a gray head and breast, often seen shuffling quietly beneath hedges and shrubs.
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
Emu
Australia's tallest native bird, a large flightless ratite with shaggy grayish-brown feathers and a distinctive loping stride.
other
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
Gilded Flicker
A large, desert-dwelling flicker with golden-yellow underwings that nests in the towering saguaro cactus.
woodpecker
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
Eastern Whipbird
A shy, dark olive forest bird famous for its explosive whip-crack call, usually answered instantly by its mate.
songbird
Long-eared Owl
A slender, secretive woodland owl with long, close-set ear tufts and a strikingly thin, upright roosting posture.
owl
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
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
Flightless Cormorant
A uniquely flightless Galapagos cormorant with tiny, useless wings, adapted entirely for swimming and diving.
seabird
Eurasian Hobby
A sleek, fast-flying falcon with scythe-shaped wings, famed for catching dragonflies and swallows on the wing at high speed.
raptor
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
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
Five-striped Sparrow
A boldly patterned, black-throated sparrow found in the US only in a handful of remote southeastern Arizona canyons.
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
Gouldian Finch
A small Australian grassland finch renowned for its extraordinarily vivid rainbow plumage of purple, yellow, green, and a red or black head.
songbird
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
Elf Owl
The world's smallest owl, a sparrow-sized desert dweller that nests in old woodpecker holes in saguaro cacti.
owl
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
A small, chestnut-capped sparrow with a black cheek patch, smaller and neater than its House Sparrow relative.
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
Eastern Kingbird
A bold, crisp black-and-white flycatcher known for fearlessly attacking hawks and crows that stray near its nest.
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
Fox Sparrow
A large, robust sparrow named for its rich rufous coloring in eastern populations, known for vigorously kicking through leaf litter to forage.
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
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
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
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
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
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
Eastern Rosella
A strikingly colorful Australian parrot with a bright red head and breast, white cheek patches, and a scalloped yellow-green back.
parrot
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
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