Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
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
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
Evening Grosbeak
A bulky, big-billed finch with bold black, white, and gold plumage, once a common winter visitor to feeders but now sharply declining.
songbird
Black-capped Chickadee
A small, energetic bird with a black cap and bib, white cheeks, and gray back, known for its cheerful "chick-a-dee-dee" call.
songbird
Black-necked Swan
A striking South American swan with a snow-white body, jet-black head and neck, and a bright red knob at the base of its bill.
waterfowl
Australasian Swamphen
A large, vividly deep-blue-and-purple waterbird with a red bill and frontal shield, often seen flicking its white tail as it walks.
wading-bird
Variable Oystercatcher
A coastal New Zealand shorebird with a long, chisel-like orange-red bill, notable for its variable plumage ranging from fully black to a pied black-and-white form.
shorebird
Bearded Bellbird
A striking cotinga whose male has a brown head, white body, and a curtain of dangling black wattles, and whose loud, bell-like call carries far through the forest.
songbird
Red-necked Grebe
A robust, medium-large grebe with a rich chestnut neck and white cheek patch in breeding plumage, larger and bulkier than most other grebes.
waterfowl
Rock Ptarmigan
A circumpolar tundra grouse of barren, rocky terrain that turns snow-white in winter, with breeding males showing a distinctive black eye-line in spring.
gamebird
Red-eyed Vireo
A tireless singer of eastern and northern forests, nicknamed the 'preacher bird' for its endless repeated phrases, with a gray cap, white eyebrow, and red eye.
songbird
Pompadour Cotinga
A striking cotinga with males in deep magenta-purple plumage set off by bold white wings, found in the canopy of Amazonian and Guiana Shield forests.
songbird
Spotted Sandpiper
A small, constantly bobbing sandpiper of North American shorelines, easily recognized in breeding plumage by the bold dark spots covering its white underparts.
shorebird
Shy Albatross
A pale, white-headed mollymawk that breeds only on a handful of islands off Tasmania, identifiable by its grey-washed nape and pale yellowish bill.
seabird
Manx Shearwater
A small, sharply black-and-white shearwater of the North Atlantic that skims low over waves with stiff wingbeats, nesting in burrows on grassy offshore islands.
seabird
Eurasian Spoonbill
An elegant white wading bird with a distinctive flat, spoon-shaped black-and-yellow bill, found sweeping shallow wetlands from Europe to Asia.
wading-bird
Australian Pelican
A large black-and-white pelican with the longest bill of any bird in the world, wandering widely across Australia's inland waterways in response to rainfall and flooding.
seabird
Crowned Lapwing
The Crowned Lapwing is a common African grassland plover easily recognized by the black-and-white ring encircling its head and its loud, repetitive calls.
shorebird
Bewick's Wren
A slender, long-tailed wren with a bold white eyebrow, known for its varied song and once-widespread eastern range now largely lost.
songbird
Bridled Tern
A pelagic tropical tern, browner and paler than its close relative the Sooty Tern, with a thin white 'bridle' line extending behind the eye.
seabird
Bank Swallow
The smallest North American swallow, brown above and white below with a crisp brown breast band, nesting colonially in burrows dug into sandy banks.
songbird
Cape Petrel
A striking black-and-white checkered petrel of the Southern Ocean, often called the Pintado Petrel, well known for following ships far from land.
seabird
Asian Brown Flycatcher
A plain, understated grey-brown flycatcher best identified by its upright posture, white eye-ring, and habit of sallying out after insects.
songbird
Bobolink
A grassland songbird famous for the breeding male's striking black-and-white "backward tuxedo" plumage and one of the longest migrations of any North American songbird.
songbird