Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Merlin
A compact, fast-flying falcon that chases down small birds with relentless, low-level pursuit rather than a high stoop.
raptor
Wompoo Fruit Dove
The largest of Australia's fruit doves, a spectacular rainforest bird with a grey head, deep purple-magenta breast, yellow-green back, and yellow-striped belly.
other
Rockhopper Penguin
A small, feisty crested penguin known for hopping between boulders rather than waddling, with spiky yellow head plumes and red eyes.
seabird
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
Black Guillemot
A small all-black auk with striking white wing patches and bright red legs and mouth lining, found along rocky North Atlantic coasts.
seabird
Regent Parrot
A slender, long-tailed yellow parrot of mallee and river red gum country, named for its rich golden plumage.
parrot
Pinyon Jay
A uniformly blue, crestless, highly social jay of pinyon-juniper woodlands that lives in large, noisy flocks year-round.
songbird
Spectacled Owl
A large, dark-headed owl named for the bold white "spectacles" that ring its eyes, with a strikingly different all-white juvenile plumage.
owl
Little Blue Heron
A small heron of American wetlands, slate-blue as an adult but confusingly all-white as a juvenile, undergoing a mottled transition in its second year.
wading-bird
Verreaux's Eagle
A large, all-black eagle of African mountains and cliffs that specializes almost exclusively in hunting rock hyraxes.
raptor
Bateleur
A distinctive short-tailed African eagle famous for its rocking, tightrope-walker flight and vivid red face and legs.
raptor
Stock Dove
A blue-grey pigeon of farmland and parkland, smaller and neater than the Woodpigeon, lacking any white in the plumage.
other
Canyon Wren
A rock-clinging wren with a bright white throat and rusty body, famous for its cascading, whistled song echoing through canyons.
songbird
Black Redstart
A dusky, rock-loving chat that has adapted well to towns and industrial sites, the male dark sooty-grey with a constantly quivering rust-red tail.
songbird
Long-tailed Duck
An Arctic sea duck known for the male's long slender tail streamers and unusually complex seasonal plumages.
waterfowl
Black Oystercatcher
An all-black shorebird of rocky Pacific coastlines, with a long orange bill perfectly suited to prying limpets and mussels from rocks.
shorebird
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
A high-elevation hummingbird of the Rocky Mountains whose wings produce a distinctive cricket-like trill in flight.
hummingbird
European Shag
A sleek, dark green-black diving seabird of European rocky coasts, sporting a jaunty forward-curling crest in the breeding season.
seabird
Brown-capped Rosy-Finch
A stocky pink-tinged finch of the highest Rocky Mountain peaks, found nowhere else on Earth.
songbird
Rufous-crowned Sparrow
A chunky, non-migratory sparrow of rocky hillsides marked by a rusty cap and a black-and-white striped face.
songbird
Black Rosy-Finch
The darkest of the three rosy-finches, breeding only in a narrow band of high central Rocky Mountain peaks and considered especially vulnerable to a warming climate.
songbird
Noisy Pitta
A brilliantly coloured, shy rainforest ground bird known for its loud 'walk-to-work' call and habit of smashing snails on rocks.
songbird
Lammergeier
A huge Old World vulture famous for dropping bones onto rocks to crack them open and feeding almost exclusively on bone marrow.
raptor
Emperor Goose
A stocky, silvery-grey goose with a scaled feather pattern, a white head and hindneck, and a strong preference for rocky Arctic and subarctic coastlines.
waterfowl