Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Black-and-white Warbler
A strikingly striped black-and-white warbler that creeps along tree trunks and branches like a nuthatch, gleaning insects from bark.
songbird
Blue-throated Mountain-gem
One of the largest North American hummingbirds, identified by its bold white facial stripes and broad white-cornered tail.
hummingbird
Curve-billed Thrasher
A common, noisy desert thrasher with a long downcurved bill and orange-red eyes, often seen atop cactus in the Southwest.
songbird
Brown Shrike
A migratory rufous-brown shrike with a black mask, commonly seen perched on low bushes and wires during the non-breeding season.
songbird
Budgerigar
A small, nomadic Australian parrot; the wild form is bright green and yellow with fine black scalloping across the back and wings.
parrot
American Bittern
A master of camouflage among North American marshes, best known for its odd pumping call and its habit of freezing bill-up in the reeds.
wading-bird
American Avocet
An elegant black-and-white shorebird with a slender upturned bill and, in breeding season, a warm cinnamon-orange head and neck.
shorebird
African Pygmy Falcon
Africa's smallest raptor, a tiny falcon of dry savanna that nests almost exclusively in the communal nests of sociable weavers.
raptor
American Purple Gallinule
The traditional American name for the Purple Gallinule, a jewel-toned marsh bird with purple-blue plumage and huge yellow feet.
wading-bird
Greater Bird-of-paradise
A spectacular New Guinea bird-of-paradise famed for the male's cascading golden-yellow flank plumes, displayed in dramatic communal courtship dances high in the rainforest canopy.
songbird
Dalmatian Pelican
The largest of the world's pelican species, a greyish-white giant with shaggy curled nape feathers and a striking orange-red pouch, once seriously threatened but now slowly recovering.
seabird
Tricolored Heron
A slender, dark-bodied heron of American coastal marshes with a bright white belly and neck stripe that sets it apart from all other herons.
wading-bird
Turkey Vulture
A large, dark scavenger with a naked red head and a distinctive tilting, V-shaped soaring flight, famed for its exceptional sense of smell.
raptor
Swainson's Thrush
A buffy-faced forest thrush known for its upward-spiraling flute-like song and heavy nocturnal migration through much of North America.
songbird
Vesper Sparrow
A streaky grassland sparrow with a white eye-ring, chestnut shoulder patch, and white outer tail feathers, named for its evening song.
songbird
White-browed Sparrow-Weaver
A cooperatively breeding savanna bird known for its conspicuous white eyebrow and untidy grass nests built in acacia trees.
songbird
Tawny Frogmouth
A nocturnal bird with mottled grey, brown, and white plumage that mimics broken bark, a wide gaping mouth, and large yellow eyes, often mistaken for an owl.
other
Western Grebe
A large, elegant black-and-white grebe with a long swan-like neck, famous for its dramatic rushing courtship dance across the water.
waterfowl
Tundra Swan
A medium-sized white swan of the Arctic tundra, often showing a small yellow spot near the bill, that winters in large flocks on coastal wetlands.
waterfowl
Whooper Swan
A large Eurasian swan with a yellow-and-black bill and a loud, bugling voice, breeding across the far north and famed for long migratory flights.
waterfowl
Wild Turkey
North America's largest gamebird, a bronze-iridescent forest turkey famous for the male's fanned tail and booming spring gobble.
gamebird
White Tern
An entirely white, ethereal tern with large dark eyes that famously balances its single egg on a bare tree branch without building any nest at all.
seabird
White-winged Chough
A glossy black, red-eyed Australian woodland bird that forages in noisy cooperative flocks and flashes white wing patches in flight.
songbird
Swainson's Hawk
A long-winged prairie hawk famous for one of the longest migrations of any North American raptor, traveling all the way to the pampas of Argentina.
raptor