Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Bachman's Sparrow
A secretive southeastern sparrow of open pine savanna, celebrated for one of the most beautiful songs of any North American sparrow.
songbird
Chihuahuan Raven
A desert grassland raven, smaller than the Common Raven, with white-based neck feathers normally hidden beneath black plumage.
songbird
Cactus Wren
The largest North American wren, a bold, heavily spotted desert bird that nests within the spiny protection of cholla and cactus.
songbird
Blackpoll Warbler
A boreal-breeding warbler famous for its extraordinary nonstop transoceanic migration flight from the northeastern U.S. to South America.
songbird
Booted Racket-tail
A tiny Andean hummingbird with fluffy white leg puffs ("boots") and, in males, long wire-thin tail streamers tipped with tiny racket-shaped flags.
hummingbird
Channel-billed Toucan
A large South American toucan with black plumage, a yellow-orange throat and breast, and a robust, mostly black bill with a colorful base.
other
Common Nighthawk
A cryptically patterned, long-winged aerial insect-hunter often seen at dusk with erratic, bat-like flight and a nasal "peent" call.
other
California Quail
California's state bird, a plump, sociable quail with a distinctive forward-drooping black head plume.
gamebird
Black-footed Albatross
A dark, sooty-brown albatross of the North Pacific that often nests alongside the Laysan Albatross and follows fishing vessels far from land.
seabird
Common Bulbul
A plain brown, noisy, and highly social African songbird known for its cheerful bubbling call and bright yellow undertail.
songbird
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
Chinese Bulbul
A widespread East Asian bulbul with an olive-green body, a black-and-white patterned head, and a distinctive white patch behind the eye.
songbird
Coal Tit
A small, active tit with a glossy black head, white cheeks, and a distinctive white patch on the nape, favoring conifer woodlands.
songbird
Brown Booby
A widespread tropical seabird with dark chocolate-brown upperparts sharply set off from a clean white belly and underwings.
seabird
Boreal Owl
A small, elusive owl of northern boreal forests with a squarish facial disc and a soft, high-pitched song heard mostly on cold winter nights.
owl
Burrowing Owl
A small, long-legged owl that nests underground in abandoned burrows and is often seen standing bolt upright by day.
owl
Bank Myna
A pale bluish-grey myna with an orange bare-skin eye patch, common around towns and riverbanks of the Indian subcontinent, where it nests in burrows in earthen banks.
songbird
Blue Dacnis
A small, brilliant turquoise-blue tanager relative with a black throat and back, whose olive-green female shows a contrasting blue head.
songbird
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
Cape Gannet
A large white seabird with black flight feathers and a golden crown that breeds in dense colonies on islands off southern Africa.
seabird
Common Redshank
A medium-sized, noisy sandpiper of European wetlands, nicknamed "the warden of the marshes" for its loud alarm calls, and easily told by its bright orange-red legs.
shorebird
Curlew Sandpiper
A graceful sandpiper with a long, evenly curved bill and, in breeding plumage, a rich brick-red body unlike any other small sandpiper.
shorebird
Black-headed Gull
An abundant Eurasian gull, despite its name actually sporting a chocolate-brown (not black) hood, and a rare but regular visitor to eastern North America.
seabird
Common Kestrel
A familiar, russet-backed falcon best known for its ability to hover motionless in mid-air while scanning the ground for prey.
raptor
Chestnut-sided Warbler
A bright yellow-capped warbler with bold chestnut stripes down the flanks in breeding plumage, a bird that has benefited from second-growth habitat.
songbird
Canada Warbler
A slate-gray and yellow warbler notable for the bold necklace of black streaking across its breast and the yellow "spectacles" framing its eyes.
songbird
Bewick's Swan
The Eurasian counterpart of the Tundra Swan, a compact white swan with a rounded yellow-and-black bill pattern that is unique to each individual.
waterfowl
Common Pheasant
A large, long-tailed gamebird; males are strikingly iridescent with a bare red face, while females are cryptically mottled brown.
gamebird
Cockatoo
A family of large, crested parrots native to Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, distinguished by their erectile crests and mostly white, black, pink, or grey plumage.
parrot
California Condor
North America's largest flying land bird, an enormous black scavenger with a naked orange-pink head, brought back from the brink of extinction through intensive captive breeding.
raptor
Blue Jay
A bold, crested songbird in vivid blue, white, and black, known for its loud calls and habit of caching acorns.
songbird
Bearded Reedling
A long-tailed, tawny reedbed specialist; males sport a striking grey head with a black "moustache" despite the misleading name Bearded Tit.
songbird
Brant
A small, dark sea goose with a stubby black bill and neck, closely tied to coastal eelgrass beds.
waterfowl
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
Capped Heron
A pale, elegant heron with a black cap, blue facial skin, and creamy-buff plumage found around South American wetlands.
wading-bird
Common Sandpiper
The Old World counterpart of the Spotted Sandpiper, a small, constantly bobbing shorebird found along rivers, streams, and lakes across Europe, Asia, and Africa.
shorebird
Cedar Waxwing
A sleek, crested, silky-brown songbird with a yellow-tipped tail and waxy red wingtips that travels in nomadic flocks following fruit crops.
songbird
Common Goldeneye
A hardy cavity-nesting diving duck named for its brilliant golden-yellow eye, the drake bearing a round white cheek spot on a glossy dark green head.
waterfowl
Bean Goose
A large, dark-headed grey goose of northern Eurasia named for its habit of feeding in fields of beans and grain during migration.
waterfowl
Corn Bunting
A large, chunky, streaky-brown bunting of open farmland, best known for its jangling song likened to a bunch of keys.
songbird
Chimney Swift
A dark, cigar-shaped aerial bird that nests almost exclusively in chimneys across eastern North America, spending nearly its entire life on the wing.
other
Black Drongo
A glossy black, red-eyed bird with a deeply forked tail, famous for fearlessly mobbing crows and raptors.
songbird
Australian Ringneck
A widespread, variably colored Australian parrot identified by the narrow yellow band across its hindneck.
parrot
Azure-winged Magpie
A slender, sociable corvid with a black cap, soft grey-buff body, and striking pale azure-blue wings and tail.
songbird
Bar-tailed Godwit
A long-billed godwit famous for making the longest recorded nonstop migratory flights of any bird, connecting Arctic breeding grounds with wintering coasts across the Old World and Australasia.
shorebird
Cassin's Sparrow
A plain grassland sparrow of the southern Plains famous for its fluttering nocturnal 'sky dance' flight song.
songbird
Black-browed Albatross
The most abundant and widespread albatross species, easily identified by the bold dark stripe through its eye and its yellow-orange bill.
seabird
Black Woodpecker
Europe's largest woodpecker, an all-black, crow-sized bird with a striking red crown and powerful excavating bill.
woodpecker