Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Palm-nut Vulture
An unusual, mostly fruit-eating vulture with black-and-white plumage that lives near oil palms and waterways in West and Central Africa.
raptor
Scarlet-chested Sunbird
A widespread African sunbird whose male shows a brilliant scarlet throat patch glowing against otherwise sooty-black plumage.
songbird
Ocellated Antbird
The largest and most dominant of the Neotropical ant-following antbirds, patterned with scaly chestnut-and-black "ocelli" and bare blue facial skin.
songbird
Scarlet Honeyeater
A tiny, brilliant honeyeater in which the male is a vivid scarlet-red with black wings, one of the smallest and most colorful honeyeaters in Australia.
songbird
Green Bee-eater
A slender emerald-green bird with elongated central tail feathers and a black eye stripe, an agile aerial hunter of bees and wasps.
other
House Sparrow
A stocky, chunky-billed sparrow closely tied to human settlements, with males showing a gray crown, chestnut nape, and black bib.
songbird
Horned Puffin
A black-and-white North Pacific puffin with a bright orange-and-yellow bill and a small dark 'horn' of skin above each eye.
seabird
Great Hornbill
One of the largest hornbills, instantly recognizable by its massive yellow-and-black casque and deep, whooshing wingbeats audible from a distance.
other
Hairy Woodpecker
A medium-sized black-and-white woodpecker closely resembling the smaller Downy Woodpecker but with a proportionally much longer, chisel-like bill.
woodpecker
Lark Bunting
A gregarious prairie songbird whose breeding male turns entirely black with a bold white wing patch, Colorado's state bird.
songbird
Malleefowl
A ground-dwelling mound-building bird of arid mallee scrub, camouflaged in intricately mottled grey, brown, black, and chestnut plumage.
gamebird
Marico Sunbird
A robust southern African sunbird with a broad maroon breast band and jet-black belly, common in acacia savanna and dry woodland.
songbird
European Shag
A sleek, dark green-black diving seabird of European rocky coasts, sporting a jaunty forward-curling crest in the breeding season.
seabird
Chihuahuan Raven
A desert grassland raven, smaller than the Common Raven, with white-based neck feathers normally hidden beneath black plumage.
songbird
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 Ringed Plover
A small Eurasian plover with a single black breast band and orange legs, closely resembling its American counterpart, the Semipalmated Plover.
shorebird
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
Amazonian Motmot
A striking green forest bird with a blue-and-black crown and a long tail ending in bare-shafted rackets that it swings like a pendulum.
other
Varied Bunting
A desert bunting whose male appears deep purple-blue with a rosy nape patch in good light, but nearly black in shade, found in thorny borderland scrub.
songbird
Purple-throated Fruitcrow
A social, all-black cotinga whose males flash a glossy magenta-purple throat patch, usually seen moving through the forest canopy in small groups.
songbird
Little Tern
A tiny, fast-flying tern with a black-tipped yellow bill and white forehead patch that hovers before plunge-diving for small fish along sandy coastlines.
seabird
Common Tern
A widespread, medium-sized tern found across North America, Europe, and Asia, with a black cap, red-orange bill, and deeply forked tail typical of the group.
seabird
Townsend's Warbler
A boldly patterned warbler of Pacific Northwest conifer forests, with a black-and-yellow face pattern, dark cheek patch, and streaked yellow breast.
songbird
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