Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Warbling Vireo
A plain, nondescript gray-olive vireo best known for its rich, husky, warbled song delivered from high in deciduous trees.
songbird
Willie Wagtail
A small, confident black-and-white bird constantly wagging its tail from side to side, well known for its cheerful song and bold habit of mobbing much larger birds.
songbird
Violet Sabrewing
One of the largest hummingbirds in its Central American range, with males glowing deep violet-blue overall and a heavy, slightly curved black bill.
hummingbird
Yellow-crowned Bishop
A tiny African grassland bird whose breeding male dons a vivid golden-yellow and black plumage over marshy habitat.
songbird
Yellow-throated Vireo
A canopy-dwelling eastern vireo with a bright yellow throat and spectacles, olive back, and a slow, burry song.
songbird
Wrentit
A drab, long-tailed skulker of Pacific coastal chaparral, far more often heard than seen, with a distinctive bouncing-ball song.
songbird
White-naped Crane
A grey East Asian crane with a distinctive white nape and hindneck, a bare red face, and pink legs, threatened by wetland loss along its migration routes.
wading-bird
Swallow-tailed Kite
An unmistakable black-and-white raptor with a deeply forked tail that glides effortlessly over southern swamps.
raptor
Williamson's Sapsucker
A striking mountain woodpecker whose male and female look so different they were once thought to be separate species.
woodpecker
Western Screech-Owl
A small, tufted owl of the West, closely resembling its eastern counterpart but told apart by range and a distinctive accelerating call.
owl
Violet-backed Starling
A small African starling with a striking sexual difference: males glow amethyst-violet while females are streaky brown and white.
songbird
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
A tiny, swallow-sized seabird, sooty-black with a white rump band, famous for pattering its feet across the water's surface as it feeds, and considered one of the most abundant birds on Earth.
seabird
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
A plain olive-grey honeyeater with a bold black-and-yellow stripe across the face, best known for forming huge migratory flocks along the east coast each autumn.
songbird
Varied Tit
A striking, boldly patterned tit with chestnut underparts, a black-and-white face, and a habit of caching seeds for later.
songbird
Turquoise-browed Motmot
A brilliantly colored motmot of dry Central American forest, with a turquoise brow stripe, cinnamon underparts, and a long tail ending in distinctive bare-shafted racket tips.
other
Swainson's Warbler
A plain, secretive brown warbler of dense southeastern thickets, more often heard than seen thanks to its loud, ringing song.
songbird
Western Sandpiper
A tiny, abundant sandpiper with a longer, slightly drooped bill than its similar peep relatives, forming vast flocks at key coastal stopover sites.
shorebird
Zebra Finch
A tiny, boldly patterned Australian finch famous for its orange cheek patch, fine barring, and near-constant chattering calls.
songbird
Tawny Eagle
A variably colored savanna eagle of Africa known for its highly opportunistic feeding, from scavenging carcasses to stealing prey from other birds.
raptor
Wood Duck
Widely considered one of the most strikingly colorful ducks in North America, the male wears an iridescent green-and-purple crest, chestnut breast, and bold white facial markings.
waterfowl
White-crowned Sparrow
A crisply marked sparrow with bold black-and-white crown stripes, a plain gray breast, and a pink or yellowish bill.
songbird
Whooping Crane
North America's tallest bird, a rare, snow-white crane with black wingtips that has become a flagship symbol of wildlife conservation after nearly going extinct.
wading-bird
White-cheeked Starling
A sooty grey-brown starling with a bold white face patch and orange-yellow bill, common in farmland and cities across East Asia.
songbird
Western Capercaillie
The world's largest grouse, a massive, turkey-sized bird of old pine forest famed for its bizarre, gurgling courtship display.
gamebird
Weka
A large, bold, flightless New Zealand rail with rich brown plumage, famous for its cheeky, opportunistic curiosity and its habit of investigating and sometimes stealing unattended items from campsites.
other
Variable Sunbird
A small, widespread East African sunbird whose male plumage pattern shifts noticeably from one region to the next, giving the species its name.
songbird
Superb Parrot
A slender, bright green Australian parrot with a yellow face and red throat band in males, tied closely to river red gum woodlands of the Riverina.
parrot
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Australia's largest bird of prey, the Wedge-tailed Eagle is a huge, dark brown raptor named for its distinctive long, diamond-shaped tail, often seen soaring effortlessly over open country.
raptor
Western Kingbird
A pale gray-headed, lemon-bellied flycatcher commonly seen perched on wires and fence posts across open western landscapes.
songbird
Whitehead
A small, sociable North Island endemic songbird with a plain grey-brown body and a distinctive whitish head, usually encountered in noisy, active foraging flocks.
songbird
Vinous-throated Parrotbill
A tiny, cinnamon-brown, long-tailed songbird with a stubby parrot-like bill, usually seen moving through scrub in noisy, gregarious flocks.
songbird
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
Yellow-eyed Penguin
A large, solitary-nesting New Zealand penguin named for its pale yellow eyes and the yellow band that sweeps across its head, considered one of the rarest penguin species.
seabird
Tomtit
A small, big-headed New Zealand forest bird, the male boldly black-and-white or black-and-yellow depending on region, often seen perched quietly before darting after insects.
songbird
Wandering Albatross
The largest flying seabird in the world, with a wingspan reaching up to 3.5 meters, capable of gliding for thousands of miles over the Southern Ocean with barely a wingbeat.
seabird
White-winged Crossbill
A boreal finch with a crossed bill and two bold white wing bars, specialized for feeding on spruce cones.
songbird
Umbrella Cockatoo
A large, entirely white Indonesian cockatoo named for its broad, rounded white crest that fans open like an umbrella.
parrot
Wattled Jacana
A chestnut-and-black marsh bird with extraordinarily long toes that let it walk across floating lily pads, notable for its role-reversed breeding system.
wading-bird
White-tailed Hawk
A striking pale-headed hawk of coastal Texas prairies, sometimes seen gathering at grass fires to catch fleeing prey.
raptor
Western Tanager
A vivid yellow-and-black tanager of western coniferous forests, with breeding males showing a striking orange-red head produced from a diet-derived pigment.
songbird
Woodchat Shrike
A striking Mediterranean shrike with a chestnut crown, black mask, and bold white wing patches.
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
Whimbrel
A medium-sized curlew with a boldly striped crown and long decurved bill, found on nearly every coastline in the world outside the breeding season.
shorebird
White Stork
The iconic white-and-black European stork with a long red bill and legs, famous for nesting on rooftops and chimneys and for its folklore association with delivering babies.
wading-bird
Western Marsh Harrier
The largest of the harriers, a broad-winged raptor that quarters low over reedbeds with wings held in a shallow V.
raptor
Yellow-headed Blackbird
A striking marsh blackbird with a brilliant yellow head and breast on males, forming dense breeding colonies over open water.
songbird
Violet-green Swallow
A shimmering western swallow with an iridescent green back, violet rump, and white patches that nearly wrap around the face and flanks.
songbird
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