Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Abert's Towhee
A plain grayish-brown desert towhee with a black face mask, restricted to riparian corridors of the Sonoran Desert region.
songbird
Sand Martin
A small brown-and-white swallow relative that nests colonially in burrows dug into sandy banks and cliffs.
songbird
Violet-backed Starling
A small African starling with a striking sexual difference: males glow amethyst-violet while females are streaky brown and white.
songbird
Pied-billed Grebe
A chunky, secretive brown grebe of the Americas, named for its thick, pale bill marked with a black ring in the breeding season.
waterfowl
Ruddy Shelduck
A warm orange-brown, goose-like duck with a pale head and dark tail, often seen in pairs on open wetlands.
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
Common Murre
A slender, penguin-like auk with a dark brown-black back and white underparts, breeding in dense, noisy cliff colonies.
seabird
California Towhee
A plain, uniformly brown towhee with a rusty undertail, common in California backyards and known for its sharp metallic chip call.
songbird
Black Kite
A widespread, adaptable brown raptor with a shallowly forked tail, often seen scavenging in large numbers near towns and water.
raptor
Bourke's Parrot
A small, soft pink-and-brown Australian grass parrot known for its gentle nature and dawn-and-dusk feeding habits.
parrot
Oak Titmouse
A plain gray-brown, crested songbird tightly tied to oak woodlands of California, notable for its lack of bold field marks.
songbird
Northern Flicker
A large, brown, ground-foraging woodpecker with a bold black crescent bib and a flashing white rump patch visible when it flies.
woodpecker
Clapper Rail
A large, drab gray-brown rail of Atlantic and Gulf Coast salt marshes, best known for its harsh clattering call.
wading-bird
Canada Goose
A familiar large goose with a black head and neck, white chinstrap, and brown body, common on lawns and lakes across North America.
waterfowl
Alder Flycatcher
A plain, olive-brown Empidonax flycatcher of northern alder swamps and wet shrublands, virtually identical to the Willow Flycatcher except by voice.
songbird
Green-cheeked Conure
A small South American parakeet with a scaly grey-brown chest, green cheeks, and a deep maroon tail.
parrot
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
Song Thrush
A warm brown, spot-breasted garden thrush famous for smashing snail shells on favorite stone "anvils" and for its loud, repetitive song.
songbird
Limpkin
A large brown wading bird with a long downcurved bill specialized for extracting apple snails, famous for its loud, wailing nocturnal call.
wading-bird
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
Yellow-billed Grosbeak
A stocky finch with an oversized yellow bill tipped in black, a black head (in males), and grey-brown body plumage.
songbird
Spotted Nutcracker
A stocky, chocolate-brown corvid densely spotted with white, specialized for harvesting and caching conifer seeds in mountain forests.
songbird
Pine Siskin
A small, heavily streaked brown finch with sharp yellow wing and tail markings, notorious for unpredictable winter irruptions.
songbird
Hamerkop
A uniquely shaped brown wading bird with a hammer-shaped head, famed for building enormous, elaborate stick nests.
wading-bird