Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Mississippi Kite
A sleek, buoyant gray falcon-like kite that catches cicadas and dragonflies on the wing over Great Plains and southern woodlands.
raptor
Griffon Vulture
A huge, broad-winged Old World vulture that soars in flocks over mountains and plains searching for large animal carcasses.
raptor
Common Bulbul
A plain brown, noisy, and highly social African songbird known for its cheerful bubbling call and bright yellow undertail.
songbird
Cassin's Auklet
A small, plain sooty-gray auklet of the North Pacific that nests in burrows and forages mainly on krill and other tiny crustaceans.
seabird
Bushtit
A tiny, plain gray-brown songbird that travels in noisy, tumbling flocks and builds an elaborate hanging sock-like nest.
songbird
Harris's Sparrow
North America's largest sparrow, with a black hood and bib framing a pink bill, breeding only in Canada and wintering on the Great Plains.
songbird
House Wren
A small, plain brown wren with fine dark barring on the wings and tail, known for its bubbly song and readiness to nest in birdhouses.
songbird
Chinese Pond-Heron
A small East Asian heron that transforms from a plain streaky brown bird into a maroon-and-slate breeding beauty each spring.
wading-bird
Marsh Tit
A small, plain brown-gray tit with a glossy black cap and neat black bib, closely resembling the Willow Tit but favoring drier, more mature woodland.
songbird
Hermit Warbler
A plain-faced, bright yellow-headed warbler of Pacific mountain conifer forests, with a black throat and gray, unstreaked back, that hybridizes with the closely related Townsend's Warbler.
songbird
Virginia's Warbler
A plain gray warbler of dry southwestern mountain scrub, with a bold white eyering, a small yellow breast patch, and yellow undertail coverts.
songbird
Swainson's Warbler
A plain, secretive brown warbler of dense southeastern thickets, more often heard than seen thanks to its loud, ringing song.
songbird
Willow Tit
A small, plain tit nearly identical to the Marsh Tit but with a duller matte-black cap, favoring damp woodland and willow or birch scrub.
songbird
Eastern Phoebe
A plain grayish-brown flycatcher that pumps its tail while perched and famously nests on bridges, eaves, and other man-made structures.
songbird
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
Sprague's Pipit
A secretive, pale grassland songbird of the northern Great Plains, best known for its extraordinary high, circling flight song.
songbird
Bay-breasted Warbler
A boreal-forest warbler whose breeding males show rich chestnut on the crown, throat, and flanks, while fall birds turn plain greenish and are easily confused with Blackpoll Warbler.
songbird
Willet
A plain gray-brown sandpiper that transforms in flight, flashing a bold black-and-white wing pattern unlike any other North American shorebird.
shorebird
Garden Warbler
A deliberately plain, featureless warbler whose lack of markings is itself the best clue to its identity, best appreciated for its rich, sustained song.
songbird
Black-throated Blue Warbler
A strikingly two-toned warbler; males are deep slate-blue above and jet-black below with a white belly, while females are plain brownish-olive with a small white wing spot.
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
Willow Flycatcher
A plain, greenish-brown Empidonax flycatcher best identified by its sneezy 'fitz-bew' song, breeding in dense willow thickets across North America.
songbird
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
A tiny, plain-faced olive-gray songbird with a bold white eye-ring and a surprisingly loud, rollicking song from a normally hidden red crown.
songbird
Japanese Bush Warbler
A skulking, plain olive-brown warbler far better known for its explosive, flute-like spring song than for its rarely seen plumage.
songbird