Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Clay-colored Sparrow
A pale, delicately patterned sparrow with a gray nape and brown-streaked crown, giving its distinctive buzzy insect-like song from prairie shrubs.
songbird
Common Ground Dove
A tiny, scaly-breasted dove of the southeastern and southern US, small enough to be mistaken for a sparrow until it flushes and shows rufous flashes in the wings.
other
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
Chestnut-headed Oropendola
A colonial-nesting blackbird relative with a rich chestnut head and pale-tipped bill, famous for its long, hanging, woven nests dangling from tall trees.
songbird
Cave Swallow
A cliff-swallow relative with a buffy forehead and throat that nests colonially under bridges and in caves and culverts across the southern US and Caribbean.
songbird
Wood Sandpiper
A slim, spotted Eurasian sandpiper with a bright pale eyebrow, often found in small groups around shallow freshwater marshes and flooded grassland.
shorebird
Greater Scaup
A rounded-headed diving duck of large open waters, the drake showing a glossy greenish-black head and pale gray back, closely resembling the smaller Lesser Scaup.
waterfowl
Pyrrhuloxia
A close desert relative of the Northern Cardinal, gray overall with red highlights and a stubby, parrot-like yellow bill, common in arid brushland of the Southwest.
songbird
Worm-eating Warbler
A plain buffy warbler with bold black head stripes, best known for its habit of probing curled dead leaves for caterpillars rather than eating earthworms.
songbird
Variegated Fairywren
A small, colorful fairywren whose breeding males combine blue, black, and a bright chestnut shoulder patch, found widely across mainland Australia's scrub and woodland.
songbird
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
Three-wattled Bellbird
A Central American cotinga whose male sports three long, worm-like black wattles dangling from the base of the bill and delivers an explosive, far-carrying call.
songbird
Village Weaver
A widespread, noisy African weaver whose breeding males show a black hood, a mottled black-and-yellow back, and red eyes, best known for large, busy nesting colonies.
songbird
Toco Toucan
The largest and most familiar toucan species, instantly recognized by its enormous bright orange bill contrasting with glossy black plumage.
other
Tropical Kingbird
A common, widespread tropical flycatcher with a gray head, olive back, lemon-yellow belly, and a rapid twittering call, nearly identical to Couch's Kingbird.
songbird
Red-headed Woodpecker
A striking, boldly patterned woodpecker with an entirely crimson head and a strongly contrasting black-and-white body, now declining across much of its range.
woodpecker
Ornate Hawk-Eagle
A powerful, crested forest eagle with a striking black-and-rufous head pattern and boldly barred underparts, a top predator of the Neotropical canopy.
raptor
Rough-legged Hawk
A large arctic-breeding hawk with feathered legs, seen across open fields and marshes farther south in winter, known for its habit of hovering while hunting.
raptor
Red-crowned Crane
A rare, exceptionally elegant East Asian crane with mostly white plumage, a black neck, and a small patch of bare red skin on the crown, revered as a symbol of luck and longevity.
wading-bird
Superb Fairywren
A tiny, cooperatively breeding songbird whose breeding males flash brilliant iridescent blue against black, a familiar sight in southeastern Australian gardens.
songbird
Southern Giant Petrel
A massive, bulky Southern Ocean petrel with a huge pale bill, often seen scavenging carcasses on subantarctic beaches, earning it the nickname "stinker."
seabird
Siberian Crane
A critically endangered white crane that breeds on remote Russian Arctic tundra and undertakes one of the longest migrations of any crane to wintering wetlands in China.
wading-bird
Red-crowned Parakeet
A small, bright green New Zealand parakeet with a crimson crown and eye-stripe, now largely restricted to predator-free offshore islands and forest reserves.
parrot
Rainbow Lory
A vividly colored lorikeet of Indonesia, New Guinea, and the southwest Pacific, closely related to Australia's Rainbow Lorikeet and often known by the same common name.
parrot