Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
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
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
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
Short-billed Dowitcher
A medium-large sandpiper with a long, straight bill and a distinctive rapid up-and-down probing action likened to a sewing machine, favoring coastal habitats.
shorebird
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
Northern Gannet
The largest seabird in the North Atlantic, gleaming white with black wingtips and a golden-buff wash on the head, famous for spectacular high-speed plunge dives after fish.
seabird
Lesser Scaup
North America's most abundant diving duck, closely resembling the Greater Scaup but with a peaked crown and a purplish (rather than greenish) head gloss.
waterfowl
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
Marbled Godwit
A large, cinnamon-buff shorebird with a long, slightly upturned bicolored bill, breeding on North American prairie wetlands and wintering along coasts.
shorebird
Greater Prairie-Chicken
A heavily barred prairie grouse famous for the male's booming courtship display, featuring orange air sacs and erect pinnae feathers on communal leks.
gamebird
McCown's Longspur
A thick-billed prairie longspur historically named for a 19th-century army officer; in 2020 the American Ornithological Society officially renamed the species Thick-billed Longspur.
songbird
Little Bunting
A diminutive, chestnut-faced bunting of the far northern taiga, a scarce but regular vagrant to western Europe outside its core Siberian and Asian range.
songbird
Eurasian Wigeon
A Eurasian dabbling duck with a rich chestnut head and creamy forehead, an uncommon but regular visitor to North American coasts among flocks of American Wigeon.
waterfowl
Grasshopper Warbler
An extremely secretive, streaked warbler best known for its bizarre, mechanical, insect-like reeling song, often compared to the sound of a fishing reel being cast.
songbird
Black-capped Vireo
A small vireo of Texas oak scrub with a glossy black cap, bold white spectacles, and a red eye, a conservation success story after habitat restoration and cowbird control.
songbird
Barrow's Goldeneye
A western diving duck closely related to the Common Goldeneye, the drake distinguished by a crescent-shaped white face patch and a steep purplish-black head.
waterfowl
Common Crane
A tall grey crane widespread across Europe and Asia, known for its bold black-and-white head pattern, red crown patch, and loud bugling calls given during migration.
wading-bird
Bicknell's Thrush
A rare, high-elevation thrush of northeastern mountaintop spruce forests, nearly identical to Gray-cheeked Thrush but with a much smaller, more threatened range.
songbird
Emerald Toucanet
A small, compact toucan relative clothed almost entirely in bright green plumage, with a bicolored bill and, in many populations, a blue-tinged throat.
other
Greylag Goose
A large bulky gray-brown goose, ancestor of most domestic geese, with a heavy orange bill.
waterfowl
Tufted Duck
A compact Eurasian diving duck with a drooping head tuft, the drake strikingly patterned in black and white and occasionally found among scaup flocks in North America.
waterfowl