Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Harpy Eagle
One of the largest and most powerful eagles on Earth, the Harpy Eagle is a massive gray-and-white raptor of the Neotropical rainforest canopy, famed for hunting sloths and monkeys.
raptor
Hooded Warbler
A vivid yellow-faced warbler of eastern forest understory whose males wear a bold black hood, and which flashes white outer tail feathers as it flicks its tail while foraging.
songbird
Leach's Storm-Petrel
A small, dark, forked-tailed storm-petrel with an erratic, bat-like flight, spending nearly its entire life far out at sea and visiting nesting burrows only at night.
seabird
Dusky Flycatcher
A gray-olive Empidonax flycatcher of open western mountain shrublands and forest edges, closely resembling several relatives and best told apart by voice.
songbird
Forster's Tern
A medium-sized tern that breeds almost entirely within North America, distinguished from the similar Common Tern by its pale, silvery wingtips and orange legs.
seabird
Firecrest
A tiny, jewel-like woodland bird closely related to the Goldcrest, but brighter and more boldly patterned with a striking white eyebrow stripe and black eye mask.
songbird
Gadwall
A subtly patterned gray dabbling duck whose understated plumage reveals intricate vermiculated markings and a black rear end when seen up close.
waterfowl
European Starling
A stocky, iridescent black songbird introduced to North America in the 1890s, known for its speckled winter plumage, versatile mimicry, and massive flocks.
songbird
Cordilleran Flycatcher
A yellowish interior-mountain flycatcher virtually identical to the Pacific-slope Flycatcher, found in shaded coniferous canyons of the Rockies and Great Basin.
songbird
Common Redstart
A brightly colored migratory chat of open woodland, the male showing a grey back, black face, and fiery orange breast and tail, constantly quivering its rufous tail.
songbird
Australian Owlet-nightjar
A small, big-eyed nocturnal bird with soft grey-brown mottled plumage and whisker-like facial bristles, often seen peering from a tree hollow entrance by day.
other
Australian Pelican
A large black-and-white pelican with the longest bill of any bird in the world, wandering widely across Australia's inland waterways in response to rainfall and flooding.
seabird
Common Sandpiper
The Old World counterpart of the Spotted Sandpiper, a small, constantly bobbing shorebird found along rivers, streams, and lakes across Europe, Asia, and Africa.
shorebird
Bank Myna
A pale bluish-grey myna with an orange bare-skin eye patch, common around towns and riverbanks of the Indian subcontinent, where it nests in burrows in earthen banks.
songbird
Common Redshank
A medium-sized, noisy sandpiper of European wetlands, nicknamed "the warden of the marshes" for its loud alarm calls, and easily told by its bright orange-red legs.
shorebird
Black-legged Kittiwake
A true oceanic gull that spends most of its life far from land, breeding in dense, noisy colonies on sheer sea cliffs and named for its distinctive 'kitti-waaake' call.
seabird
Common Kingfisher
A vivid jewel-toned kingfisher with electric-blue upperparts and orange underparts, often glimpsed as a flash of color over slow-moving rivers and ponds.
other
Brandt's Cormorant
A stocky, dark cormorant of the Pacific coast known for a buffy throat patch bordered by a striking blue breeding pouch, nesting in dense colonies on coastal cliffs and islands.
seabird
Brown-crested Flycatcher
The largest of the North American Myiarchus flycatchers, a bushy-crested, cavity-nesting bird of desert washes and saguaro country with a rolling 'whit-will-do' call.
songbird
Caspian Tern
The largest tern in the world, a gull-sized bird with a massive coral-red bill and a harsh, crow-like call, found on coasts and large lakes across every continent except Antarctica.
seabird
Bobolink
A grassland songbird famous for the breeding male's striking black-and-white "backward tuxedo" plumage and one of the longest migrations of any North American songbird.
songbird
African Harrier-Hawk
A grey African raptor famed for its unusually flexible, double-jointed legs, which let it reach deep into tree holes and weaver-bird nests to extract prey.
raptor
African Fish Eagle
A striking white-headed, chestnut-bodied eagle found near lakes and rivers across sub-Saharan Africa, celebrated for its unmistakable, far-carrying call.
raptor
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