Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Orchard Oriole
The smallest North American oriole, with adult males showing a deep chestnut-and-black plumage rather than the bright orange of most other orioles.
songbird
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
Boat-billed Heron
A bizarre, wide-eyed nocturnal heron of Latin American swamps, instantly recognizable by its enormous broad, boat-shaped bill.
wading-bird
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
Henslow's Sparrow
A secretive prairie sparrow with a large flat head, olive face, and one of the most unimpressive songs of any North American bird.
songbird
Southern Lapwing
A bold, noisy lapwing of South American grasslands and wetlands, easily recognized by its black chest markings, red eye-ring, and loud alarm calls.
shorebird
Muscovy Duck
A large, heavy-bodied waterfowl native to the American tropics, wild birds glossy black-green with white wing patches and bare red facial skin.
waterfowl
White-tailed Ptarmigan
The smallest North American ptarmigan and the only one found in the contiguous United States, an alpine specialist with an all-white tail in every season.
gamebird
Little Blue Heron
A small heron of American wetlands, slate-blue as an adult but confusingly all-white as a juvenile, undergoing a mottled transition in its second year.
wading-bird
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
Swainson's Hawk
A long-winged prairie hawk famous for one of the longest migrations of any North American raptor, traveling all the way to the pampas of Argentina.
raptor
Double-crested Cormorant
A widespread North American waterbird with glossy black plumage, an orange throat patch, and a habit of perching upright with wings spread out to dry.
seabird
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
Tricolored Heron
A slender, dark-bodied heron of American coastal marshes with a bright white belly and neck stripe that sets it apart from all other herons.
wading-bird
Wood Stork
A large white stork of the Americas with a bald, scaly grey-black head and neck, famous for hunting fish by feel in shallow water.
wading-bird
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
Gray Partridge
A round, orange-faced European partridge introduced to North American farm country, best known as the 'Hun' among upland game hunters, with a chestnut horseshoe mark on the male's belly.
gamebird
Cerulean Warbler
A sky-blue, canopy-dwelling warbler of mature eastern forests, among the fastest-declining North American warblers due to habitat loss on both its breeding and wintering grounds.
songbird
Altamira Oriole
The largest oriole in the United States, a bright orange bird found only in the Rio Grande Valley of extreme south Texas, famous for weaving the longest hanging nest of any North American bird.
songbird
Ringed Kingfisher
The largest kingfisher in the Americas, easily recognized by its massive size, heavy bill, and entirely rufous-chestnut underparts.
other
Least Bittern
The smallest heron in North America, an elusive marsh dweller that clambers through cattails with the help of long grasping toes.
wading-bird
Winter Wren
A tiny, dark, almost tailless woodland wren of eastern North America known for its remarkably long, bubbling song.
songbird
Vermilion Flycatcher
A tiny, brilliant scarlet-red flycatcher of southwestern deserts and riverbanks, among the most vividly colored songbirds in North America.
songbird
Blackpoll Warbler
A boreal-breeding warbler famous for its extraordinary nonstop transoceanic migration flight from the northeastern U.S. to South America.
songbird