Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Greater Sage-Grouse
The largest North American grouse, famous for males' spectacular strutting display with inflated air sacs on communal leks scattered across the sagebrush sea.
gamebird
Bank Swallow
The smallest North American swallow, brown above and white below with a crisp brown breast band, nesting colonially in burrows dug into sandy banks.
songbird
Black Swift
The largest North American swift, an all-dark bird that nests almost exclusively on cliff ledges behind or near waterfalls and in coastal sea caves.
other
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
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
Blue-throated Mountain-gem
One of the largest North American hummingbirds, identified by its bold white facial stripes and broad white-cornered tail.
hummingbird
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
Magellanic Penguin
A medium-sized South American banded penguin, marked by a single black band across the chest, that nests in burrows along the coasts of Argentina, Chile, and the Falklands.
seabird
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
Boat-billed Heron
A bizarre, wide-eyed nocturnal heron of Latin American swamps, instantly recognizable by its enormous broad, boat-shaped bill.
wading-bird
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
Channel-billed Toucan
A large South American toucan with black plumage, a yellow-orange throat and breast, and a robust, mostly black bill with a colorful base.
other
Capped Heron
A pale, elegant heron with a black cap, blue facial skin, and creamy-buff plumage found around South American wetlands.
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
Turquoise-browed Motmot
A brilliantly colored motmot of dry Central American forest, with a turquoise brow stripe, cinnamon underparts, and a long tail ending in distinctive bare-shafted racket tips.
other
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
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
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
Quaker Parrot
A grey-faced South American parakeet uniquely known for building large communal stick nests rather than nesting in tree cavities.
parrot
Sandhill Crane
A tall grey North American crane with a bare red crown, best known for the spectacular mass migration gatherings along the Platte River.
wading-bird
Silver-beaked Tanager
A velvety deep-red South American tanager with a glowing crimson rump and a pale, silvery lower mandible that gives the species its name.
songbird
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
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
Lesser Rhea
A large flightless bird of the southern South American steppe, smaller and paler than the Greater Rhea, with grayish-brown plumage flecked with white.
other