Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
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
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
Common Gull
A gentle, medium-sized gull widespread across northern Eurasia, closely related to but geographically separate from the North American Mew (Short-billed) Gull.
seabird