Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Redhead
A medium-sized diving duck easily recognized by the male's striking cinnamon-red head, steep forehead, and bright yellow eyes.
waterfowl
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Nicknamed the 'rain crow,' this secretive, elegant forest bird is renowned for its distinctive guttural calls and specialized appetite for hairy caterpillars.
other
Dickcissel
A grassland songbird resembling a small meadowlark, with breeding males showing a yellow breast, black bib, and a name derived from its buzzy, insect-like song.
songbird
Black Scoter
A small, entirely black sea duck; males have a simple bright yellow-orange knob at the base of the bill, the plainest but most vocal of the scoters.
waterfowl
Northern Parula
A small, compact, blue-gray and yellow warbler with a distinctive bicolored bill, closely tied to hanging Spanish moss or Usnea lichen for nesting.
songbird
Sharp-shinned Hawk
North America's smallest accipiter, a compact, forest-dwelling hawk built for quick, agile pursuit of small songbirds.
raptor
Harris's Sparrow
North America's largest sparrow, with a black hood and bib framing a pink bill, breeding only in Canada and wintering on the Great Plains.
songbird
Downy Woodpecker
North America's smallest woodpecker, a friendly black-and-white bird with a small bill, common at backyard feeders across the continent.
woodpecker
Greater Sage-Grouse
North America's largest grouse, an iconic sagebrush specialist known for the male's elaborate booming lek display with inflated yellow air sacs.
gamebird
Wild Turkey
North America's largest gamebird, an iridescent bronze-and-green forest turkey famous for the male's fan-tailed strut and gobbling call.
gamebird
Northern Saw-whet Owl
One of North America's smallest owls, a secretive forest dweller named for a call once likened to a saw blade being sharpened.
owl
Blue-throated Mountain-gem
One of North America's largest hummingbirds, renowned for its brilliant blue throat, bold facial stripes, and loud, squeaky calls.
hummingbird
Red-tailed Hawk
North America's most familiar large hawk, often seen soaring over highways or perched on poles, named for the adult's brick-red tail.
raptor
Greater Sage-Grouse
Famous for their spectacular springtime courtship displays on communal lekking grounds, the Greater Sage-Grouse is an iconic, sagebrush-obligate resident of Western North America's shrublands.
gamebird
Common Ground Dove
North America's smallest dove, a tiny, scaly-patterned bird of the southern states that scurries on the ground and flashes rufous in its wings when it flies.
other
Purple Martin
North America's largest swallow, a glossy blue-black aerial insectivore whose eastern population now nests almost entirely in birdhouses provided by people.
songbird
Lucy's Warbler
One of North America's smallest warblers, a pale gray desert species with a chestnut rump and crown patch, unusual among warblers for nesting in tree cavities.
songbird
Pileated Woodpecker
North America's largest common woodpecker, a crow-sized, mostly black bird with a flaming red crest, famous for excavating large rectangular holes in dead trees.
woodpecker
California Condor
North America's largest flying land bird, an enormous black scavenger with a naked orange-pink head, brought back from the brink of extinction through intensive captive breeding.
raptor