Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Razorbill
A stocky black-and-white North Atlantic auk with a deep, blunt bill crossed by a white line, the closest living relative of the extinct Great Auk.
seabird
Royal Albatross
A huge white albatross of New Zealand waters, nearly the size of the Wandering Albatross, best known for the mainland colony at Taiaroa Head.
seabird
Wilson's Plover
A stocky coastal plover named for ornithologist Alexander Wilson, easily told by its oversized, heavy black bill.
shorebird
Sedge Wren
A tiny, secretive wren of wet sedge meadows, notable for its erratic breeding movements and finely streaked crown.
songbird
Marsh Wren
A small, energetic wren of cattail marshes, known for its loud, gurgling song and the male's habit of building multiple decoy nests.
songbird
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
Rockhopper Penguin
A small, feisty crested penguin known for hopping between boulders rather than waddling, with spiky yellow head plumes and red eyes.
seabird
Green Wood Hoopoe
A glossy, iridescent African bird with a long curved red bill and tail, known for its raucous cackling calls and tight-knit family groups.
other
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
Eurasian Magpie
A boldly pied corvid with a long, iridescent tail, known for its intelligence and adaptability to human landscapes.
songbird
Royal Spoonbill
A large white wading bird of Australasia with a distinctive black, spoon-shaped bill that it sweeps through shallow water to feel for prey.
wading-bird
Little Corella
A gregarious white cockatoo of inland Australia with pale blue-grey eye-rings, often seen in huge, noisy flocks.
parrot
Common Murre
A slender, penguin-like auk with a dark brown-black back and white underparts, breeding in dense, noisy cliff colonies.
seabird
Kelp Gull
A widespread Southern Hemisphere gull with a black back and white head, ecologically similar to the Great Black-backed Gull of the north, and a rare vagrant to the Gulf Coast of North America.
seabird
Mew Gull
A small, gentle-faced gull of the Pacific Northwest, recently split from the Eurasian Common Gull and now officially known as the Short-billed Gull.
seabird
African Openbill
A dark, glossy African stork whose uniquely gapped bill is specially shaped for extracting freshwater snails from their shells.
wading-bird
Yellowhammer
A vividly yellow-headed bunting of farmland hedgerows, famous for its song often rendered as "a little bit of bread and no cheese."
songbird
Masked Lovebird
A small East African parrot with a dark blackish-brown head, yellow collar, and a bold white eye-ring.
parrot
Lesser Yellowlegs
A slim, delicate sandpiper with bright yellow legs, essentially a smaller, daintier version of the Greater Yellowlegs with a shorter, straighter bill.
shorebird
White-throated Toucan
A large Amazonian rainforest bird famous for its massive orange-and-black bill, glossy black body, and bright white throat and chest patch.
other
Verdin
A tiny, active desert songbird with a bright yellow head and a chestnut shoulder patch, famous for its bulky twig nests.
songbird
Common Yellowthroat
A skulking marsh warbler with a bright yellow throat, best known for the male's bold black facial mask and witchety-witchety-witchety song.
songbird
American Goldfinch
A small finch famous for the male's brilliant lemon-yellow breeding plumage and black cap, wings, and tail.
songbird
Greater Yellowlegs
A tall, elegant sandpiper with bright yellow legs and a loud, ringing alarm call that has earned it the nickname "telltale."
shorebird