Bird Identifier

Bird Encyclopedia

Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.

Evening Grosbeak

Evening Grosbeak

A bulky, big-billed finch with bold black, white, and gold plumage, once a common winter visitor to feeders but now sharply declining.

songbird
Black-capped Chickadee

Black-capped Chickadee

A small, energetic bird with a black cap and bib, white cheeks, and gray back, known for its cheerful "chick-a-dee-dee" call.

songbird
Blue-winged Teal

Blue-winged Teal

A small, dabbling duck famous for the striking white crescent on the male's face and its brilliant powdery-blue wing patches exposed in flight.

waterfowl
Plumbeous Vireo

Plumbeous Vireo

The grayest member of the former 'Solitary Vireo' complex, an interior western species of pine-oak forest with white spectacles and no olive or yellow tones.

songbird
Harlequin Duck

Harlequin Duck

A small, compact sea duck of turbulent waters, breeding males show an intricate pattern of slate blue, chestnut, and bold white markings.

waterfowl
Band-tailed Pigeon

Band-tailed Pigeon

A large, purple-gray wild pigeon of western mountain forests, marked by a white crescent on the nape and a pale band across the tip of the tail.

other
Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

A small desert woodpecker with a finely barred black-and-white 'ladder' back pattern, well adapted to arid scrub, mesquite, and cactus habitat.

woodpecker
Virginia's Warbler

Virginia's Warbler

A plain gray warbler of dry southwestern mountain scrub, with a bold white eyering, a small yellow breast patch, and yellow undertail coverts.

songbird
Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

A striking black-and-white songbird whose breeding male sports a brilliant triangular rose-red patch on the breast and a massive pale bill.

songbird
Magnolia Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

A boldly patterned warbler with a black-streaked yellow breast and a distinctive black-and-white tail band, best identified from below in flight.

songbird
Common Eider

Common Eider

A large, heavy-bodied sea duck of northern coasts, breeding males are strikingly patterned in black and white with a pale green nape, while females are finely barred brown.

waterfowl
Bank Swallow

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
Bobolink

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
Red-eyed Vireo

Red-eyed Vireo

A tireless singer of eastern and northern forests, nicknamed the 'preacher bird' for its endless repeated phrases, with a gray cap, white eyebrow, and red eye.

songbird
Bewick's Wren

Bewick's Wren

A slender, long-tailed wren with a bold white eyebrow, known for its varied song and once-widespread eastern range now largely lost.

songbird
Red-headed Woodpecker

Red-headed Woodpecker

A striking, boldly patterned woodpecker with an entirely crimson head and a strongly contrasting black-and-white body, now declining across much of its range.

woodpecker
Black-throated Gray Warbler

Black-throated Gray Warbler

A crisply patterned gray, black, and white warbler of dry western woodlands, with a small yellow spot in front of the eye as its only splash of color.

songbird
Dark-eyed Junco

Dark-eyed Junco

A small, highly variable sparrow-relative often called a "snowbird," typically dark gray or brown above with a contrasting white belly and pink bill.

songbird
Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker

A medium-sized eastern woodpecker with a black-and-white barred back and a red-capped head, whose faint pinkish belly wash is rarely visible in the field.

woodpecker
Connecticut Warbler

Connecticut Warbler

A large, chunky, notoriously secretive warbler with a bold white eyering, long legs, and a walking gait, breeding in remote boreal bogs and rarely seen well.

songbird
Muscovy Duck

Muscovy Duck

A large, heavy-bodied duck with bare red or black facial skin around the eyes and bill, wild birds are glossy black with white wing patches.

waterfowl
Black Vulture

Black Vulture

A stocky, all-black scavenger with a bare gray head and short, broad wings, recognized in flight by white patches near the wingtips and quick, choppy flapping.

raptor
Gadwall

Gadwall

A subtly beautiful, medium-sized dabbling duck known for its intricate gray-brown male plumage, black rear, and distinctive white wing patch.

waterfowl
Cassin's Vireo

Cassin's Vireo

A western vireo with a subdued gray-green head, white spectacles, and pale yellow flanks, once lumped with Blue-headed and Plumbeous Vireo as the 'Solitary Vireo.'

songbird