Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Wilson's Snipe
A stocky, cryptically patterned North American marsh bird with an extremely long bill, best known for the eerie winnowing sound males make during display flights.
shorebird
Whooping Crane
North America's tallest bird, a rare, snow-white crane with black wingtips that has become a flagship symbol of wildlife conservation after nearly going extinct.
wading-bird
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
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
A slender, secretive woodland bird nicknamed the 'rain crow' for its habit of calling before summer storms, marked by a downcurved yellow lower bill and rufous flight feathers.
other
Sarus Crane
The world's tallest flying bird, a grey crane with a bare red head and neck, revered in South Asian culture as a symbol of marital fidelity.
wading-bird
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
Great White Pelican
A massive, predominantly white pelican of Old World wetlands with one of the largest wingspans of any flying bird, often fishing in coordinated groups.
seabird
Indian Skimmer
A rare South Asian riverine bird with a heavy orange-yellow bill, now confined to a shrinking number of undammed rivers with exposed sandbars.
seabird
Lapland Longspur
A circumpolar Arctic breeder that winters in large flocks across open fields, with striking black-faced breeding males and rusty-naped winter birds.
songbird
Green Heron
A small, stocky, secretive heron with a dark greenish back, chestnut neck, and a reputation as one of the few birds known to use tools to catch fish.
wading-bird
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
Bar-tailed Godwit
A long-billed godwit famous for making the longest recorded nonstop migratory flights of any bird, connecting Arctic breeding grounds with wintering coasts across the Old World and Australasia.
shorebird
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
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
American Redstart
An acrobatic warbler often called 'the butterfly bird' for its habit of fanning bold orange or yellow tail and wing patches while flushing insects.
songbird
Chestnut-sided Warbler
A bright yellow-capped warbler with bold chestnut stripes down the flanks in breeding plumage, a bird that has benefited from second-growth habitat.
songbird
Nene
Hawaii's state bird and the world's rarest goose, a buff-necked, black-faced goose descended from Canada Geese that adapted to life on volcanic terrain.
waterfowl
Pygmy Nuthatch
A tiny, highly social nuthatch of western pine forests, notable for cooperative breeding with helper birds at the nest.
songbird
Northern Bald Ibis
A dramatic, bald-headed ibis with glossy black plumage and a shaggy neck ruff, once widespread but now one of the world's rarest birds outside a handful of strongholds.
wading-bird
Island Scrub-Jay
A large, deep-blue scrub-jay found only on Santa Cruz Island off the California coast, the most range-restricted bird in the continental United States.
songbird
Black Skimmer
A striking black-and-white coastal bird with an unmistakable knife-like bill whose lower mandible is longer than the upper, used to skim fish from the water.
seabird
Brown-headed Nuthatch
A tiny brown-capped nuthatch of southeastern pine forests, notable as one of the few birds known to use tools.
songbird
Willow Ptarmigan
A tundra grouse and Alaska's state bird, turning pure white in winter and rich mottled rufous-brown in summer, with males retaining a chestnut head and neck longest into spring.
gamebird
Great Black-backed Gull
The largest gull in the world, an imposing, dark-backed predator of the North Atlantic coast that preys on other birds as readily as it scavenges.
seabird