Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Helmeted Hornbill
A rare Southeast Asian rainforest hornbill famed for its unique solid ivory casque, extremely long tail streamers, and eerie cackling call, now critically endangered from poaching.
other
Calliope Hummingbird
The smallest breeding bird in the United States and Canada, best known for the male's streaked magenta throat rays.
hummingbird
Bronzed Cowbird
A stocky blackbird with a distinctive ruff of neck feathers and striking red eyes that, like other cowbirds, lays its eggs in the nests of other birds.
songbird
Red-billed Oxpecker
A specialized African bird that clings to buffalo, giraffe, and other large mammals, picking off ticks with its slender red bill.
songbird
Red-backed Shrike
A small predatory songbird known for impaling prey on thorns, with a chestnut back and a bold black highwayman's mask.
songbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
An elegant pale gray flycatcher with an extraordinarily long, deeply forked tail and salmon-pink flanks, a signature bird of Texas and Oklahoma grasslands.
songbird
Great Grey Shrike
A predatory grey-and-white songbird nicknamed the "butcher bird" for its habit of impaling prey on thorns to store for later.
songbird
Kakapo
A flightless, nocturnal, moss-green New Zealand parrot and the heaviest parrot in the world, now surviving only on intensively managed predator-free islands.
parrot
African Jacana
The African Jacana is a striking wetland bird famed for its enormous toes that let it walk across floating lily pads, earning it the nickname "lily-trotter."
shorebird
Atlantic Canary
A small, streaky yellow-green finch native to the Canary Islands, Azores, and Madeira, and the wild ancestor of the familiar Domestic Canary.
songbird
Masked Lovebird
A small East African parrot with a dark blackish-brown head, yellow collar, and a bold white eye-ring.
parrot
Chinese Pond-Heron
A small East Asian heron that transforms from a plain streaky brown bird into a maroon-and-slate breeding beauty each spring.
wading-bird
Black-necked Stilt
A striking black-and-white shorebird with impossibly long, thin pink legs, wading gracefully through shallow water.
shorebird
Common Black Hawk
A broad-winged, all-black hawk tightly tied to desert rivers, where it wades and forages for crabs and other aquatic prey.
raptor
Indian Roller
A stocky, brownish bird that erupts into brilliant flashes of blue when it takes flight, prized as a state bird symbol across India.
other
Crimson Sunbird
A brilliant scarlet-and-yellow sunbird and the national bird of Singapore.
songbird
Pied Avocet
A striking black-and-white wader with a slender upturned bill, famous as the emblem of British bird conservation.
shorebird
Rifleman
New Zealand's smallest bird, a tiny, tail-less-looking green-and-brown forest bird belonging to an ancient lineage found nowhere else on Earth.
songbird
Great Bustard
One of the heaviest flying birds in the world, a massive steppe and farmland bird famous for the male's elaborate courtship display of inflated white plumes.
other
Virginia Rail
A slender, secretive marsh bird with a long reddish downcurved bill, rusty breast, and gray cheeks.
wading-bird
Ostrich
The world's largest and heaviest living bird, a flightless African species built for speed on the open savanna.
other
Lilac-breasted Roller
A dazzlingly multicolored African savanna bird famed for its acrobatic tumbling courtship flight display.
other
Black Drongo
A glossy black, red-eyed bird with a deeply forked tail, famous for fearlessly mobbing crows and raptors.
songbird
Cape Robin-Chat
A familiar southern African garden bird with an orange face and breast, grey belly, and a rich, melodious song.
songbird