Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Cooper's Hawk
A medium-sized woodland hawk that has become a common backyard predator at bird feeders, agile enough to chase prey through dense cover.
raptor
Blue Dacnis
A small, brilliant turquoise-blue tanager relative with a black throat and back, whose olive-green female shows a contrasting blue head.
songbird
Black-tailed Godwit
A long-legged, long-billed godwit of European wet meadows, easily identified in flight by its bold white wing stripe and black tail band.
shorebird
Clark's Grebe
A large, pale grebe closely resembling the Western Grebe, distinguished by a brighter orange bill and white plumage encircling the eye.
waterfowl
Cory's Shearwater
A large, gull-like shearwater of the Atlantic Ocean, with brownish-grey upperparts, a yellowish bill, and a slow, languid flight low over the waves.
seabird
Common Chaffinch
One of Europe's most abundant finches, the male sporting a blue-gray crown and pink-buff breast, both sexes showing bold white wing bars.
songbird
Black-bellied Plover
A large, robust plover known as the Grey Plover in the Old World, striking in breeding plumage with a black face and belly and diagnostic black "wingpits" in flight.
shorebird
Common Raven
A massive, highly intelligent black corvid with a wedge-shaped tail and deep croaking voice, found across a vast range of wild habitats.
songbird
Black-billed Cuckoo
A slim, elusive, all-dark-billed cuckoo of eastern thickets, distinguished from its yellow-billed relative by a red eye-ring and lack of rufous in the wing.
other
Common Buzzard
A broad-winged, soaring hawk of Europe and Asia with highly variable plumage, commonly seen circling over farmland and woodland edges.
raptor
Blue-crowned Motmot
A striking, sluggish forest bird with a black-bordered blue crown, greenish body, and a long, distinctive racket-tipped tail that it swings like a pendulum.
other
Willie Wagtail
A small, confident black-and-white bird constantly wagging its tail from side to side, well known for its cheerful song and bold habit of mobbing much larger birds.
songbird
Whiskered Screech-Owl
A small, gray, ear-tufted owl of southwestern oak canyons, best distinguished from the similar Western Screech-Owl by its distinctive irregular-rhythm song.
owl
Swallow-winged Puffbird
A distinctive puffbird with long, pointed swallow-like wings and a chestnut rump, often seen perched on riverside snags sallying for insects like a swallow.
other
Waxwing
A crested, silky pinkish-grey bird with a black mask, yellow-tipped tail, and waxy red wingtips, best known for irruptive winter berry-feasting flocks.
songbird
Rainbow Lorikeet
A brilliantly multicolored Australian parrot with a deep blue head, green wings, and an orange breast band, common in gardens and flowering trees.
parrot
Sooty Tern
A truly pelagic tern with sooty black-brown upperparts and crisp white underparts that spends most of its life on the wing far out over tropical seas.
seabird
Roseate Tern
A slender, pale tern with very long tail streamers and a faint rosy blush on the breast, prized by birders for its elegant, almost ghostly flight.
seabird
Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
A glossy black cockatoo widespread across mainland Australia, with males showing bold red tail panels and females a spotted, orange-barred pattern.
parrot
Semipalmated Sandpiper
A small, gray-brown sandpiper with a short, straight bill and partially webbed toes, famous for forming massive migratory flocks at coastal staging sites.
shorebird
Shoebill
An enormous, prehistoric-looking wading bird of African swamps, famous for its massive shoe-shaped bill and statue-like patience while hunting.
wading-bird
Saffron Finch
A bright yellow, open-country finch-like tanager with an orange-tinged crown in males, common in parks, savanna, and grassland across South America.
songbird
Kentucky Warbler
A ground-loving, skulking warbler of southeastern forests, olive above and bright yellow below, with bold black "sideburns" framing yellow spectacles.
songbird
Hutton's Vireo
A plain, year-round resident vireo of western oak woodlands, easily confused with the Ruby-crowned Kinglet, with a broken white eye-ring and two wing bars.
songbird