Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
White Tern
An entirely white, ethereal tern with large dark eyes that famously balances its single egg on a bare tree branch without building any nest at all.
seabird
Swamp Sparrow
A rusty-winged, gray-breasted sparrow closely tied to marshes and wetlands, with a slow, musical trill.
songbird
Toco Toucan
The largest and most familiar toucan species, instantly recognized by its enormous bright orange bill contrasting with glossy black plumage.
other
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
White-tailed Ptarmigan
The smallest North American ptarmigan and the only one found in the contiguous United States, an alpine specialist with an all-white tail in every season.
gamebird
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
Prairie Falcon
A pale, sandy-brown falcon of the arid West, identified in flight by dark patches under the wings near the body.
raptor
Yellow-hooded Blackbird
A marsh-dwelling blackbird whose males show a brilliant yellow head and breast contrasting sharply with an otherwise glossy black body.
songbird
Pigeon Guillemot
A dark sooty-black North Pacific auk with a white wing patch crossed by a dark wedge, and bright red feet.
seabird
Wreathed Hornbill
A large Asian hornbill with a low, corrugated casque and a bare throat pouch, colored yellow in males and blue in females, that plays a key role dispersing rainforest fruit seeds.
other
Sharp-tailed Grouse
A pale, prairie-and-brushland grouse with a short pointed tail, best known for the male's foot-stamping dance and popping purple neck sacs on the lek.
gamebird
Village Weaver
A widespread, noisy African weaver whose breeding males show a black hood, a mottled black-and-yellow back, and red eyes, best known for large, busy nesting colonies.
songbird
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
Tree Pipit
A streaky ground-feeding songbird closely resembling the Meadow Pipit, but distinguished by its habit of singing from treetops during a memorable rising and parachuting display flight.
songbird
Snow Bunting
The northernmost-breeding songbird in the world, strikingly white in summer plumage and warm rusty-brown in winter flocks.
songbird
Tawny Owl
A stocky, big-headed nocturnal owl of European woodlands, best known for its familiar hooting duet.
owl
Sooty Shearwater
A dark, sooty-brown shearwater famous for one of the longest annual migrations of any bird, tracing a huge figure-eight loop across entire ocean basins.
seabird
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
Yellow-legged Gull
A large gull of the Mediterranean and western Europe, similar to the Herring Gull but with yellow legs and a darker mantle, and a rare vagrant to eastern North America.
seabird
Welcome Swallow
A glossy blue-black swallow with a rufous forehead and throat, common across Australia and long regarded as a harbinger of spring.
songbird
New Zealand Pigeon
A large, iridescent New Zealand forest pigeon with a metallic green-bronze head and back and a pure white breast, an important disperser of seeds from large native fruiting trees.
other
Wood Pigeon
A large, common Eurasian pigeon easily told from its relatives by the bold white patches on its neck and wings.
other
Varied Bunting
A desert bunting whose male appears deep purple-blue with a rosy nape patch in good light, but nearly black in shade, found in thorny borderland scrub.
songbird
White-headed Woodpecker
An unmistakable pine-forest woodpecker with an all-white head set against a glossy black body.
woodpecker
Yellow-rumped Cacique
A noisy, colonial black-and-yellow icterid with a bright yellow rump and wing patch, often nesting near wasp colonies for protection.
songbird
Western Bluebird
A vivid blue thrush of the West with a blue (not orange) throat, chestnut breast and shoulders, and often a chestnut patch on the back.
songbird
Trumpeter Swan
North America's largest native waterfowl, an all-white swan with a solid black bill and a deep, resonant trumpeting call.
waterfowl
Verreaux's Eagle
A large, all-black eagle of African mountains and cliffs that specializes almost exclusively in hunting rock hyraxes.
raptor
Yellow-billed Stork
A striking African wading bird with mostly white and pale pink plumage, black flight feathers, and a long, curved yellow bill.
wading-bird
Yellow-billed Grosbeak
A stocky finch with an oversized yellow bill tipped in black, a black head (in males), and grey-brown body plumage.
songbird
Wilson's Warbler
A small, bright yellow warbler with an olive back and, in males, a neat round black cap, often seen flicking its tail as it forages actively in low shrubs.
songbird
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
Screaming Piha
A plain gray Amazonian cotinga famous for one of the loudest, most far-carrying calls in the rainforest despite its unremarkable appearance.
songbird
White-winged Chough
A glossy black, red-eyed Australian woodland bird that forages in noisy cooperative flocks and flashes white wing patches in flight.
songbird
Solitary Sandpiper
A dark, bold-eyed sandpiper of shaded pond edges that, true to its name, is almost always seen alone rather than in flocks.
shorebird
Whiskered Tern
A marsh tern with dark grey underparts, a black cap, and a crisp white cheek stripe that gives it a distinctive 'whiskered' face pattern.
seabird
Red-whiskered Bulbul
A perky, crested bulbul with white cheeks, a small red "whisker" patch behind the eye, and a red vent, popular in gardens across South and Southeast Asia.
songbird
Wilson's Plover
A stocky coastal plover named for ornithologist Alexander Wilson, easily told by its oversized, heavy black bill.
shorebird
Ring-necked Pheasant
An Asian-native, farmland-loving pheasant with an iridescent green head, red face wattles, and a long pointed tail on the flashy male.
gamebird
Swainson's Hawk
A long-winged prairie hawk famous for one of the longest migrations of any North American raptor, traveling all the way to the pampas of Argentina.
raptor
Spot-billed Pelican
A greyish Asian pelican named for the dark spots that appear on its bill during the breeding season, with strongholds in protected wetlands of India, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia.
seabird
Swallow Tanager
A short-billed, swallow-shaped tanager, with turquoise-blue males and grass-green females, that hawks insects on the wing and nests in burrows.
songbird
Southern Ground Hornbill
A large, mostly ground-dwelling African hornbill with black plumage, vivid red facial skin, and deep, booming dawn calls, walking savannas in tight-knit family groups.
other
Rose-ringed Parakeet
A slender bright-green parakeet with a long pointed tail; males sport a narrow black-and-pink neck ring.
parrot
Sungrebe
A secretive aquatic bird best known for the male's habit of carrying chicks in skin pouches under his wings while swimming.
other
White-plumed Honeyeater
A small olive-yellow honeyeater with a slender white crescent-shaped plume on the side of the neck, common near inland rivers and eucalypts.
songbird
Pectoral Sandpiper
A medium-sized, long-necked sandpiper with a sharply demarcated streaked breast band, favoring wet grassy meadows over open mudflats.
shorebird
Waved Albatross
The only albatross species found in the tropics, breeding almost exclusively on a single Galapagos island and famous for its elaborate bill-fencing courtship dance.
seabird