Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
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
Kookaburra
A group of large, terrestrial-hunting kingfishers native to Australia and New Guinea, best known for their loud, laugh-like calls.
other
Rook
A highly social farmland crow with a bare, pale grey-white face patch and a peaked, shaggy crown.
songbird
Pukeko
A large, deep blue-purple swamphen with a bright red bill and frontal shield, a common and conspicuous sight striding through New Zealand wetlands and roadside paddocks.
wading-bird
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
Superb Lyrebird
Australia's celebrated rainforest songbird, famous for its extravagant tail and uncanny ability to mimic almost any sound it hears.
songbird
Masked Lovebird
A small East African parrot with a dark blackish-brown head, yellow collar, and a bold white eye-ring.
parrot
White-throated Sparrow
A large, boldly patterned sparrow with a crisp white throat patch and yellow lores, famous for its whistled "Oh-sweet-Canada" song.
songbird
Amethyst Sunbird
A sunbird that looks almost entirely black at rest but flashes brilliant amethyst-purple on its crown and throat when caught in good light.
songbird
Hamerkop
A uniquely shaped brown wading bird with a hammer-shaped head, famed for building enormous, elaborate stick nests.
wading-bird
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
Black-necked Stork
A tall, striking black-and-white stork with an iridescent black head and neck, found from South Asia to northern Australia, where it is sometimes locally called 'Jabiru.'
wading-bird
Variable Sunbird
A small, widespread East African sunbird whose male plumage pattern shifts noticeably from one region to the next, giving the species its name.
songbird
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
Lark Bunting
A gregarious prairie songbird whose breeding male turns entirely black with a bold white wing patch, Colorado's state bird.
songbird
Common Poorwill
A small, cryptic desert nightjar uniquely known for entering a hibernation-like torpor to survive cold weather.
other
Java Sparrow
A sleek grey-and-white estrildid finch with a bold black head, white cheek patch, and a large pink bill, native to Indonesia and widely introduced elsewhere.
songbird
Calliope Hummingbird
The smallest breeding bird in the United States and Canada, best known for the male's streaked magenta throat rays.
hummingbird
Bee Hummingbird
The world's smallest bird, a Cuban hummingbird barely larger than a large insect, with the breeding male sporting an iridescent rose-pink head and throat.
hummingbird
Bat Falcon
A small, fast falcon with a black back, orange belly, and a habit of hunting bats and birds at dawn and dusk.
raptor
Steller's Jay
A bold, crested jay of western conifer forests with a striking black head and deep blue body.
songbird
Cinereous Vulture
One of the largest flying birds on Earth, a huge dark vulture of mountains and steppe from Iberia to East Asia.
raptor
American Coot
A stocky slate-grey marsh bird with a chalky white bill, often mistaken for a duck though it is actually a rail.
wading-bird
Rüppell's Vulture
A large, mottled griffon vulture of Africa's savannas famed for flying higher than any other bird on record.
raptor