Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Osprey
A large, fish-eating hawk found near water nearly worldwide, easily known by its white underparts, dark eye-stripe, and dramatic feet-first dive for fish.
raptor
Bewick's Wren
A slender, long-tailed wren with a bold white eyebrow, known for its varied song and once-widespread eastern range now largely lost.
songbird
Red-tailed Hawk
North America's most familiar large hawk, often seen soaring over highways or perched on poles, named for the adult's brick-red tail.
raptor
Brown-headed Cowbird
A brood-parasitic blackbird whose glossy brown head contrasts with the male's black body, famous for laying eggs in other birds' nests.
songbird
Harris's Sparrow
North America's largest sparrow, with a black hood and bib framing a pink bill, breeding only in Canada and wintering on the Great Plains.
songbird
Common Goldeneye
A medium-sized diving duck named for its striking yellow eyes, known for the high-pitched whistling sound produced by its wings in flight.
waterfowl
Green-winged Teal
The smallest dabbling duck in North America, renowned for its agile flight, the male's striking green head stripe, and its brilliant green speculum.
waterfowl
Mandarin Duck
An exquisitely beautiful perching duck native to East Asia, famous for the male's spectacular, multi-colored ornamental plumage.
waterfowl
Red-cockaded Woodpecker
A rare cooperative-breeding woodpecker of the southeastern pine forests that excavates its nest exclusively in living, old-growth pines.
woodpecker
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
Summer Tanager
The only entirely red bird in North America, the Summer Tanager male is a rosy-red songbird known for specializing in catching and de-stinging bees and wasps.
songbird
Saltmarsh Sparrow
A tidal marsh specialist with a bright orange face and crisp streaked breast, among the most threatened songbirds in North America due to sea level rise.
songbird
Connecticut Warbler
A large, chunky, notoriously secretive warbler with a bold white eyering, long legs, and a walking gait, breeding in remote boreal bogs and rarely seen well.
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
Sage Grouse
The largest grouse in North America, an obligate sagebrush specialist famous for the male's booming lek display with inflated yellow air sacs.
gamebird
Alder Flycatcher
A plain, olive-brown Empidonax flycatcher of northern alder swamps and wet shrublands, virtually identical to the Willow Flycatcher except by voice.
songbird
Vermilion Flycatcher
A tiny, brilliant scarlet-red flycatcher of southwestern deserts and riverbanks, among the most vividly colored songbirds in North America.
songbird
Mourning Dove
A slender, soft-brown dove with a long pointed tail, one of the most abundant and widespread birds in North America, known for its mournful cooing call.
other
Black Vulture
A stocky, all-black scavenger with a bare gray head and short, broad wings, recognized in flight by white patches near the wingtips and quick, choppy flapping.
raptor
Yellow-rumped Warbler
An abundant, adaptable warbler nicknamed 'butter-butt' for its bright yellow rump, able to survive winter farther north than most warblers by eating berries.
songbird
Fox Sparrow
A large, robust sparrow named for its rich rufous coloring in eastern populations, known for vigorously kicking through leaf litter to forage.
songbird
Orange-crowned Warbler
A plain, drab olive warbler with a faint eyeline and blurry streaking below, whose namesake orange crown patch is usually hidden from view.
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
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