Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Common Ringed Plover
A small Eurasian plover with a single black breast band and orange legs, closely resembling its American counterpart, the Semipalmated Plover.
shorebird
Turquoise-browed Motmot
A brilliantly colored motmot of dry Central American forest, with a turquoise brow stripe, cinnamon underparts, and a long tail ending in distinctive bare-shafted racket tips.
other
Wood Stork
A large white stork of the Americas with a bald, scaly grey-black head and neck, famous for hunting fish by feel in shallow water.
wading-bird
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
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
Quaker Parrot
A grey-faced South American parakeet uniquely known for building large communal stick nests rather than nesting in tree cavities.
parrot
Silver-beaked Tanager
A velvety deep-red South American tanager with a glowing crimson rump and a pale, silvery lower mandible that gives the species its name.
songbird
Marbled Godwit
A large, cinnamon-buff shorebird with a long, slightly upturned bicolored bill, breeding on North American prairie wetlands and wintering along coasts.
shorebird
Little Blue Heron
A small heron of American wetlands, slate-blue as an adult but confusingly all-white as a juvenile, undergoing a mottled transition in its second year.
wading-bird
Lesser Rhea
A large flightless bird of the southern South American steppe, smaller and paler than the Greater Rhea, with grayish-brown plumage flecked with white.
other
Willet
A plain gray-brown sandpiper that transforms in flight, flashing a bold black-and-white wing pattern unlike any other North American shorebird.
shorebird
Tricolored Heron
A slender, dark-bodied heron of American coastal marshes with a bright white belly and neck stripe that sets it apart from all other herons.
wading-bird
Common Gull
A gentle, medium-sized gull widespread across northern Eurasia, closely related to but geographically separate from the North American Mew (Short-billed) Gull.
seabird
Bicolored Antbird
A plain rufous-brown antbird with a white throat and bare blue facial skin, one of the classic obligate army-ant followers of Central American forests.
songbird
Montezuma Oropendola
A large Central American icterid with a chestnut body, black head, orange-tipped bill, and bare blue-and-pink facial skin, known for colonial hanging nests and loud gurgling calls.
songbird
McCown's Longspur
A thick-billed prairie longspur historically named for a 19th-century army officer; in 2020 the American Ornithological Society officially renamed the species Thick-billed Longspur.
songbird
Double-crested Cormorant
A widespread North American waterbird often seen perched with wings held out to dry, identified by its dark plumage, hooked bill, and orange throat pouch.
seabird
Three-wattled Bellbird
A Central American cotinga whose male sports three long, worm-like black wattles dangling from the base of the bill and delivers an explosive, far-carrying call.
songbird
Gray Partridge
A round, orange-faced European partridge introduced to North American farm country, best known as the 'Hun' among upland game hunters, with a chestnut horseshoe mark on the male's belly.
gamebird
Cerulean Warbler
A sky-blue, canopy-dwelling warbler of mature eastern forests, among the fastest-declining North American warblers due to habitat loss on both its breeding and wintering grounds.
songbird
Winter Wren
A tiny, dark, almost tailless woodland wren of eastern North America known for its remarkably long, bubbling song.
songbird
Vermilion Flycatcher
A tiny, brilliant scarlet-red flycatcher of southwestern deserts and riverbanks, among the most vividly colored songbirds in North America.
songbird
Altamira Oriole
The largest oriole in the United States, a bright orange bird found only in the Rio Grande Valley of extreme south Texas, famous for weaving the longest hanging nest of any North American bird.
songbird
Ringed Kingfisher
The largest kingfisher in the Americas, easily recognized by its massive size, heavy bill, and entirely rufous-chestnut underparts.
other