Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Willow Ptarmigan
A tundra grouse and Alaska's state bird, turning pure white in winter and rich mottled rufous-brown in summer, with males retaining a chestnut head and neck longest into spring.
gamebird
Mourning Dove
A slender, soft grayish-brown dove with a long pointed tail, one of the most widespread and familiar birds in North America, named for its low, mournful cooing call.
other
Morepork
New Zealand's only surviving native owl, a small, compact brown owl named for its distinctive, far-carrying "more-pork" call heard after dark.
owl
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
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
Northern Pintail
An elegant, slender dabbling duck named for the male's long, needle-like tail, marked by a chocolate-brown head and a crisp white neck stripe.
waterfowl
Spotted Owl
A dark-eyed, chocolate-brown forest owl closely tied to old-growth woodland and famous as a flagship species for old-growth conservation debates.
owl
Jungle Myna
A grey-brown myna with a distinctive tuft of feathers on the forehead and pale blue-white eyes, common across South and Southeast Asian towns and farmland.
songbird
Dark-eyed Junco
A small, highly variable sparrow-relative often called a "snowbird," typically dark gray or brown above with a contrasting white belly and pink bill.
songbird
Chestnut-mandibled Toucan
One of the largest toucans in the Americas, with black plumage, a yellow bib, and a long bill that is mostly black above with a distinctive chestnut-brown lower mandible.
other
Australian Owlet-nightjar
A small, big-eyed nocturnal bird with soft grey-brown mottled plumage and whisker-like facial bristles, often seen peering from a tree hollow entrance by day.
other
Tawny Frogmouth
A nocturnal bird with mottled grey, brown, and white plumage that mimics broken bark, a wide gaping mouth, and large yellow eyes, often mistaken for an owl.
other
Whitehead
A small, sociable North Island endemic songbird with a plain grey-brown body and a distinctive whitish head, usually encountered in noisy, active foraging flocks.
songbird
Willow Flycatcher
A plain, greenish-brown Empidonax flycatcher best identified by its sneezy 'fitz-bew' song, breeding in dense willow thickets across North America.
songbird
Rifleman
New Zealand's smallest bird, a tiny, tail-less-looking green-and-brown forest bird belonging to an ancient lineage found nowhere else on Earth.
songbird
Speckled Mousebird
The Speckled Mousebird is a common African bird with a long tail and soft grey-brown plumage that scurries through foliage in acrobatic little flocks, mouse-like.
other
Japanese Bush Warbler
A skulking, plain olive-brown warbler far better known for its explosive, flute-like spring song than for its rarely seen plumage.
songbird
Little Wattlebird
A streaky brown-grey honeyeater with a rufous wing patch, one of Australia's larger honeyeaters, despite lacking the fleshy face wattles of its close relatives.
songbird
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
Clay-colored Sparrow
A pale, delicately patterned sparrow with a gray nape and brown-streaked crown, giving its distinctive buzzy insect-like song from prairie shrubs.
songbird
Weka
A large, bold, flightless New Zealand rail with rich brown plumage, famous for its cheeky, opportunistic curiosity and its habit of investigating and sometimes stealing unattended items from campsites.
other
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
Hadada Ibis
A loud, grey-brown African ibis famous for its raucous 'ha-ha-ha-hadada' call, often heard echoing over gardens and cities at dawn.
wading-bird
Kaka
A large, olive-brown New Zealand forest parrot with brilliant crimson underwings, related to the alpine kea and known for its raucous calls and playful, acrobatic behavior.
parrot