Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Sage Thrasher
The smallest thrasher and a sagebrush-obligate songster of the arid interior West, singing long warbling songs from atop shrubs.
songbird
Western Meadowlark
The state bird of six U.S. states, prized for its rich, bubbling, flute-like song delivered across open western grasslands.
songbird
Downy Woodpecker
North America's smallest woodpecker, a friendly black-and-white bird with a small bill, common at backyard feeders across the continent.
woodpecker
Canada Warbler
A slate-gray and yellow warbler notable for the bold necklace of black streaking across its breast and the yellow "spectacles" framing its eyes.
songbird
Gray Catbird
A slate-gray songbird with a neat black cap and a rusty patch under the tail, named for its distinctive cat-like mewing call.
songbird
Botteri's Sparrow
A large, plain-faced grassland sparrow known for a distinctive accelerating song likened to a bouncing ball coming to a stop.
songbird
Zone-tailed Hawk
A blackish hawk that mimics the flight and silhouette of Turkey Vultures, letting it sneak up on unsuspecting prey.
raptor
Snail Kite
A marsh-dwelling raptor with a slender, deeply hooked bill perfectly shaped for extracting apple snails from their shells.
raptor
Sprague's Pipit
A secretive, pale grassland songbird of the northern Great Plains, best known for its extraordinary high, circling flight song.
songbird
Bushtit
A tiny, plain gray-brown songbird that travels in noisy, tumbling flocks and builds an elaborate hanging sock-like nest.
songbird
Henslow's Sparrow
A secretive prairie sparrow with a large flat head, olive face, and one of the most unimpressive songs of any North American bird.
songbird
White-breasted Nuthatch
A compact, short-tailed bird with blue-gray upperparts and white underparts, famous for creeping headfirst down tree trunks.
songbird
House Wren
A small, plain brown wren with fine dark barring on the wings and tail, known for its bubbly song and readiness to nest in birdhouses.
songbird
Lawrence's Goldfinch
A gray-and-yellow goldfinch with a black face, restricted to California and Baja California and famously unpredictable in its movements.
songbird
Northern Saw-whet Owl
One of North America's smallest owls, a secretive forest dweller named for a call once likened to a saw blade being sharpened.
owl
Black-and-white Warbler
A strikingly striped black-and-white warbler that creeps along tree trunks and branches like a nuthatch, gleaning insects from bark.
songbird
Ring-necked Duck
A distinctive diving duck of freshwater ponds, easily recognized by its sharply peaked head, black back, and boldly banded bill.
waterfowl
American Wigeon
A colorful dabbling duck known for the male's white crown, iridescent green eye patch, and high-pitched whistling call.
waterfowl
Black-billed Cuckoo
A slender and secretive forest bird celebrated for its appetite for spiny caterpillars and its rhythmic, repetitive vocalizations.
other
Cassin's Vireo
A western vireo with a subdued gray-green head, white spectacles, and pale yellow flanks, once lumped with Blue-headed and Plumbeous Vireo as the 'Solitary Vireo.'
songbird
Green Jay
A dazzlingly colored jay of south Texas brushlands with a green back, sky-blue head markings, and lemon-yellow outer tail feathers.
songbird
Chukar
A rocky-terrain partridge with a bold black facial necklace and boldly barred flanks, introduced to the arid American West from Eurasia.
gamebird
Dusky Grouse
A large, sooty gray mountain grouse of the interior Rockies, named for the male's low hooting display and yellow-orange inflatable neck sac.
gamebird
Wild Turkey
North America's largest gamebird, an iridescent bronze-and-green forest turkey famous for the male's fan-tailed strut and gobbling call.
gamebird