Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Say's Phoebe
A soft cinnamon-bellied flycatcher of open, dry western landscapes that often nests on cliffs, barns, and abandoned buildings.
songbird
Rainbow Pitta
A jewel-toned, ground-dwelling rainforest bird of tropical northern Australia with a black head, emerald back, and scarlet belly.
songbird
Red-winged Blackbird
A glossy black marsh bird whose males display bold red-and-yellow shoulder patches while perched and singing atop cattails.
songbird
Northern Bobwhite
A small, round-bodied quail of eastern grasslands, named for the male's clear, whistled "bob-WHITE" call.
gamebird
Palm-nut Vulture
An unusual, mostly fruit-eating vulture with black-and-white plumage that lives near oil palms and waterways in West and Central Africa.
raptor
Star Finch
A small Australian grass finch with a scarlet face mask, olive-green body flecked with white spots, and a red tail and rump.
songbird
Scarlet-chested Sunbird
A widespread African sunbird whose male shows a brilliant scarlet throat patch glowing against otherwise sooty-black plumage.
songbird
Palm Warbler
A ground-loving, tail-bobbing warbler with a rusty cap in breeding plumage, often seen walking on open ground far more than most other warblers.
songbird
Painted Redstart
A striking black warbler with a bright red breast patch and bold white wing patch, common in oak canyons of the Southwest.
songbird
Snail Kite
A marsh-dwelling raptor with a slender, deeply hooked bill perfectly shaped for extracting apple snails from their shells.
raptor
Silvereye
A small olive-green bird with a distinctive white eye-ring, often seen in active flocks raiding garden fruit trees.
songbird
Seaside Sparrow
A large, dark, long-billed sparrow that never leaves the tidal salt marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
songbird
Red-billed Oxpecker
A specialized African bird that clings to buffalo, giraffe, and other large mammals, picking off ticks with its slender red bill.
songbird
Roseate Tern
A slender, pale tern with very long tail streamers and a faint rosy blush on the breast, prized by birders for its elegant, almost ghostly flight.
seabird
Sooty Grouse
A large, dark Pacific-coast mountain grouse, the coastal counterpart of the Dusky Grouse, known for the male's deep hooting display from tall conifers.
gamebird
Pileated Woodpecker
North America's largest common woodpecker, a crow-sized, mostly black bird with a flaming red crest, famous for excavating large rectangular holes in dead trees.
woodpecker
Speckled Tanager
A small, brightly patterned tanager whose yellow-green plumage is covered in a fine scattering of black spots.
songbird
Russet-backed Oropendola
A large, olive-brown to russet Amazonian icterid with a pale bill, forming noisy colonies of long hanging woven nests.
songbird
Red-throated Loon
The smallest and most lightly built loon, distinguished in summer by a wine-red throat patch and a habit of holding its bill tilted upward.
seabird
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
A striking black-and-white songbird whose breeding male sports a brilliant triangular rose-red patch on the breast and a massive pale bill.
songbird
Phainopepla
A slim, crested desert songbird; glossy jet-black males and soft gray females that depend heavily on mistletoe berries.
songbird
Red-breasted Merganser
A slim, shaggy double-crested sea duck with a thin serrated bill, the most marine of the mergansers.
waterfowl
Ruffed Grouse
A woodland grouse famous for the male's low, accelerating wing-drumming display that resembles a distant engine starting up.
gamebird
Spinifex Pigeon
A small, richly cinnamon-colored ground pigeon of arid spinifex country, with a tall pointed crest and bold red-and-black facial markings.
other
Rook
A highly social farmland crow with a bare, pale grey-white face patch and a peaked, shaggy crown.
songbird
Red Crossbill
A stocky finch with uniquely crossed mandibles specially adapted to pry seeds from conifer cones.
songbird
Regent Parrot
A slender, long-tailed yellow parrot of mallee and river red gum country, named for its rich golden plumage.
parrot
Red Knot
A chunky, robust sandpiper renowned for one of the longest migrations of any bird, famously refueling on horseshoe crab eggs at Delaware Bay.
shorebird
Scarlet Tanager
A brilliant scarlet-and-black canopy songbird of mature eastern forests, whose vivid breeding male molts into olive-yellow plumage for the winter.
songbird
Quaker Parrot
A grey-faced South American parakeet uniquely known for building large communal stick nests rather than nesting in tree cavities.
parrot
Rose-crowned Fruit Dove
A small, brightly colored fruit dove with a green body, a rose-pink crown, a grey breast, and a rich yellow-orange belly patch.
other
Spruce Grouse
A tame, dark forest grouse of the northern boreal woods that relies so heavily on camouflage it often allows extremely close approach, earning it the nickname "fool hen."
gamebird
Rock Wren
A pale, grayish-brown wren of arid rocky landscapes, known for bobbing on boulders and building pebble-paved nest paths.
songbird
Rufous Hummingbird
A tiny, fiery-orange hummingbird famous for its feisty temperament and one of the longest migrations of any bird its size.
hummingbird
Snowy Owl
A large, powerful white owl of the Arctic tundra, occasionally seen far south in winter hunting open fields by day.
owl
Ruddy Turnstone
A stocky, boldly patterned shorebird that flips stones, shells, and seaweed on the beach with its short, wedge-shaped bill in search of food.
shorebird
Nazca Booby
A large white booby of the eastern Pacific closely related to the Masked Booby, distinguished by its bright orange-pink bill.
seabird
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
Red-faced Warbler
An unmistakable warbler with a brilliant red face and throat set against a gray body, found in high mountain forests of the Southwest.
songbird
Purple-backed Fairywren
A close relative of the Variegated Fairywren adapted to Australia's arid interior, with breeding males showing purplish-blue tones and a small chestnut shoulder patch.
songbird
Pacific Black Duck
Australia's most widespread dabbling duck, mottled dark brown with a bold dark eye-stripe and cream-buff face.
waterfowl
Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill
A common southern African savanna hornbill instantly recognizable by its black-and-white plumage and oversized curved yellow bill.
other
Red-headed Weaver
A distinctive African weaver with a bright red head, throat, and bill on breeding males, set off against pale grey underparts and a mixed red-and-black back.
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
Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
A glossy black cockatoo widespread across mainland Australia, with males showing bold red tail panels and females a spotted, orange-barred pattern.
parrot
Red Junglefowl
The wild ancestor of the domestic chicken, sporting a fiery orange-red neck, glossy dark tail, and bold red comb.
gamebird
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
Regent Bowerbird
A striking rainforest songbird; the male is patterned in bold black and rich golden-yellow, one of the most vividly colored birds of eastern Australia.
songbird