Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Violet-backed Starling
A small African starling with a striking sexual difference: males glow amethyst-violet while females are streaky brown and white.
songbird
Whiskered Tern
A marsh tern with dark grey underparts, a black cap, and a crisp white cheek stripe that gives it a distinctive 'whiskered' face pattern.
seabird
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
Scaled Quail
A bluish-gray desert quail nicknamed "cottontop" for its bushy white crest, with feathers edged to create a distinctive scaly look.
gamebird
Lazuli Bunting
The western counterpart of the Indigo Bunting, with males showing a sky-blue head and back, a warm orange breast band, and a white belly.
songbird
Horned Puffin
A black-and-white North Pacific puffin with a bright orange-and-yellow bill and a small dark 'horn' of skin above each eye.
seabird
Harlequin Duck
A small, compact sea duck with intricately patterned slate-blue, chestnut, and white plumage, at home in whitewater rivers and pounding surf.
waterfowl
Hairy Woodpecker
A medium-sized black-and-white woodpecker closely resembling the smaller Downy Woodpecker but with a proportionally much longer, chisel-like bill.
woodpecker
Lark Bunting
A gregarious prairie songbird whose breeding male turns entirely black with a bold white wing patch, Colorado's state bird.
songbird
Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker
The smallest woodpecker in Japan, a sparrow-sized bird finely barred in brown and white, with males showing a tiny red spot on the head.
woodpecker
Gentoo Penguin
The fastest-swimming penguin species, recognized by its bright orange-red bill and a white patch stretching above each eye.
seabird
Black Swan
A large, entirely black-plumaged swan native to Australia, with a bright red bill and curly white wing feathers revealed in flight.
waterfowl
Black Crowned-Crane
A striking West and Central African crane with a golden crown of bristle feathers, a black neck, and bold red and white facial patches.
wading-bird
Cuban Amazon
A vividly colored Caribbean amazon parrot with a white forehead and rosy throat patch, found only in Cuba, the Bahamas, and the Cayman Islands.
parrot
Alpine Swift
A large swift of mountain cliffs with a white belly and throat separated by a brown breast band, among the fastest fliers in level flight.
other
Blue-footed Booby
An unmistakable brown-and-white booby famous for its bright blue feet, used in an elaborate courtship dance on Pacific coasts and islands.
seabird
American Wigeon
A round-headed dabbling duck nicknamed 'baldpate' for the male's creamy white forehead crown that contrasts with an iridescent green eye patch.
waterfowl
Snow Bunting
The northernmost-breeding songbird in the world, strikingly white in summer plumage and warm rusty-brown in winter flocks.
songbird
Oriental Magpie-Robin
A bold black-and-white songster related to robins and chats, prized for its rich, melodious dawn song.
songbird
Rook
A highly social farmland crow with a bare, pale grey-white face patch and a peaked, shaggy crown.
songbird
Southern Red-billed Hornbill
A slender black-and-white southern African hornbill distinguished by its long, slim, bright red bill.
other
Stock Dove
A blue-grey pigeon of farmland and parkland, smaller and neater than the Woodpigeon, lacking any white in the plumage.
other
Rufous-crowned Sparrow
A chunky, non-migratory sparrow of rocky hillsides marked by a rusty cap and a black-and-white striped face.
songbird
Southern Fiscal
A black-and-white shrike of southern Africa known for impaling prey on thorns and barbed wire as a food cache.
songbird