Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Cliff Swallow
A colonial swallow famous for building gourd-shaped mud nests in dense clusters under bridges, eaves, and cliffs.
songbird
Burrowing Owl
A small, long-legged owl that nests underground in abandoned burrows and is often seen standing bolt upright by day.
owl
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
A quiet, migratory woodpecker known for drilling neat rows of small holes in tree bark to feed on the flowing sap.
woodpecker
Sedge Wren
A tiny, secretive wren of wet sedge meadows, notable for its erratic breeding movements and finely streaked crown.
songbird
Rock Wren
A pale, grayish-brown wren of arid rocky landscapes, known for bobbing on boulders and building pebble-paved nest paths.
songbird
Red-breasted Sapsucker
A Pacific coast woodpecker with an entirely crimson-red head and breast that drills neat rows of sap wells in tree bark.
woodpecker
Florida Scrub-Jay
A crestless blue-and-gray jay found nowhere in the world except Florida's rapidly shrinking scrub-oak habitat.
songbird
Brant
A small, dark sea goose with a black head, neck, and breast broken only by a small white neck patch, tightly tied to coastal eelgrass beds in winter.
waterfowl
Cackling Goose
A small goose nearly identical in plumage to the Canada Goose but noticeably smaller, with a shorter neck and a stubby, often steep-fronted bill.
waterfowl
Snow Goose
A bright white goose with black wingtips, occurring also in a dark "blue" morph, famous for massive, noisy flocks during migration.
waterfowl
White-tailed Ptarmigan
The smallest North American grouse, a hardy alpine specialist and the only ptarmigan with an all-white tail in every season.
gamebird
Band-tailed Pigeon
A large, purple-gray wild pigeon of western mountain forests, marked by a white crescent on the nape and a pale band across the tip of the tail.
other
Say's Phoebe
A soft cinnamon-bellied flycatcher of open, dry western landscapes that often nests on cliffs, barns, and abandoned buildings.
songbird
Golden Eagle
A massive, powerful eagle of open western landscapes, dark brown overall with golden feathering on the back of the head and neck.
raptor
Verdin
A tiny, active desert songbird with a bright yellow head and a chestnut shoulder patch, famous for its bulky twig nests.
songbird
Veery
A uniformly tawny thrush of moist woodlands, named for its breezy, downward-spiraling song of repeated "veer" notes.
songbird
Curve-billed Thrasher
A common, noisy desert thrasher with a long downcurved bill and orange-red eyes, often seen atop cactus in the Southwest.
songbird
Townsend's Warbler
A boldly patterned warbler of Pacific Northwest conifer forests, with a black-and-yellow face pattern, dark cheek patch, and streaked yellow breast.
songbird
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
House Sparrow
A stocky, chunky-billed sparrow closely tied to human settlements, with males showing a gray crown, chestnut nape, and black bib.
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
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