Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Rufous Motmot
The largest motmot species, with rich rufous-orange underparts and head, a green back, and a long tail ending in bare-shafted racket tips.
other
Northern Lapwing
A crested, iridescent plover of European and Asian farmland, known for its tumbling display flights and wheezy "pee-wit" call.
shorebird
Pygmy Nuthatch
A tiny, highly social nuthatch of western pine forests, notable for cooperative breeding with helper birds at the nest.
songbird
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
One of the most common hummingbirds of Central America, with iridescent green upperparts, a rufous tail, and a reddish bill tipped in black.
hummingbird
Nene
Hawaii's state bird and the world's rarest goose, a buff-necked, black-faced goose descended from Canada Geese that adapted to life on volcanic terrain.
waterfowl
Pale-headed Rosella
A pale-headed relative of the Eastern Rosella, with a creamy-white head, blue cheeks, and blue underparts, found across Queensland and northern New South Wales.
parrot
Peach-faced Lovebird
A small, stocky African parrot with a bright peach-pink face and vivid green body, one of the most familiar lovebird species.
parrot
Southern Giant Petrel
A massive, bulky Southern Ocean petrel with a huge pale bill, often seen scavenging carcasses on subantarctic beaches, earning it the nickname "stinker."
seabird
Sparkling Violetear
A large, vocal Andean hummingbird with shimmering green plumage and iridescent violet patches on the ear coverts and chest.
hummingbird
Red-necked Phalarope
A small, needle-billed shorebird that spins in tight circles on the water to stir up food, with brighter-plumaged females and a largely oceanic lifestyle outside the breeding season.
shorebird
Olive-sided Flycatcher
A large, big-headed flycatcher known for its exuberant 'quick, THREE BEERS!' song, often perched high atop a dead conifer snag.
songbird
Philadelphia Vireo
The smallest eastern vireo, with a yellow-washed underside and dark eye line, breeding in northern second-growth woodlands and often confused with Warbling Vireo and Tennessee Warbler.
songbird
Rivoli's Hummingbird
One of the largest hummingbirds found in the United States, with a male whose head glitters violet and green against an otherwise dark body.
hummingbird
Osprey
A large, fish-eating hawk found near water nearly worldwide, easily known by its white underparts, dark eye-stripe, and dramatic feet-first dive for fish.
raptor
Scott's Oriole
A yucca-loving oriole of the arid Southwest, with males showing lemon-yellow underparts contrasting against a solid black head and back.
songbird
Ruby-topaz Hummingbird
A small, dazzling hummingbird whose male sports a fiery ruby-red crown and glowing golden-topaz throat that shift dramatically with the angle of light.
hummingbird
Spotted Nutcracker
A stocky, chocolate-brown corvid densely spotted with white, specialized for harvesting and caching conifer seeds in mountain forests.
songbird
Princess Parrot
A slender, long-tailed Australian desert parrot with soft pink, olive, and blue plumage and a highly nomadic lifestyle.
parrot
Sandhill Crane
A tall grey North American crane with a bare red crown, best known for the spectacular mass migration gatherings along the Platte River.
wading-bird
Ross's Goose
A small, compact white goose resembling a miniature Snow Goose with a shorter, stubbier bill.
waterfowl
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
Palm Tanager
A common, unassuming tropical tanager with olive-gray to grayish-brown plumage and slightly darker wings, frequently seen alongside the more colorful Blue-gray Tanager.
songbird
Red-and-green Macaw
One of the largest macaws, with a mostly crimson-red body, broad green wing band, and a bare white face crossed by fine lines of tiny red feathers.
parrot
Penduline Tit
A tiny wetland songbird famed for weaving an elaborate, purse-shaped hanging nest, with a grey head and black eye-mask.
songbird
Snowy Egret
A small, brilliant white egret of the Americas known for its black bill and legs paired with striking bright yellow feet, nicknamed its 'golden slippers.'
wading-bird
Red-backed Shrike
A small predatory songbird known for impaling prey on thorns, with a chestnut back and a bold black highwayman's mask.
songbird
Northwestern Crow
A small, coastal crow of the Pacific Northwest closely resembling the American Crow and often found foraging along tidelines.
songbird
Prothonotary Warbler
A brilliant golden-yellow warbler of southern swamps, unique among eastern warblers for nesting in tree cavities near or over water.
songbird
Red-crowned Parakeet
A small, bright green New Zealand parakeet with a crimson crown and eye-stripe, now largely restricted to predator-free offshore islands and forest reserves.
parrot
Red-tailed Hawk
North America's most familiar large hawk, often seen soaring over highways or perched on poles, named for the adult's brick-red tail.
raptor
Saddle-billed Stork
A tall, dramatically colored African stork with a huge black, red, and yellow bill and a yellow frontal shield resembling a saddle.
wading-bird
Spotted Dove
A slim, pale pinkish-brown dove easily recognized by the bold black neck patch finely spotted with white.
other
Shoebill
An enormous, prehistoric-looking wading bird of African swamps, famous for its massive shoe-shaped bill and statue-like patience while hunting.
wading-bird
Sabine's Gull
A strikingly patterned Arctic gull with a bold tricolored wing and forked tail, spending most of the year far out at sea and undertaking one of the longest migrations of any gull.
seabird
Purple Martin
North America's largest swallow, a glossy blue-black aerial insectivore whose eastern population now nests almost entirely in birdhouses provided by people.
songbird
Purple Swamphen
A large, chicken-sized marsh bird cloaked in deep blue-purple plumage with a massive red bill and frontal shield.
wading-bird
Sage Thrasher
The smallest thrasher and a sagebrush-obligate songster of the arid interior West, singing long warbling songs from atop shrubs.
songbird
Ostrich
The world's largest and heaviest living bird, a flightless African species built for speed on the open savanna.
other
Siberian Crane
A critically endangered white crane that breeds on remote Russian Arctic tundra and undertakes one of the longest migrations of any crane to wintering wetlands in China.
wading-bird
Pied Avocet
A striking black-and-white wader with a slender upturned bill, famous as the emblem of British bird conservation.
shorebird
Northern Wheatear
An upright, ground-loving songbird of open country, instantly recognizable in flight by its bold white rump and one of the longest migrations of any small songbird.
songbird
Scarlet Ibis
A brilliant, all-scarlet wading bird of South American mangroves, its vivid color built directly from the crustaceans it eats.
wading-bird
Sagebrush Sparrow
A gray-headed, sagebrush-obligate sparrow that runs on the ground with its tail cocked, split from Bell's Sparrow in 2013.
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
Pompadour Cotinga
A striking cotinga with males in deep magenta-purple plumage set off by bold white wings, found in the canopy of Amazonian and Guiana Shield forests.
songbird
Pine Siskin
A small, heavily streaked brown finch with sharp yellow wing and tail markings, notorious for unpredictable winter irruptions.
songbird
Rockhopper Penguin
A small, feisty crested penguin known for hopping between boulders rather than waddling, with spiky yellow head plumes and red eyes.
seabird
Rock Pipit
A dark, streaky pipit found almost exclusively along rocky Atlantic and North Sea coastlines.
songbird