Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Black Kite
A widespread, adaptable brown raptor with a shallowly forked tail, often seen scavenging in large numbers near towns and water.
raptor
Yellow-billed Kite
A common, adaptable African raptor with a bright yellow bill and forked tail, often seen soaring over towns and open country.
raptor
Mississippi Kite
A sleek, buoyant gray falcon-like kite that catches cicadas and dragonflies on the wing over Great Plains and southern woodlands.
raptor
White-tailed Kite
A pale, elegant hawk with black shoulder patches that hunts by hovering gracefully over open fields on beating wings.
raptor
Whistling Kite
A pale, long-winged raptor named for its distinctive whistling call, often seen soaring lazily over open country.
raptor
Snail Kite
A marsh-dwelling raptor with a slender, deeply hooked bill perfectly shaped for extracting apple snails from their shells.
raptor
Red Kite
A large, russet raptor with a deeply forked tail, effortless soaring flight, and a habit of scavenging carrion.
raptor
Brahminy Kite
A striking chestnut-and-white kite of coastal wetlands across South and Southeast Asia and northern Australia.
raptor
Swallow-tailed Kite
An unmistakable black-and-white raptor with a deeply forked tail that glides effortlessly over southern swamps.
raptor
Black Redstart
A dusky, rock-loving chat that has adapted well to towns and industrial sites, the male dark sooty-grey with a constantly quivering rust-red tail.
songbird
Black Vulture
A stocky, all-black scavenger with a bare gray head and short, broad wings, recognized in flight by white patches near the wingtips and quick, choppy flapping.
raptor
Black Drongo
A glossy black, red-eyed bird with a deeply forked tail, famous for fearlessly mobbing crows and raptors.
songbird
Black Woodpecker
Europe's largest woodpecker, an all-black, crow-sized bird with a striking red crown and powerful excavating bill.
woodpecker
Black Stork
A shy, glossy black-and-white stork of forested wetlands, far more secretive than its familiar cousin the White Stork.
wading-bird
Black Swift
The largest North American swift, an all-dark bird that nests almost exclusively on cliff ledges behind or near waterfalls and in coastal sea caves.
other
Black Tern
A small, buoyant marsh tern that turns almost entirely sooty black in breeding plumage and feeds by dipping to the water surface rather than plunge-diving.
seabird
Black Guillemot
A small all-black auk with striking white wing patches and bright red legs and mouth lining, found along rocky North Atlantic coasts.
seabird
Black Grouse
A dramatic grouse famous for its communal spring "lek" displays, males glossy blue-black with a lyre-shaped tail, females mottled brown.
gamebird
Black Oystercatcher
An all-black shorebird of rocky Pacific coastlines, with a long orange bill perfectly suited to prying limpets and mussels from rocks.
shorebird
Black Skimmer
A unique black-and-white coastal bird with an oversized red-and-black bill whose lower mandible is longer than the upper, used to skim fish from the water's surface in flight.
seabird
Black Scoter
An all-black sea duck whose males show a bright orange-yellow knob at the base of the bill.
waterfowl
Black Phoebe
A sooty-black flycatcher with a crisp white belly that is almost always found perched near water, pumping its tail.
songbird
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-throated Sparrow
A striking desert sparrow with a bold black throat framed by crisp white eyebrow and whisker stripes.
songbird