Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Greater Prairie-Chicken
A heavily barred prairie grouse famous for the male's booming courtship display with orange air sacs and long neck pinnae feathers.
gamebird
Lesser Prairie-Chicken
A small, pale prairie grouse of the southern Great Plains, closely related to the Greater Prairie-Chicken but adapted to drier shortgrass and shrub-steppe habitat.
gamebird
Red Crossbill
A stocky finch with uniquely crossed mandibles specially adapted to pry seeds from conifer cones.
songbird
Red-breasted Merganser
A slender, crested fish-eating duck with a thin serrated bill, breeding males show a shaggy dark green head, white collar, and rusty streaked breast.
waterfowl
Red-headed Woodpecker
A striking, boldly patterned woodpecker with an entirely crimson head and a strongly contrasting black-and-white body, now declining across much of its range.
woodpecker
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
Red-shouldered Hawk
A colorful woodland buteo with rich rufous shoulders and underparts, closely tied to river bottoms and swampy forest.
raptor
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
Red-winged Blackbird
A glossy black marsh bird whose males display bold red-and-yellow shoulder patches while perched and singing atop cattails.
songbird
Red-eyed Vireo
A tireless singer of eastern and northern forests, nicknamed the 'preacher bird' for its endless repeated phrases, with a gray cap, white eyebrow, and red eye.
songbird
Red-naped Sapsucker
A western sapsucker closely resembling the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, distinguished by a red patch extending onto the nape, and closely tied to mountain aspen groves.
woodpecker
Red-cockaded Woodpecker
A rare cooperative-breeding woodpecker of the southeastern pine forests that excavates its nest exclusively in living, old-growth pines.
woodpecker
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
Red-breasted Nuthatch
A tiny, tin-horn-voiced nuthatch of conifer forests, with rusty-orange underparts and a bold black eye-stripe bordered by white.
songbird
Red-bellied Woodpecker
A medium-sized eastern woodpecker with a black-and-white barred back and a red-capped head, whose faint pinkish belly wash is rarely visible in the field.
woodpecker
Ruffed Grouse
A mottled brown forest grouse famous for the male's drumming display, a rapid low thumping made by beating the wings rather than any vocal sound.
gamebird
Cooper's Hawk
A medium-sized woodland hawk that has become a common backyard predator at bird feeders, agile enough to chase prey through dense cover.
raptor
Sharp-tailed Grouse
A grassland grouse with a pointed tail and a spring courtship dance featuring purple neck sacs, rapid foot-stamping, and rattling tail feathers.
gamebird
Redhead
A medium-sized diving duck easily recognized by the male's striking cinnamon-red head, steep forehead, and bright yellow eyes.
waterfowl
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
Hoary Redpoll
A pale, frosty-looking arctic finch, closely resembling the Common Redpoll but adapted to even colder, higher-latitude habitat.
songbird
Common Redpoll
A tiny, hardy arctic finch with a red cap and black chin that irrupts south to feeders in some winters.
songbird
House Finch
A common backyard finch with the male showing rosy red on the head and breast and heavily streaked brown flanks.
songbird
Bronzed Cowbird
A stocky blackbird with a distinctive ruff of neck feathers and striking red eyes that, like other cowbirds, lays its eggs in the nests of other birds.
songbird