Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Southern Lapwing
A bold, noisy lapwing of South American grasslands and wetlands, easily recognized by its black chest markings, red eye-ring, and loud alarm calls.
shorebird
Northern Lapwing
A crested, iridescent plover of European and Asian farmland, known for its tumbling display flights and wheezy "pee-wit" call.
shorebird
Masked Lapwing
A large, loud Australasian lapwing with prominent yellow facial wattles and a sharp yellow spur on each wing, common in parks, pastures, and wetlands.
shorebird
Blacksmith Lapwing
The Blacksmith Lapwing is a striking black, white, and grey wetland plover named for its metallic "tink-tink" alarm call that resembles a blacksmith's hammer on an anvil.
shorebird
Crowned Lapwing
The Crowned Lapwing is a common African grassland plover easily recognized by the black-and-white ring encircling its head and its loud, repetitive calls.
shorebird
Southern Cassowary
A large, flightless rainforest bird with glossy black plumage, a vivid blue-and-red neck, and a tall bony casque atop its head.
other
Southern Boobook
Australia's smallest and most common owl, best known for its distinctive two-note 'boobook' or 'mopoke' call.
owl
Southern Fiscal
A black-and-white shrike of southern Africa known for impaling prey on thorns and barbed wire as a food cache.
songbird
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
Southern Brown Kiwi
A shaggy, flightless, nocturnal New Zealand kiwi of the South Island and Stewart Island, known locally as tokoeka, that finds food entirely by smell.
other
Southern Ground Hornbill
A large, mostly ground-dwelling African hornbill with black plumage, vivid red facial skin, and deep, booming dawn calls, walking savannas in tight-knit family groups.
other
Southern Red Bishop
A small African wetland bird whose breeding male turns a brilliant scarlet and black, nesting in dense reedbed colonies.
songbird
Southern Masked Weaver
A common, widespread southern African weaver whose breeding males are bright yellow with a black face mask and red eyes, known for its intricately woven grass nests.
songbird
Southern Carmine Bee-eater
A spectacular pink-and-turquoise bee-eater of southern Africa that forms enormous cliffside breeding colonies along major rivers.
other
Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill
A common southern African savanna hornbill instantly recognizable by its black-and-white plumage and oversized curved yellow bill.
other
Southern Red-billed Hornbill
A slender black-and-white southern African hornbill distinguished by its long, slim, bright red bill.
other
Royal Albatross
A huge white albatross of New Zealand waters, nearly the size of the Wandering Albatross, best known for the mainland colony at Taiaroa Head.
seabird
Kelp Gull
A widespread Southern Hemisphere gull with a black back and white head, ecologically similar to the Great Black-backed Gull of the north, and a rare vagrant to the Gulf Coast of North America.
seabird
Rockhopper Penguin
A small, feisty crested penguin known for hopping between boulders rather than waddling, with spiky yellow head plumes and red eyes.
seabird
Swallow-tailed Kite
An unmistakable black-and-white raptor with a deeply forked tail that glides effortlessly over southern swamps.
raptor
Purple-rumped Sunbird
A dazzling small sunbird of southern India and Sri Lanka with a maroon back and iridescent purple rump.
songbird
Fork-tailed Sunbird
A tiny, iridescent sunbird of southern China and Vietnam, named for the male's elongated, forked tail streamers.
songbird
Cape Glossy Starling
A stocky southern African starling whose plumage shimmers with brilliant iridescent blue-green in the sun.
songbird
Greater Flamingo
The largest and palest flamingo species, widespread across Africa, southern Europe, and Asia.
wading-bird