Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Tree Swallow
A gleaming blue-green and white cavity-nesting swallow, one of the earliest swallows to arrive each spring and among the most cold-hardy.
songbird
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
A small, chestnut-capped sparrow with a black cheek patch, smaller and neater than its House Sparrow relative.
songbird
Bank Swallow
The smallest North American swallow, brown above and white below with a crisp brown breast band, nesting colonially in burrows dug into sandy banks.
songbird
Barn Swallow
The most widespread swallow in the world, easily known by its deeply forked tail, steel-blue back, and rufous throat.
songbird
Welcome Swallow
A glossy blue-black swallow with a rufous forehead and throat, common across Australia and long regarded as a harbinger of spring.
songbird
Swallow Tanager
A short-billed, swallow-shaped tanager, with turquoise-blue males and grass-green females, that hawks insects on the wing and nests in burrows.
songbird
Cliff Swallow
A colonial swallow famous for building gourd-shaped mud nests in dense clusters under bridges, eaves, and cliffs.
songbird
Cave Swallow
A cliff-swallow relative with a buffy forehead and throat that nests colonially under bridges and in caves and culverts across the southern US and Caribbean.
songbird
Tree Pipit
A streaky ground-feeding songbird closely resembling the Meadow Pipit, but distinguished by its habit of singing from treetops during a memorable rising and parachuting display flight.
songbird
Violet-green Swallow
A shimmering western swallow with an iridescent green back, violet rump, and white patches that nearly wrap around the face and flanks.
songbird
Swallow-tailed Kite
An unmistakable black-and-white raptor with a deeply forked tail that glides effortlessly over southern swamps.
raptor
Swallow-winged Puffbird
A distinctive puffbird with long, pointed swallow-like wings and a chestnut rump, often seen perched on riverside snags sallying for insects like a swallow.
other
American Tree Sparrow
A rusty-capped sparrow with a bicolored bill and a dark central breast spot, a true winter visitor to much of North America despite its name.
songbird
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
A plain brown swallow that nests in burrows in dirt banks, distinguished from other swallows by its uniform pale throat and lack of a breast band.
songbird
Sand Martin
A small brown-and-white swallow relative that nests colonially in burrows dug into sandy banks and cliffs.
songbird
Little Tern
A tiny, fast-flying tern with a black-tipped yellow bill and white forehead patch that hovers before plunge-diving for small fish along sandy coastlines.
seabird
Eurasian Treecreeper
A small, superbly camouflaged woodland bird that spirals upward around tree trunks probing bark crevices with its thin, downcurved bill.
songbird
Short-toed Treecreeper
A close relative of the Eurasian Treecreeper, nearly identical in appearance but favouring broadleaf woodland at lower elevations and best identified by its distinct voice.
songbird
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
A long-necked, long-legged tawny duck with a whistling call, found in warm wetlands worldwide.
waterfowl
Prothonotary Warbler
A brilliant golden-yellow warbler of southern swamps, unique among eastern warblers for nesting in tree cavities near or over water.
songbird
African Harrier-Hawk
A grey African raptor famed for its unusually flexible, double-jointed legs, which let it reach deep into tree holes and weaver-bird nests to extract prey.
raptor
Australian Owlet-nightjar
A small, big-eyed nocturnal bird with soft grey-brown mottled plumage and whisker-like facial bristles, often seen peering from a tree hollow entrance by day.
other
European Bee-eater
One of Europe's most vividly colored birds, a swallow-shaped hunter of flying insects with chestnut, yellow, and turquoise plumage.
other
Eurasian Hobby
A sleek, fast-flying falcon with scythe-shaped wings, famed for catching dragonflies and swallows on the wing at high speed.
raptor