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
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
Cliff Swallow
A colonial swallow famous for building gourd-shaped mud nests in dense clusters under bridges, eaves, and cliffs.
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
Swallow-tailed Kite
An unmistakable black-and-white raptor with a deeply forked tail that glides effortlessly over southern swamps.
raptor
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
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
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
A tall, long-legged, gregarious duck with a bright pink-red bill, gray face, chestnut body, and a bold black belly, often seen perching in trees.
waterfowl
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
A long-necked, long-legged tawny-orange waterfowl with a distinctive whistling call, found in freshwater marshes across warm regions 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
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
Vaux's Swift
The western counterpart of the Chimney Swift, a tiny, cigar-shaped aerial bird that nests in hollow old-growth trees and large chimneys.
other
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
A quiet, migratory woodpecker known for drilling neat rows of small holes in tree bark to feed on the flowing sap.
woodpecker
Warbling Vireo
A plain, nondescript gray-olive vireo best known for its rich, husky, warbled song delivered from high in deciduous trees.
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
White-breasted Nuthatch
A compact, short-tailed bird with blue-gray upperparts and white underparts, famous for creeping headfirst down tree trunks.
songbird
Black-and-white Warbler
A strikingly striped black-and-white warbler that creeps along tree trunks and branches like a nuthatch, gleaning insects from bark.
songbird
Wood Duck
Renowned for its breathtakingly colorful plumage, the Wood Duck is a unique, tree-nesting waterfowl found in forested wetlands across North America.
waterfowl
Lucy's Warbler
One of North America's smallest warblers, a pale gray desert species with a chestnut rump and crown patch, unusual among warblers for nesting in tree cavities.
songbird
Hooded Oriole
A slender, long-tailed oriole strongly associated with palm trees, with males showing bright orange-yellow plumage and a black face and bib.
songbird
Acorn Woodpecker
A boldly patterned, clown-faced woodpecker famous for its highly social behavior and its habit of stockpiling thousands of acorns in communal granary trees.
woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
North America's largest common woodpecker, a crow-sized, mostly black bird with a flaming red crest, famous for excavating large rectangular holes in dead trees.
woodpecker