Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Great Egret
A tall, elegant, all-white heron with a long yellow bill and black legs, found on wetlands across nearly every continent.
wading-bird
African Spoonbill
An all-white African wading bird with a bare red face and a distinctive grey spoon-shaped bill, common on lakes and rivers across the continent.
wading-bird
Sanderling
The pale, plump little sandpiper that chases retreating waves on sandy beaches worldwide, running like a wind-up toy to snatch food from the wet sand.
shorebird
Shy Albatross
A pale, white-headed mollymawk that breeds only on a handful of islands off Tasmania, identifiable by its grey-washed nape and pale yellowish bill.
seabird
White Wagtail
A slim, long-tailed black, white, and grey bird, constantly wagging its tail as it darts about open ground catching insects, equally at home in farmland or city centres.
songbird
White Tern
An entirely white, ethereal tern with large dark eyes that famously balances its single egg on a bare tree branch without building any nest at all.
seabird
Waved Albatross
The only albatross species found in the tropics, breeding almost exclusively on a single Galapagos island and famous for its elaborate bill-fencing courtship dance.
seabird
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
Purple Heron
A slender, reddish-necked relative of the Grey Heron that hides among reedbeds across Africa, Europe, and Asia.
wading-bird
Goliath Heron
The world's largest heron, a towering African giant with a massive chestnut head and dagger-like bill built for spearing big fish.
wading-bird
Laysan Albatross
A gull-like white albatross of the North Pacific, best known for its enormous breeding colonies on Midway Atoll and other low-lying Hawaiian islands.
seabird
Pied Wagtail
The black-backed British and Irish form of the White Wagtail, a familiar sight bobbing its long tail across car parks, farmyards, and riverside paths.
songbird
Wandering Albatross
The largest flying seabird in the world, with a wingspan reaching up to 3.5 meters, capable of gliding for thousands of miles over the Southern Ocean with barely a wingbeat.
seabird
Black-browed Albatross
The most abundant and widespread albatross species, easily identified by the bold dark stripe through its eye and its yellow-orange bill.
seabird
Black-footed Albatross
A dark, sooty-brown albatross of the North Pacific that often nests alongside the Laysan Albatross and follows fishing vessels far from land.
seabird
Cocoi Heron
South America's largest heron, a tall grey-and-white bird with a black cap that fills the same niche as the Grey Heron.
wading-bird
Grey Heron
A tall, pale grey wading bird widespread across the Old World, closely resembling North America's Great Blue Heron in shape and habits.
wading-bird
Intermediate Egret
A medium-sized white egret of Africa, Asia, and Australia whose size and proportions fall neatly between the larger Great Egret and smaller Little Egret.
wading-bird
Great Blue Heron
North America's largest and most widespread heron, a tall blue-grey wading bird often seen standing motionless at the water's edge waiting to strike prey.
wading-bird
Umbrella Cockatoo
A large, entirely white Indonesian cockatoo named for its broad, rounded white crest that fans open like an umbrella.
parrot
Barn Owl
A pale, heart-faced owl of open farmland, famous for its ghostly white underside and near-silent, moth-like flight.
owl
White Ibis
A familiar bright-white wading bird of the American South, with a curved pink bill and legs, often seen probing lawns and marshes for crayfish.
wading-bird
Razorbill
A stocky black-and-white North Atlantic auk with a deep, blunt bill crossed by a white line, the closest living relative of the extinct Great Auk.
seabird
Hudsonian Godwit
A dark, elegant godwit famed for one of the longest nonstop migratory flights of any bird, connecting subarctic breeding grounds with wintering areas in southern South America.
shorebird