Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ birds — with size, habitat, diet, voice, behavior, and the field marks that tell them apart.
Pygmy Nuthatch
A tiny, highly social nuthatch of western pine forests, notable for cooperative breeding with helper birds at the nest.
songbird
Northern Goshawk
The largest and most powerful accipiter, a fierce forest hawk of mature woodlands with a bold white eyebrow and blazing red eyes.
raptor
Northern Flicker
A large, brown, ground-foraging woodpecker with a bold black crescent bib and a flashing white rump patch visible when it flies.
woodpecker
Northern Harrier
A slim, low-flying hawk of open marshes and fields, identified by its owl-like facial disc and white rump patch.
raptor
Common Nighthawk
A master of aerial acrobatics, the Common Nighthawk is a cryptically patterned nightjar easily recognized by the bold white bars on its long, pointed wings as it hunts insects at dusk.
other
Northern Cardinal
A brilliant all-red songbird with a prominent crest and thick orange-red bill, common at backyard feeders across the eastern and central U.S.
songbird
Northern Bobwhite
A small, heavily patterned ground-dwelling quail of eastern North America, famous for its clear, whistled 'bob-white!' call.
gamebird
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
Ring-necked Pheasant
A large, long-tailed introduced pheasant whose iridescent copper-and-green males are a familiar sight in farm country.
gamebird
Northern Mockingbird
A slender gray songbird famous for endlessly mimicking the songs and calls of other birds, with bold white wing patches visible in flight.
songbird
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
Brown-headed Nuthatch
A tiny brown-capped nuthatch of southeastern pine forests, notable as one of the few birds known to use tools.
songbird
Northern Parula
A small, compact, blue-gray and yellow warbler with a distinctive bicolored bill, closely tied to hanging Spanish moss or Usnea lichen for nesting.
songbird
Ring-necked Duck
A distinctive diving duck of freshwater ponds, easily recognized by its sharply peaked head, black back, and boldly banded bill.
waterfowl
Northern Hawk Owl
A long-tailed, falcon-shaped boreal owl that hunts by day from exposed treetop perches like a hawk.
owl
Nelson's Sparrow
A secretive marsh sparrow with an orange face triangle and soft, blurry streaking, breeding in both interior prairie marshes and coastal salt marsh.
songbird
Northern Pintail
Often called the 'greyhound of the air,' the Northern Pintail is an elegant, slender dabbling duck celebrated for its long neck and needle-pointed tail.
waterfowl
Lesser Nighthawk
A master of aerial insect-catching, this cryptically patterned nightjar is a common sight over southwestern deserts during summer evenings.
other
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
Northwestern Crow
A small, coastal crow of the Pacific Northwest closely resembling the American Crow and often found foraging along tidelines.
songbird
Northern Pygmy-Owl
A tiny, fierce diurnal owl of western mountain forests, notable for the false 'eyespots' on the back of its head.
owl
Nashville Warbler
A small, active warbler with a gray head, bold white eyering, olive back, and bright yellow underparts, occurring in two disjunct eastern and western breeding populations.
songbird
Northern Shoveler
A medium-sized dabbling duck instantly recognizable by its extraordinarily large, spatula-shaped bill used to filter-feed in shallow waters.
waterfowl
Clark's Nutcracker
A pale gray high-mountain corvid famous for caching tens of thousands of pine seeds each year and for its remarkable spatial memory.
songbird