Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,825 · Stories: 19,540

• Black-backed Swamphen Porphyrio indicus

  

  This wetland bird has a black head and back and a red bill. It occurs from Sumatra to Sulawesi and uses reedbeds, swamps, lake edges, and damp pastures, feeding on vegetation and small animals.

• Band-tailed Cacique Cacicus latirostris

  The Peru account places this bird in the lowlands of Loreto and central Ucayali, where it forms small groups and mixed flocks in the forest canopy. Its yellow tail has a black terminal band. The account also uses Ocyalus latirostris; this entry retains the pool name Cacicus latirostris.

• Moustached Laughingthrush Ianthocincla cineracea

  The Moustached Laughingthrush inhabits high-elevation forest and humid montane scrub in the eastern Himalayan region. It has a black crown and nape, a broad white eyebrow, and a black moustache-like cheek stripe.

• White-eared Bronze Cuckoo Chalcites meyerii

  The White-eared Bronze Cuckoo lives in mountain forests of New Guinea and searches for insects in the middle levels of trees. White ear patches and green barring help identify it.

• Wood Thrush Hylocichla mustelina

  A thrush that breeds in forests of eastern North America and winters in lowland forests of Central America.

• Red-faced Cisticola Cisticola erythrops

  The Red-faced Cisticola lives by water and in marshes, searching for insects in low vegetation. At the Namibian sites described, it has pale olive-gray upperparts and a white throat.

• Iceland Gull Larus glaucoides

  A medium-sized Arctic-breeding gull whose adult wingtips vary from pale to dark among regional forms.

• Surf Scoter Melanitta perspicillata

  The Surf Scoter is a sea duck that nests in northern North America and spends the rest of its annual cycle mostly near ocean coasts.

• Red-fronted Macaw Ara rubrogenys

  This large parrot has red on its forehead, shoulders, and thighs, with blue on its wings. It occurs in central Bolivia and uses dry woodland and thorn scrub.

• Antillean Siskin Spinus dominicensis

  This small finch has strongly different male and female plumage. Males are conspicuously yellow, while females are mainly green. It lives in the mountains of Hispaniola.

• Golden-winged Warbler Vermivora chrysoptera

  The Golden-winged Warbler is a small North American migrant, with golden markings that stand out against its gray body.

• Rüppell's Starling Lamprotornis purpuroptera

  This starling inhabits grassland and scrub in eastern Africa. Adults have glossy blue-green and purple plumage with a long tail, and feed on fruit, insects, and other available food.

• Crimson-rumped Waxbill Estrilda rhodopyga

  An East African waxbill of grassland and scrub. The male has a grey head and red rump; it feeds on grass seeds and insects.

• Handsome Sunbird Aethopyga bella

  The Handsome Sunbird is a Philippine sunbird. Males have iridescent green on the head, while females have a yellow rump. A field study on Cebu recorded it taking nectar from forest mistletoe flowers.

• Many-colored Fruit Dove Ptilinopus perousii

  The Many-colored Fruit Dove is a small, compact dove with differences between the sexes. In island forests it feeds mainly on figs and gathers at fruiting trees.

• Streak-crowned Antvireo Dysithamnus striaticeps

  This antvireo ranges from southeastern Honduras to Costa Rica. It is recorded mainly in evergreen forest on the Caribbean slope of Central America; the AOS checklist does not accept records from western Panama.

• Caribbean Grey Saltator Saltator olivascens

  This gray bird occurs in northern South America. It uses forest edges and thickets, and records note it feeding on morning-glory flowers.

• Spangled Honeyeater Melipotes ater

  The Spangled Honeyeater lives in montane forest and tall secondary growth on Papua New Guinea’s Huon Peninsula. Its plumage is almost entirely black, with white spots below.

• Banggai Golden Bulbul Hypsipetes harterti

  KOMIU, a local forest-care foundation, presents Hypsipetes harterti as the Banggai Golden Bulbul. Its profile lists forest and mixed plantations as habitat and gives a photo locality on Bakalan Island.

• Striolated Tit-Spinetail Leptasthenura striolata

  This furnariid was studied in montane mixed forest in southern Brazil. A 2003–2004 study observed a tendency to forage alone along shrub branches.

• Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle Geranoaetus melanoleucus

  The Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle is a large South American raptor whose broad wings and short tail form a triangular silhouette. It searches for prey over grasslands and rocky slopes.

• Qilian Bluetail Tarsiger albocoeruleus

  The Qilian Bluetail (Tarsiger albocoeruleus) breeds in mountains of northern China, including Qinghai and Gansu. It is not separated from the Red-flanked Bluetail by an obvious plumage mark; research supports the split mainly through song and genetic evidence. Its wintering range remains unknown.

• Planalto Hermit Phaethornis pretrei

  This hermit hummingbird occurs in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay. Its long, slightly curved bill and long tail feathers are distinctive.

• Northern Scrub Flycatcher Sublegatus arenarum

  This small flycatcher ranges from Central America into northern South America. It uses mangroves, nearby vegetation, and scrubby second growth while searching for food.