Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,813 · Stories: 19,540

• Fine-spotted Woodpecker Campethera punctuligera

  

  The Fine-spotted Woodpecker is a medium-sized, green-backed woodpecker. Males and females differ in head pattern, and the amount of spotting below varies across its range.

• Plain-mantled Tit-Spinetail Leptasthenura aegithaloides

  This small bird lives in dry scrub and woodland edges, and it is recorded hanging upside down from branches. It feeds mostly on insects.

• Double-spurred Francolin Pternistis bicalcaratus

  A pheasant-family bird of western Africa, with a separate population in western Morocco; it uses vegetated habitats.

• Desert Owl Strix hadorami

  The Desert Owl’s facial disc is described as ranging from sandy gray to off-white among specimens. It occurs in rocky deserts and uses crevices in cliffs, caves, and wadis for roosting or nesting. An Israeli pellet study found small rodents and insectivores among its prey.

• Grey-necked Friarbird Philemon subcorniculatus

  The Grey-necked Friarbird is endemic to Seram Island, Indonesia. Two plumage forms have been reported, one with a grey head and throat and another with dark markings; records extend from the coast into mountain forest.

• Moorland Chat Pinarochroa sordida

  The plumage and behaviour below come from a 1949 account of the Ruwenzori Mountains only. It describes birds above the bamboo zone, with dark brown upperparts, a faint wingbar and white outer tail feathers.

• Bronze-green Euphonia Euphonia mesochrysa

  This small bird inhabits humid montane forest on the eastern Andes from Colombia through Bolivia. It feeds mainly on fruit, including mistletoe berries.

• Ashy Prinia Prinia socialis

  The Ashy Prinia is a small prinia recorded widely across the Indian subcontinent. It uses open habitats such as gardens, farmland, thorn scrub, and grassland, feeding on invertebrates.

• Cocos Cuckoo Coccyzus ferrugineus

  This cuckoo occurs only on Cocos Island off western Costa Rica, where it uses humid forests and shrubland.

• Red-crowned Parakeet Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae

  A medium-sized parakeet with a red forehead and green body. Its three extant subspecies occupy islands around New Zealand, and the source describes their island distributions.

• Mountain Imperial Pigeon Ducula badia

  The Mountain Imperial Pigeon has a dark maroon-brown back and pale purplish-grey head and underparts. In Borneo it is common in montane forest, and some birds fly to lowlands to feed.

• Grey Hawk Buteo plagiatus

  It is a hawk found from the southern United States through Mexico and Central America. In the southern United States, it uses forests along rivers.

• Purple-naped Sunbird Hypogramma hypogrammicum

  The Purple-naped Sunbird lives in forests across Southeast Asia. The male is green overall with bright green streaking below. It feeds low in the vegetation on insects and spiders, as well as nectar, fruit, and seeds.

• Buff-breasted Warbling-finch Microspingus lateralis

  This small tanager lives in the mountains of southeastern Brazil. It uses forest edges and bamboo patches, eating insects, fruit, and seeds.

• Lesser Shrike-Tyrant Agriornis murinus

  The Lesser Shrike-Tyrant is a tyrant flycatcher that catches insects on the ground. A species page from the National University of the Litoral describes it alone or in pairs, making short runs to catch insects and also perching at the tops of shrubs.

• Finsch's Rufous Thrush Stizorhina finschi

  Finsch's Rufous Thrush lives in the lower levels of evergreen and semi-deciduous forests in West Africa, including forest near streams and swamps. It takes invertebrates from surfaces in the understory.

• Red Shoveler Spatula platalea

  The Red Shoveler filters small animals and plants from the water with its broad, flattened bill. Males are reddish brown; females and young birds are mottled brown.

• Rufous-backed Stipplethroat Epinecrophylla haematonota

  The Rufous-backed Stipplethroat is a small bird of tropical South American forests. Males have a rufous back and white spots on the black throat.

• Stripe-cheeked Greenbul Arizelocichla milanjensis

  This bulbul lives in the mountains of southern Malawi, western Mozambique and eastern Zimbabwe. It is about 19 cm long and uses montane and submontane forest, riverine woodland and scrub.

• Hispaniolan Parakeet Psittacara chloropterus

  The Hispaniolan Parakeet is a green parrot native to Hispaniola. A city survey in the Dominican Republic found that records were associated with the richness of tree species.

• Hyacinth Visorbearer Augastes scutatus

  This hummingbird lives in rocky and shrubby habitats of the Serra do Espinhaço. Males have green and blue plumage with a white breast band; females are mottled grayish.

• Campo Flicker Colaptes campestris

  The male Campo Flicker is marked by a yellow face and breast, with a black crown and nape. At Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve in Buenos Aires, it is often recorded along paths and the outer sidewalk.

• Rufous-banded Miner Geositta rufipennis

  A regional account from northwestern Patagonia describes it as a ground-dwelling bird of rocky high-Andean areas. It has gray-brown upperparts with rufous marks and a dark tail band. Records note that it descends to lower open country during winter snowstorms.

• Red-necked Francolin Pternistis afer

  Red skin around the face and red legs help identify this spurfowl. Plumage varies across its range, and its diet shifts from mostly invertebrates in summer to plant matter in winter.