Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,813 · Stories: 19,540

• Papuan Pitta Erythropitta macklotii

  

  The Papuan Pitta inhabits forests on New Guinea and nearby islands. It has a red belly, rusty nape, black throat, and a blue breast band edged in black. In the 2024 eBird taxonomy, the former northern and southern pittas are treated as one species.

• Southern Mountain Cavy Microcavia australis

  This rodent has a compact body and a pale ring around each eye. It is active by day and feeds on leaves beneath thornbushes.

• Blue-cheeked Bee-eater Merops persicus

  The Blue-cheeked Bee-eater is a green bee-eater with bright blue cheeks. In Middle Eastern breeding areas it uses semidesert near water and digs a nesting tunnel in sandy banks.

• Bicolor-spined Porcupine Coendou bicolor

  The bicolor-spined porcupine has quills that are pale at the base and dark toward the tip, and is an able climber. It is mainly active at night in trees and eats leaves, fruit, and other plant parts.

• Chestnut-crowned Babbler Pomatostomus ruficeps

  The Chestnut-crowned Babbler is marked by a chestnut crown and gray facial pattern. It searches for food in small flocks on the ground in dry, open woodland.

• Large Tree Shrew Tupaia tana

  The large tree shrew lives in forests on Borneo. It searches mainly for invertebrates on the forest floor and digs into the soil with its claws.

• Asian Woolly-necked Stork Ciconia episcopus

  The Asian Woolly-necked Stork is a large wetland bird with a neck covered in fluffy white feathers. The current name Ciconia episcopus refers to the Asian species, distinct from the African C. microscelis.

• Bush Hyrax Heterohyrax brucei

  A hyrax found in sub-Saharan Africa. It lives in rocky savannas and bush steppe and is active by day.

• African Darter Anhinga rufa

  This diving waterbird catches fish. In South Africa, the subspecies present swims with only its long neck and head above the water.

• Indomalayan Bamboo Rat Rhizomys sumatrensis

  This is a large, stocky bamboo rat that makes burrows. In Malaysia it emerges in the early evening to feed on fallen fruit and other plant matter.

• Large Frogmouth Batrachostomus auritus

  The Large Frogmouth is the largest Asian frogmouth and hides in lowland forest. It perches on branches and catches insects.

• Shark Bay Bandicoot Perameles bougainville

  The Shark Bay bandicoot is a small marsupial native to islands off Western Australia. It makes a nest beneath shrubs for daytime shelter.

• Ruspoli's Turaco Menelikornis ruspolii

  Prince Ruspoli's Turaco is a turaco of a restricted area in southern Ethiopia. Its green body and pale crest stand out, and red patches show on its wings in flight.

• Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin Sousa plumbea

  A dolphin of the western Indian Ocean coast, with a small dorsal fin set on a large hump and a gray body.

• Lazuli Kingfisher Todiramphus lazuli

  The Lazuli Kingfisher lives in Indonesia's southern Moluccas. Males are blue and white, while females also have blue-purple on the breast and belly.

• Southern Birch Mouse Sicista subtilis

  The Southern Birch Mouse is a small rodent recorded in dry steppe and small river valleys during a study in the South Urals.

• Mallee Emu-wren Stipiturus mallee

  The Mallee Emu-wren is a small bird with a very long, filament-like tail. It moves quickly through low vegetation, and the male has a blue face and breast.

• Peruvian Armored Tree-rat Toromys rhipidurus

  This is an arboreal spiny rat recorded in the Peruvian Amazon. A live animal captured near Iquitos showed pale cream patches behind its ears.

• Streaked Berrypecker Melanocharis striativentris

  In the population studied on the southern slope of Mt. Dayman in Papua New Guinea, birds foraged for insects and small fruits in the forest understory.

• Small Indian civet Viverricula indica

  A civet that uses woodland, grassland and areas near people.

• Spotted Pardalote Pardalotus punctatus

  A tiny bird of eucalyptus canopies, the Spotted Pardalote has a distinctive pattern of white spots. Adult males also show a red rump and yellow throat. It searches foliage for insects and sugary exudates.

• Short-eared Brushtail Possum Trichosurus caninus

  The short-eared brushtail possum is a nocturnal marsupial of moist forests in southeastern Australia. By day it shelters in tree hollows or fallen logs.

• Little Yellow Flycatcher Erythrocercus holochlorus

  This small bird lives in coastal East African woodland, moving through the trees and often feeding in mixed-species flocks.

• Rudd's Bristle-furred Rat Uranomys ruddi

  This rat has a short tail and a white belly. In a Guinea survey it was recorded in escarpment forest, gallery forest, and near cultivated or fallow land.