Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,038 · Stories: 19,488

• Tropical Parula Setophaga pitiayumi

  

  The Tropical Parula is a small bird widespread across the Americas. Blue-grey and yellow plumage is distinctive, and males have a black facial mask.

• Thick-billed Flowerpecker Dicaeum agile

  

  The Thick-billed Flowerpecker ranges from the Indian subcontinent into Southeast Asia. This small bird takes fruit and nectar with its thick bill and forages in tree canopies and village groves.

• Yellow-billed Shrike Lanius corvinus

  

  The Yellow-billed Shrike lives in shrubby habitats across tropical Africa. It has a long tail and yellow bill, and members of a group may help raise the young.

• Nauru Reed Warbler Acrocephalus rehsei

  

  The Nauru Reed Warbler occurs only on Nauru, where it searches for insects in scrub, gardens, and regenerating woodland. Its rounded wings and rufous back are useful field marks.

• Western Striolated Puffbird Nystalus obamai

  

  The Western Striolated Puffbird ranges from western Amazonia into the Andean foothills. Its crown spots are concentrated toward the front, and it has a pale ochre nape collar.

• Painted Sandgrouse Pterocles indicus

  

  The Painted Sandgrouse is a ground-dwelling bird of dry, open country in India and northern Pakistan. Males have bold black-and-white bands, while females are finely mottled.

• Siamese Fireback Lophura diardi

  The Siamese Fireback occurs in mainland Southeast Asia. In a northeastern Thai lowland forest study, females often used areas near water with many trees and woody climbers.

• Black-headed Penduline Tit Remiz macronyx

  The Black-headed Penduline Tit is a Central Asian migrant.

• Blue Pitta Hydrornis cyaneus

  The Blue Pitta lives in forests of South and Southeast Asia and searches for food on the forest floor. Males are vivid blue, while females are mainly brown.

• Plain-backed Pipit Anthus leucophrys

  The Plain-backed Pipit occurs across sub-Saharan Africa and searches for food on the ground in open grassland and similar habitats. The nominate subspecies in southern Africa has an inconspicuously streaked back.

• Masked Booby Sula dactylatra

  A large seabird with a white body, black wings and tail, and dark skin at the base of the bill; it catches fish and squid over tropical seas.

• Black-cheeked Gnateater Conopophaga melanops

  This small bird searches for insects near the ground in Brazil’s eastern Atlantic Forest. Males have a distinctive black face pattern.

• Canada goose Branta canadensis

  A goose native to North America, with a long black neck and head and a white patch across the cheeks and chin.

• Sri Lanka Frogmouth Batrachostomus moniliger

  It is a nocturnal bird that sits motionless on branches, with plumage that blends into bark. It lives in lowland forests in Sri Lanka.

• Brown Noddy Anous stolidus

  A tern that breeds in colonies on small islands in tropical and subtropical seas. Adults are dark brown, with a white forehead fading to grey at the nape, and take fish and squid near the ocean surface.

• Slender-billed Xenops Xenops tenuirostris

  This small ovenbird relative has a thin, straight bill and moves over trunks and branches. The Peru account places it in lowland Amazonian forest edges and secondary growth, with records to 500 m along the Andean foothills.

• American robin Turdus migratorius

  A North American thrush found in parks, lawns and forests. It searches the ground for earthworms and often eats fruit in autumn and winter.

• Dusky-capped Greenlet Hylophilus hypoxanthus

  This small bird forages in the canopy and subcanopy of Amazonian forest, often with mixed-species flocks. Its range spans several countries.

• Laughing Falcon Herpetotheres cachinnans

  The Laughing Falcon has a pale head with a black mask around the eyes. It feeds mainly on snakes, and pairs may exchange laughter-like calls at dawn and dusk.

• Tarictic Hornbill Penelopides panini

  On Panay and Negros, this small hornbill stands out by the blue bare skin around the eye and its pale tail with a black tip.

• Streaked Rosefinch Carpodacus rubicilloides

  A rosefinch of rocky, shrubby slopes above the Himalayan tree line, it feeds on seeds by day.

• Rufous-winged Fulvetta Schoeniparus castaneceps

  This fulvetta ranges from the Himalayas to southern China and northern Indochina. It has a chestnut crown and pale eyebrow, and searches the forest understorey for insects.

• House Bunting Emberiza sahari

  A bunting of desert towns and their surroundings. A study in central Algeria also recorded pairs nesting in buildings.

• Yellow-bellied Chat-Tyrant Silvicultrix diadema

  A small Andean bird that searches for insects in pairs in the forest understory. Its yellow eyebrow and yellowish belly stand out.