Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,676 · Stories: 19,540

• Long-billed Thrasher Toxostoma longirostre

  

  A southern North American bird that uses its long bill to turn leaf litter while searching for insects in dry scrub.

• Busuanga Squirrel Sundasciurus (Aletesciurus) hoogstraali

  The Busuanga Squirrel lives in forests on islands of the Calamian group in the Philippines. Its back is brown with pale-brown hair tips, and its abdomen is pale brown. Accounts also report records in trees and on the ground.

• Seychelles Sunbird Cinnyris dussumieri

  This small sunbird has a slender, curved bill. In breeding plumage, the male shows an iridescent blue throat and yellow tufts; the female is subdued grey-brown.

• Highlands Colilargo Oligoryzomys rupestris

  This rodent is recorded in the highland Cerrado of central Brazil. In the original study it was captured only in rocky highland grassland or along the edge of adjacent vegetation.

• Nelson's Sparrow Ammospiza nelsoni

  Nelson's Sparrow is a short-tailed bird with a yellow-orange face. It breeds in northern marshes and winters in coastal marshes of the southeastern United States.

• Mule deer Odocoileus hemionus

  Large ears and a black-tipped tail help identify this deer.

• Jerdon's Leafbird Chloropsis jerdoni

  A green leafbird with a dark blue-black throat in males. It may join mixed-species flocks at trees bearing flowers or fruit.

• Sand cat Felis margarita

  A desert cat with pale sandy fur, large ears, and fur-covered foot pads.

• Maguari Stork Ciconia maguari

  The Maguari Stork lives in South American wetlands. It has contrasting black-and-white plumage and searches for prey while walking through shallow water.

• Indian Gray Mongoose Urva edwardsii

  A mongoose of South Asia and Arabia, recognized by its silver-gray speckled coat and white-tipped tail.

• Pacific Tuftedcheek Pseudocolaptes johnsoni

  The Pacific Tuftedcheek occurs in the western Andes of Colombia and Ecuador. Its rufous back and flanks and white spots on a dark breast are distinctive.

• African clawless otter Aonyx capensis

  An African otter that searches for crabs and handles prey with its clawless forepaws.

• Rufous-capped Lark Calandrella eremica

  This small lark occurs in southwestern Arabia and the northern Horn of Africa. Its crown is rufous and is sometimes raised into a small crest.

• Durga Das's Leaf-nosed Bat Hipposideros durgadasi

  It is a small bat with rounded ears and a simple noseleaf without supplementary leaflets. In Karnataka, it roosts in subterranean caves.

• White-throated Mountain-gem Lampornis castaneoventris

  The White-throated Mountain-gem lives in Costa Rican mountain forest. The adult description notes a white throat, pale green breast, and grayish tail.

• Azorean Bat Nyctalus azoreum

  This bat is endemic to the Azores. A 1993 morphological comparison found it smaller than the related Leisler's bat, and a 2026 study confirmed its presence on Flores.

• Sardinian Warbler Curruca melanocephala

  The Sardinian Warbler is a small bird of Mediterranean scrub. Males are marked by a black head and a red eye-ring.

• Fat-tailed False Antechinus Pseudantechinus macdonnellensis

  The fat-tailed false antechinus is a small marsupial that stores fat in its short, thick-based tail. It lives among the rocky landscapes of central Australia and has a reddish back and pale underside.

• Golden-headed Quetzal Pharomachrus auriceps

  The Golden-headed Quetzal lives among trees in humid mountain forests. Its iridescent green plumage and red belly are striking.

• San Diego Pocket Mouse Chaetodipus fallax

  The San Diego pocket mouse is a small rodent that comes out at night to gather seeds.

• Phylloscopus sibillatrix

  The Wood Warbler breeds in woodland in Britain and Ireland. Its yellow throat and silvery-white underside stand out; the BTO describes oak woods in western Britain.

• Sierra Madre Occidental Pocket Gopher Megascapheus sheldoni

  The Sierra Madre Occidental pocket gopher is a rodent of the highlands of western Mexico. It inhabits high-elevation pine-oak forests and ranges from northwestern Chihuahua through Durango to western Zacatecas and northeastern Nayarit.

• Inland Dotterel Peltohyas australis

  This sandy, mottled plover blends into open plains. It forages in small flocks by day and alone or in pairs at night.

• Arabian Jird Meriones (Pallasiomys) arimalius

  This jird occurs on the Arabian Peninsula. Genetic work leaves some Arabian identifications uncertain.