Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,636 · Stories: 19,540

• Lava Heron Butorides sundevalli

  

  Endemic to the Galápagos Islands, this small heron lives on rocky shores, in mangroves, and at salt lagoons. Plumage varies, and bill and leg colors change with season.

• Altai Mountain Weasel Mustela altaica

  

  The Altai mountain weasel lives in Asian mountain regions. Its coat changes with the seasons, with different back colors in winter and summer.

• Cinereous Bunting Emberiza cineracea

  

  The Cinereous Bunting uses rocky, scrub-covered slopes and nests on the ground. Its underparts range from whitish gray to yellowish between the western and eastern subspecies.

• Gray Dwarf Hamster Cricetulus migratorius

  

  The HMW account under Cricetulus migratorius describes a dark gray-brown to sandy-gray back, white to grayish-white underside, and short whitish tail. The Mongolia account records it in dry hills and mountains, oases and valleys with shrubs and herbs; it gathers plant material and stores food near its burrow.

• Nordmann's Greenshank Tringa guttifer

  

  A shorebird that breeds in East Asia and winters on coasts of South and Southeast Asia, Nordmann's Greenshank has a thick bill and neck and relatively short legs.

• Taiwan Field Mouse Apodemus semotus

  

  The Taiwan field mouse is endemic to Taiwan. It occurs in mountain forests and is also found in farms and plantations.

• Tristram's Storm Petrel Hydrobates tristrami

  Tristram’s Storm-Petrel has long, pointed wings and a notched tail, and glides low over the sea. It nests in island rock recesses and burrows, then ranges widely across the Pacific outside the breeding season.

• Black-crowned Dwarf Marmoset Mico humilis

  The black-crowned dwarf marmoset is a small monkey known from a limited area of central Amazonian Brazil. The Mammal Diversity Database lists it in Mico but notes that this placement remains tentative.

• Rufous-faced Warbler Abroscopus albogularis

  The Rufous-faced Warbler is a small bird of forests from the eastern Himalayas to southern China and northern Indochina. It quietly searches for insects in the middle and lower canopy.

• Vanuatu Flying Fox Pteropus anetianus

  The Vanuatu flying fox lives on islands in Vanuatu. It roosts in small groups and eats fruit and flowers. The factsheet says it is seen flying by day more often than other flying foxes in Vanuatu.

• Woodlark Lullula arborea

  The Woodlark is a lark of wooded heath, with an eyebrow stripe that meets behind the head. In Britain it may form small flocks in winter.

• Gould's Wattled Bat Chalinolobus gouldii

  Gould's wattled bat has brown fur on the rear and underside, with darker fur on its head and shoulders. In southern Australia, it hibernates through winter.

• Rainbow Bee-eater Merops ornatus

  The Rainbow Bee-eater has vivid green, blue, and yellow plumage. It beats captured bees against a perch to remove their stings before eating them.

• Mexican Gray Squirrel Sciurus (Sciurus) aureogaster

  The Mexican gray squirrel lives among forest trees and is notable for its reddish-brown belly and flanks. Its coat varies across its range.

• White-breasted Nuthatch Sitta carolinensis

  A North American nuthatch that searches bark as it moves along trunks and branches.

• Nilgai Boselaphus tragocamelus

  A large antelope of the Indian subcontinent that is active by day in grassland and woodland.

• Green-bellied Hummingbird Saucerottia viridigaster

  This hummingbird occurs in the mountains of Colombia and Venezuela. A 2000 study documents geographic variation in Andean tail color and discusses separating the related S. cupreicauda.

• Chestnut-bellied Titi Plecturocebus caligatus

  The Chestnut-bellied Titi is a small Amazon lowland monkey with reddish chestnut fur across its chest and belly.

• Rufous-breasted Accentor Prunella strophiata

  Its bright orange breast and eyebrow contrast with a white throat and streaked brown back. It breeds in high-altitude forest and descends to lower scrub in winter.

• Arctic hare Lepus arcticus

  An Arctic hare whose seasonal coat changes vary by region.

• Black-sided Flowerpecker Dicaeum monticolum

  The Black-sided Flowerpecker is a small bird of Borneo's montane forests. Males have a red throat and dark blue-black back; females have a greener back.

• Hairy Fruit-eating Bat Artibeus (Artibeus) hirsutus

  The hairy fruit-eating bat is endemic to Mexico. A colony using caves was studied in Jalisco.

• Caatinga Antwren Radinopsyche sellowi

  An antwren of dry woodland and scrub in northeastern Brazil, especially in the Caatinga region.

• Smoky Shrew Sorex fumeus

  The Smoky Shrew changes coat color with the seasons. It stays active year-round on the forest floor and feeds on insects, spiders, and worms.