Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,636 · Stories: 19,540

• Painted Buttonquail Turnix varius

  

  Females are larger and more colorful than males. In forest and woodland, birds scratch the leaf litter in a spinning motion to find seeds, insects, fruit, and leaves.

• Common Samoan Flying Fox Pteropus samoensis

  A flying fox with dark brown body and wings and variable lighter fur on the head and shoulders. It lives in forests of Samoa and Fiji and is active by day.

• Yellow-throated Sandgrouse Pterocles gutturalis

  The Yellow-throated Sandgrouse is marked by the male's yellow throat and eyebrow, framed by a dark neck band. In southern Africa, studies describe pairs nesting on the ground and using farmland.

• Common Noctule Nyctalus noctula

  A large bat with reddish-brown fur and rounded ears. In Britain, it roosts in tree holes and emerges early in the evening to catch insects.

• Crested ibis Nipponia nippon

  A wetland bird whose pink flight feathers show when it flies.

• Western Dwarf Squirrel Microsciurus mimulus

  This small squirrel has reddish or olive tones mixed into its dark back. It is active by day, uses trees and the ground, and feeds on tree sap and insects.

• Buff-browed Chachalaca Ortalis superciliaris

  This chachalaca occurs in lowland northeastern Brazil south of the Amazon. A pale eyebrow and chestnut outer tail feathers help distinguish it.

• Takin Budorcas taxicolor

  The Mishmi form is a plant-eating hoofed mammal of the eastern Himalayas and nearby mountains.

• Choco Screech Owl Megascops centralis

  The Choco Screech-Owl is a small owl found from Panama through Colombia to western Ecuador. It occurs in gray and rufous phases, and a row of white spots is visible on the folded wing.

• Ipanema Bat Pygoderma bilabiatum

  This small fruit-eating bat occurs in South America. It has no tail, brown tricolored fur, a short nose, and white patches on its shoulders. Local migration records are kept to the populations where they were documented.

• 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.

• Campbell's Mona Monkey Cercopithecus campbelli

  This arboreal monkey lives in coastal West Africa. It forms groups, eats fruits and leaves, and uses calls to signal danger and other cues.

• Sibilant Sirystes Sirystes sibilator

  The Sibilant Sirystes is a tyrant flycatcher of South American forests. A taxonomic paper describes typical southern birds and paler populations in northern and central Brazil.

• Nearctic Brown Lemming Lemmus trimucronatus

  The Nearctic brown lemming is a small rodent of northern North American tundra. It feeds on plants and lives in a strongly seasonal environment.

• Abyssinian Wheatear Oenanthe lugubris

  This wheatear lives in rocky mountains and uplands of East Africa. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have two reported forms of belly color.

• Cape Short-tailed Gerbil Desmodillus auricularis

  The Cape short-tailed gerbil is marked by a short tail and white patches behind its ears. It uses burrows in dry plains and pans.

• Black-headed Parrotbill Paradoxornis margaritae

  The Black-headed Parrotbill is recorded in southern Annam, in southern Vietnam and adjacent Cambodia. It has a black cap and pale cheek area, and small flocks move through scrub along forest edges from lower vegetation to the canopy.

• Seychelles Flying Fox Pteropus seychellensis

  The Seychelles flying fox is a large bat endemic to the granitic islands of Seychelles. It roosts in trees by day and flies out at dusk.

• Short-tailed Swift Chaetura brachyura

  The Short-tailed Swift has broad wings, an extremely short tail, and a pale beige rump. In the Brazilian Amazon, it catches insects while flying.

• Leaf-winged Bat Glauconycteris variegata

  Its wing membranes have a leaf-like net pattern, and the bat hides among foliage while roosting. It is widely but patchily recorded across sub-Saharan Africa.

• Eastern Black-headed Batis Batis minor

  The Eastern Black-headed Batis is a small, dark bird with a sharply defined white eyebrow. It searches for insects in the dry forests and savannas of East Africa.

• Red-legged Sun Squirrel Heliosciurus rufobrachium

  The red-legged sun squirrel lives in forests of western and central Africa. Its reddish limbs contrast with a gray to brown body.

• Pied Puffbird Notharchus tectus

  White spots on the head and shoulders and banding on the breast and flanks distinguish this small puffbird. It is found at humid forest edges and in the canopy.

• Arabian Tahr Arabitragus jayakari

  The Arabian tahr lives in the mountains of eastern Arabia. It has a stocky build and curved horns.