Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,824 · Stories: 19,540

• Olive-backed Woodpecker Gecinulus rafflesii

  

  The Olive-backed Woodpecker has an olive-green back and golden rump. It searches tree trunks and large branches for insects.

• Greater Broad-nosed Bat Platyrrhinus vittatus

  Platyrrhinus vittatus is a bat with bright white lines on its face and back. It eats fruit and other foods, and roosts in tree cavities or buildings.

• Lesser Masked Weaver Ploceus intermedius

  A weaver whose male has a black facial mask and pale eye. It weaves a round grass nest and breeds in colonies.

• Tawny-bellied Cotton Rat Sigmodon (Sigmodon) fulviventer

  The tawny-bellied cotton rat is a cotton rat with a buff-brown underside and a black, hairy tail. It lives in tall grass with scattered shrubs.

• Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse Pterocles exustus

  The Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse is a ground-dwelling bird of dry country. It eats seeds and flies daily to water, where large flocks gather; males and females differ in plumage.

• Straw-colored Fruit Bat Eidolon helvum

  Its coat ranges from straw-colored to dark gray. It eats fruit and nectar, is active at night, and may form large colonies.

• Azure Tit Cyanistes cyanus

  It has a white head, a dark line through the eye, and blue, grey and white plumage. A European account describes it as favoring bushes near fresh water.

• Namaqua rock mouse Micaelamys namaquensis

  The Namaqua rock mouse is a rodent of southern Africa. It is often recorded in rocky settings, where it uses grass nests in crevices and similar shelters.

• Black-hooded Sunbeam Aglaeactis pamela

  This hummingbird has a dark head, white breast feathers, and a shining blue rump. It feeds at flowers in Bolivia's highlands.

• Puku Kobus vardonii

  A southern and central African antelope of grasslands and floodplains. It shifts away from flooded areas in the rainy season and stays closer to water during the dry season.

• Yungas Manakin Chiroxiphia boliviana

  The Yungas Manakin is recorded in humid Andean montane forest in southeastern Peru. Males are mostly black with a sky-blue back and ruby crown; females are olive green.

• Pond Bat Myotis (Myotis) dasycneme

  This bat catches food while flying close to the water surface. Records from northwestern Germany include seasonal passage and wintering.

• Coraya Wren Pheugopedius coraya

  This wren occurs in northern South America. It has a rufous-brown body with black-and-white markings on the head and tail, and searches for food in riverside forest undergrowth.

• Grivet Chlorocebus aethiops

  The grivet is a monkey of northeastern Africa. A forest study in northern Ethiopia recorded a diet that changed with the season.

• Forbes-Watson's Swift Apus berliozi

  Forbes-Watson's Swift has a pale throat patch with fine streaks. Its breeding range includes Socotra, Somalia, and the southern Arabian Peninsula.

• Arctic Ground Squirrel Urocitellus parryii

  The Arctic ground squirrel lives in colonies in tundra and other northern habitats across Alaska, northern Canada and eastern Siberia, and overwinters underground.

• New Zealand little penguin Eudyptula minor

  A small penguin of New Zealand coasts, with a blue-toned back and white underparts.

• Pale Spear-nosed Bat Phyllostomus discolor

  The pale spear-nosed bat is a medium-sized, robust bat found in Central and South America. It often uses nectar and pollen, but its diet varies by place and season.

• Pygmy Ibon Oculocincta squamifrons

  This Bornean endemic has a patchy range in north-central Borneo. A survey in the Menyapa Mountains frequently recorded it at about 300 m.

• Guenther's Vole Microtus (Microtus) guentheri

  Günther’s vole is distributed from Turkey through the Levant. It is recorded in meadows and on hill slopes with sparse vegetation.

• Antarctic Tern Sterna vittata

  The Antarctic Tern occurs on southern subantarctic islands and exposed rocky areas of Antarctica. New Zealand birds belong to subspecies bethunei.

• Little Collared Fruit Bat Myonycteris torquata

  This fruit-eating bat lives in forests and other habitats in Central and East Africa. Its back is dark rusty brown to yellowish brown; adult males seasonally develop yellow-orange staining on coarse throat and chest hairs.

• Blue Ground Dove Claravis pretiosa

  The Blue Ground Dove is a small pigeon whose male's blue-gray plumage contrasts with the female's reddish brown. By day it searches the ground for seeds and small insects, using forest edges and grasslands.

• Blanford's Madromys Madromys blanfordi

  Surveys in Gujarat, western India, recorded Blanford's Madromys at multiple sites in 2015–2016. White hairs at the tail tip help distinguish its appearance.