Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,636 · Stories: 19,540

• Garnet Pitta Erythropitta granatina

  

  The Garnet Pitta is a small pitta marked with red, blue, and black. It searches for small prey around leaf litter and damp soil.

• Unstriped ground squirrel Xerus (Xerus) rutilus

  A ground-dwelling squirrel without stripes, it lives in dry grasslands and scrub in East Africa. It forages by day and uses burrows for shelter.

• Sao Tome Shorttail Amaurocichla bocagii

  This small bird occurs only on São Tomé Island. The IUCN assessment describes forested river valleys as its main habitat and notes some records in montane areas.

• Bonaerense Pericote Phyllotis bonariensis

  The Bonaerense Pericote is a rodent reported as restricted to the Sierra de la Ventana in Argentina. The account notes rocky habitat but provides no published behavior or diet data.

• African Pygmy Goose Nettapus auritus

  The African Pygmy Goose is a perching duck despite its name. A male has a white face, green markings, and a bright yellow bill.

• Afroalpine Vlei Rat Otomys orestes

  The Afroalpine Vlei Rat occurs on Mount Kenya and the Aberdare Range in central Kenya. It has shaggy tawny-brown fur and creamy-buff patches behind the ears, and lives in open heath and grassland above the tree line.

• Little Gull Hydrocoloeus minutus

  The world's smallest gull. In breeding plumage it has a black head and dark underwings; it flies low over water to catch insects and small fish.

• Yellow Ground Squirrel Spermophilus fulvus

  The yellow ground squirrel is a ground-dwelling squirrel that digs burrows in dry parts of Central Asia.

• Crested Spinetail Cranioleuca subcristata

  The Crested Spinetail is an ovenbird of forests in northern South America. It has a brownish face, a white eyebrow, and a slight crest, and it feeds mainly on arthropods.

• Common Pine Vole Microtus (Terricola) subterraneus

  The common pine vole is a small vole that often tunnels in deep soil and eats plant roots and tubers.

• White-backed Thrush Turdus kessleri

  This thrush breeds in the eastern and northeastern Tibetan Plateau of China. Males show black and chestnut markings, and winter records in the Himalayas are vagrants.

• Matthey's Mouse Mus (Nannomys) mattheyi

  This small mouse has a short tail and a clear contrast between its light-brown back and whitish belly. It lives in moist savanna and grassland in West Africa.

• Black-billed Peppershrike Cyclarhis nigrirostris

  It has a large head and a thick, hooked black bill. Its crown, cheeks, and back are olive, while its belly is white. A forest guide from Colombia records birds hopping from mid-level forest to high outer branches for food, alone or in pairs and sometimes in mixed flocks. The guide lists Colombia and Ecuador for its range.

• Nelson's Antelope Squirrel Ammospermophilus nelsoni

  Nelson's antelope squirrel is a small squirrel with a pale stripe along its side. It lives in dry grasslands and shrublands in California, searching for food by day and using burrow systems.

• Collared Forest Falcon Micrastur semitorquatus

  This raptor ambushes prey from cover in forest. Its dark head and back contrast with a pale belly and black-and-white tail.

• Bristly Mouse Neacomys spinosus

  The bristly mouse occurs in Amazonian forests of South America, from lowland evergreen forest to montane forest.

• Malabar Pied Hornbill Anthracoceros coronatus

  The Malabar Pied Hornbill has a black body, white belly, and white wing edges. The male's large pale bill and casque stand out.

• Mongolian Gerbil Meriones (Pallasiomys) unguiculatus

  The Mongolian gerbil lives in dry grassland and steppe in Mongolia, northern China, and nearby areas. It digs burrows and forages for seeds and other plant food.

• Pink-browed Rosefinch Carpodacus rodochroa

  This Himalayan rosefinch is raspberry-pink in males and mainly brown in females. It uses subalpine habitats in the breeding season and descends to foothills in winter.

• Forest Giant Squirrel Protoxerus (Protoxerus) stangeri

  This forest squirrel has a longer tail than head-and-body length in the Gabon record. The CNRS account says it often comes to the ground and eats insects, palm nuts, and leaves.

• Scaly-breasted Illadopsis Illadopsis albipectus

  This babbler searches for food in forest undergrowth and near the ground. Its whitish breast has a scaly pattern, but the pattern varies and is not always a clear identification mark.

• Transcaucasian Mole Vole Ellobius (Afganomys) lutescens

  A burrowing rodent recorded in eastern Turkey's semiarid areas, grasslands, and high-elevation cultivated fields. Field observations report family groups, complex tunnels, and a diet of vegetation.

• Crested Bunting Emberiza lathami

  This bunting has a conspicuous crest: males are dark, while females show brown streaking. The species ranges from northern India and the Himalayan foothills east through China to northern Indochina, and feeds on seeds.

• Turkish spiny mouse Acomys (Acomys) cilicicus

  A 2017 paper reported two isolated populations between Silifke and Erdemli in southern Turkey from a 2013–2016 survey; capture sites ranged from sea level to 510 m.