Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,636 · Stories: 19,540

• Black Noddy Anous minutus

  

  The Black Noddy is a seabird with sooty dark plumage and a white cap. It gathers on islands to breed, and courting pairs repeatedly nod to one another.

• Olive Spinetail Cranioleuca obsoleta

  This small ovenbird occurs in eastern Paraguay, southeastern Brazil, and northeastern Argentina. Its rufous tail and wings and pale eyebrow are noticeable.

• Amami Thrush Zoothera major

  A large thrush found on Amami-Oshima, with records also from nearby Kakeroma Island. It searches for animal prey and fruit in mature evergreen forest around humid valleys.

• Yellow-green Vireo Vireo flavoviridis

  The Yellow-green Vireo normally breeds in Mexico and Central America and winters in lowland tropical forest in South America. Nesting in Texas is rare, and a few fall records on the California coast are thought to be birds that went the wrong way.

• Prairie Falcon Falco mexicanus

  Prairie Falcons glide over grasslands and shrubby deserts, searching for small mammals and birds. Their pale plumage is marked by a dark triangle at the base of each wing.

• Great hornbill Buceros bicornis

  A bird with a large raised structure on top of its massive bill.

• Thick-billed Euphonia Euphonia laniirostris

  The Thick-billed Euphonia is a small bird about 11 cm long. Males have a glossy blue back and yellow-orange underparts; females have an olive back and yellow-orange underparts. It feeds on fruit.

• Hispaniolan Pewee Contopus hispaniolensis

  This small tyrant flycatcher lives in forests on Hispaniola. Its upperparts are dark grayish-olive and its throat is gray. It may sally from a perch to catch flying insects and return to the perch.

• Spot-breasted Oriole Icterus pectoralis

  The Spot-breasted Oriole ranges from southern Mexico to Costa Rica. It is marked by black breast spots and builds a long hanging nest from grasses or fine roots.

• White Bellbird Procnias albus

  The male is white, while the female is mainly green. This large bellbird uses high-elevation forest, eats fruit, and males call from exposed perches above the canopy.

• Grey Sibia Heterophasia gracilis

  It occurs in hill regions of northeast India, Myanmar, and western Yunnan in China, using evergreen, deciduous, pine, and secondary forests.

• Puna Plover Charadrius alticola

  This small plover lives by high-Andean rivers and lakes. Its head and neck colors change between breeding and winter plumage.

• Spectacled Petrel Procellaria conspicillata

  The Spectacled Petrel is dark, with white markings around its eyes, and ranges over the South Atlantic. Its only known breeding site is Inaccessible Island in the Tristan da Cunha group.

• Rufous-tailed Shama Trichixos pyrropygus

  This shama has a warm brown body and rufous tail. It skulks alone in lowland forest understorey and searches near the ground for insects.

• Black-tipped Cicadabird Coracina schisticeps

  It occurs in New Guinea forest and forest edges and has been recorded to about 1,200 m. Males are slaty gray; females are browner.

• Golden Myna Mino anais

  The Golden Myna has a black head and back with a broad orange-yellow collar along the sides of the neck. It forages for fruit in the canopy of New Guinea's lowland forests.

• Mongolian Lark Melanocorypha mongolica

  This lark breeds in Mongolia and northern China, and moves as far as central China in winter.

• White-bellied Treepie Dendrocitta leucogastra

  A corvid with a long tail and white belly, it lives in the humid hill forests of the Western Ghats.

• Red-fronted Antpecker Parmoptila rubrifrons

  The Red-fronted Antpecker is a small bird that searches for ants in low forest-edge growth. Males have a red forehead, while females have a spotted underside.

• Asian Palm Swift Cypsiurus balasiensis

  The Asian Palm Swift is a slender, small swift that attaches its nest with saliva beneath palm leaves.

• Sooty Myzomela Myzomela tristrami

  The Sooty Myzomela is a small honeyeater about 11–12 cm long. It is active in forest by day and feeds mainly on nectar, also taking small insects and fruit.

• Marsh Widowbird Euplectes hartlaubi

  This weaver occurs patchily in central and eastern Africa, using swampy grassland and nearby cultivated areas. The male's tail and plumage change with breeding phase.

• Sykes's Nightjar Caprimulgus mahrattensis

  This sand-gray nightjar blends into dry semi-desert. It is active from dusk into the night, rests on the ground by day, and catches insects close to the ground.

• Olive-backed Sunbird Cinnyris jugularis

  The Olive-backed Sunbird is a small bird that uses its slender, curved bill to feed from flowers. In Queensland it also occurs in gardens and along forest edges, and males and females differ in throat color.