Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,636 · Stories: 19,540

• Black-backed Dwarf-Kingfisher Ceyx erithaca

  

  The Black-backed Dwarf-Kingfisher is a small kingfisher found from India to Southeast Asia. Northern populations move south for winter.

• Northern Gray-bellied Squirrel Callosciurus caniceps

  Its coat changes with region and season, and the tail tip is black. From southern Myanmar through Thailand, it uses forests as well as bamboo-rich places and gardens.

• Flame Bowerbird Sericulus ardens

  The Flame Bowerbird lives in forests of southern New Guinea. Males are brightly coloured and build a narrow avenue of sticks as a courtship display site.

• White-bellied Akodont Akodon (Akodon) albiventer

  The white-bellied akodont is a small rodent of the Andean highlands. Its grizzled-grey back contrasts with a white belly, and most records come from 3,000–4,500 m.

• Grey Wren-Warbler Calamonastes simplex

  This small bird has sooty grey plumage and a dark tail. It searches for small invertebrates near the ground in dry woodland and acacia savanna scrub.

• Barbary Ground Squirrel Atlantoxerus getulus

  The Barbary ground squirrel is a striped, ground-dwelling squirrel of rocky northwestern Africa. It digs burrows and can live socially.

• Sword-billed Hummingbird Ensifera ensifera

  The Sword-billed Hummingbird has a bill 8.1–12 cm long, nearly as long as its body. A study examined its Andean range and overlap with long-flowered plants.

• Cleft-headed Juliomys Juliomys rimofrons

  This small rodent is known from southeastern Brazil. It has long ochre-brown fur and an orange rump; known specimens came from ground-level traplines.

• Sooty Albatross Phoebetria fusca

  The Sooty Albatross is a large seabird with dusky plumage that ranges over the South Atlantic and southern Indian Ocean.

• Svynnerton's Bush Squirrel Paraxerus vexillarius

  Swynnerton's bush squirrel is recorded from mountains in Tanzania. Specimens from the West Usambara Mountains are noted for orange feet and a tail tip.

• Olive-headed Greenbul Arizelocichla striifacies

  Arizelocichla striifacies is a bulbul of eastern African mountain forests, with an olive head and white cheek streaks. The IOC treatment includes birds formerly called A. olivaceiceps within this species.

• Coues' Oryzomys Oryzomys couesi

  Coues' oryzomys uses wetland habitat. At the southern tip of Texas, it is recorded among cattails and aquatic grasses.

• Black-headed Gonolek Laniarius erythrogaster

  The Black-headed Gonolek has a black head and back and an orange-red throat, breast and belly. It lives in pairs or family groups, and a male's whistled call may be followed by a female's harsher call.

• Perote Ground Squirrel Xerospermophilus perotensis

  This ground squirrel lives in the highlands of eastern Mexico. It is active by day and retreats to underground burrows at night.

• Sooty Grassquit Asemospiza fuliginosa

  This small grassquit occurs in humid woodland and forest edges. It is recorded from several South American countries; in Bolivia, only one vagrant specimen from Amazonian forest in northern Santa Cruz is reported.

• Gray Red-backed Vole Myodes rufocanus

  This vole occurs across northern Eurasia. It has a reddish-brown back and gray sides; in northern Europe it is common in conifer forest and also lives in scrub and meadows.

• Le Conte's Sparrow Ammospiza leconteii

  This small sparrow breeds in damp northern meadows and shallow marsh edges, then winters in the southeastern United States. It often stays hidden in dense low growth.

• California Chipmunk Tamias (Neotamias) obscurus

  In summer, its head is pale gray with cinnamon tones, and russet and pale-gray stripes mark its back. In southern California it is recorded in pinyon-juniper and pine-oak forests, often near shrubs and rocky outcrops.

• Kentucky Warbler Geothlypis formosa

  The Kentucky Warbler has yellow underparts and a yellow spectacle around the eye. It forages near the forest floor in eastern North America during breeding and moves to Central America for winter.

• Common Pericote Graomys griseoflavus

  The common pericote is a mouse broadly distributed in dry parts of Argentina. It has a gray-yellow back, pale underside, and a long tail ending in a brush-like tuft.

• Fire-breasted Flowerpecker Dicaeum ignipectus

  The Fire-breasted Flowerpecker is a small bird whose male has a scarlet chest patch and a fine black stripe down the belly. In Taiwan it is one of the birds described as dispersing mistletoe seeds.

• Spotted Ground Squirrel Xerospermophilus spilosoma

  The spotted ground squirrel is a ground-dwelling squirrel of dry and open habitats in Texas. It stays near its burrow and is active in early morning and late afternoon.

• Emin's Shrike Lanius gubernator

  A small African shrike of savanna and shrubland that catches ground-dwelling invertebrates by day.

• Ash-colored Oldfield Mouse Thomasomys cinereus

  This mouse has soft, dense gray fur and is active on the ground at night. The account notes that the name may cover a species complex.