Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,673 · Stories: 19,540

• Arizona Cotton Rat Sigmodon (Sigmodon) arizonae

  

  The Arizona cotton rat is a large rodent of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It has dark brown-black fur above and silver or white fur below.

• Brown-chested Martin Progne tapera

  This swallow has a brown chest and white throat and belly. It feeds on insects while flying by day.

• Red-tailed Squirrel Sciurus (Guerlinguetus) granatensis

  The red-tailed squirrel is an arboreal squirrel with variable coat and tail colors; fruits, nuts and seeds make up much of its diet.

• Lady Amherst’s pheasant Chrysolophus amherstiae

  A secretive pheasant whose male displays its head and neck feathers in a courtship dance.

• Eastern Harvest Mouse Reithrodontomys (Reithrodontomys) humulis

  This small mouse uses grassland and early-successional habitats, is mainly nocturnal, and builds grass-fiber nests.

• Sooty Gull Ichthyaetus hemprichii

  The Sooty Gull lives along coasts around the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Breeding adults have dark, sooty gray-brown plumage and search the shore for fish and other food.

• Variegated Squirrel Sciurus (Sciurus) variegatoides

  The variegated squirrel is a long-tailed tree squirrel whose coat color and pattern vary greatly among subspecies. It lives in forests and open woodland in Central America.

• Collared Aracari Pteroglossus torquatus

  The Collared Aracari is a toucan relative with a bright yellow belly and red rump. It moves through trees in small flocks and eats fruits, insects, and other foods.

• Atlantic Forest Oecomys Oecomys catherinae

  Oecomys catherinae is an arboreal rodent. Specimens from Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and Cerrado showed differences in skull form between the two biomes.

• African Houbara Chlamydotis undulata

  A bustard of dry North African landscapes. It uses sandy or stony semi-desert with scattered plants and shrubs.

• Townsend's Chipmunk Tamias (Neotamias) townsendii

  It has stripes on its back and face, with ears black in front and gray behind. It lives in Pacific Northwest hardwood and conifer forests, often using riparian or shrub-rich cover and rocky slopes for nesting.

• Pel's Fishing Owl Scotopelia peli

  Pel's Fishing Owl lives near rivers and lakes south of the Sahara in Africa and catches fish. It uses waterside trees for roosting and nesting.

• Highlands Colilargo Oligoryzomys rupestris

  This rodent is recorded in the highland Cerrado of central Brazil. In the original study it was captured only in rocky highland grassland or along the edge of adjacent vegetation.

• New Guinea Dwarf-kingfisher Ceyx solitarius

  This small kingfisher has blue upperparts and honey-colored underparts. It ranges across New Guinea and nearby islands; a Raja Ampat account records it inside forest.

• Mexican Gray Squirrel Sciurus (Sciurus) aureogaster

  The Mexican gray squirrel lives among forest trees and is notable for its reddish-brown belly and flanks. Its coat varies across its range.

• Red-throated Bee-eater Merops bulocki

  The Red-throated Bee-eater nests in earthen banks near rivers and catches flying insects in social groups.

• Russet Oryzomys Euryoryzomys russatus

  This rice rat lives in forests of eastern South America. It builds an egg-shaped nest from leaves and grass under or inside fallen logs and among palm roots.

• Tricolored Brush Finch Atlapetes tricolor

  This brushfinch is recorded in the mountains of Peru's eastern Andes, at about 1,750–3,050 m in the PeruAves account. Clements 2024 split the former Tricolored Brushfinch into two species and uses Golden-crowned Brushfinch for A. tricolor, so this entry limits the range to Peru.

• Cascade golden-mantled ground squirrel Callospermophilus saturatus

  This ground squirrel lives in the Cascade Mountains. It has a white-striped back and russet shoulders, and the current taxonomy places it in Callospermophilus.

• Cetti's Warbler Cettia cetti

  A small brown bird that hides in reedbeds and dense scrub near water. It is difficult to see, but its loud, abrupt song can reveal its presence.

• Pine Vole Microtus (Pitymys) pinetorum

  A small vole that moves through leaf litter and soil in deciduous forests. In autumn it stores roots and shoots in burrows for winter shortages.

• Yellow-mantled Whydah Euplectes macroura

  The Yellow-mantled Widowbird lives near wet grassland and swamps in Africa. It searches for seeds on the ground. Breeding-plumaged males display on the ground or on low vegetation; their black bodies carry yellow shoulder patches whose extent varies among subspecies.

• Yellow-bellied Marmot Marmota (Petromarmota) flaviventris

  The yellow-bellied marmot has a yellowish belly and reddish-brown back. Yellowstone National Park's account describes it feeding on plants in rocky grassland and hibernating.

• Knysna Turaco Tauraco corythaix

  The Knysna Turaco is an arboreal bird of southern African forests. It moves through the canopy while feeding on fruit.