Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,768 · Stories: 19,540

• Forest Fody Foudia omissa

  

  This small bird is endemic to Madagascar. The breeding-plumage male has red on the head, throat, upper breast, and rump, with dark streaks on the olive-brown back. Females and males outside the breeding season are described separately, with olive-brown upperparts and a pale buff belly. It searches trees and shrubs for seeds, fruit, and insects.

• 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.

• Freckled Nightjar Caprimulgus tristigma

  The Freckled Nightjar is a nocturnal bird of rocky slopes and ravines. It catches insects in flight around dusk and dawn and lays eggs in natural rock cavities.

• Tristram's Jird Meriones (Pallasiomys) tristrami

  Tristram’s jird lives in dry steppe from the eastern Mediterranean into the Middle East. Its boundary from a close relative remains debated.

• White-bellied Fantail Rhipidura euryura

  The White-bellied Fantail lives in moist mountain forests on Java. Its gray body has a white belly and a broad white stripe above each eye.

• Tufted Pygmy Squirrel Exilisciurus whiteheadi

  The tufted pygmy squirrel is a small squirrel with long white ear tufts. It moves along tree trunks in Borneo's mountain forests, feeding on bark and lichens.

• Southern Bald Ibis Geronticus calvus

  The Southern Bald Ibis has a bare red crown and whitish bare face. It searches grasslands and fields in southern Africa for insects and nests on cliff ledges.

• 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.

• Black Catbird Melanoptila glabrirostris

  This black bird with a blue gloss lives in woodland and scrub around the Yucatán Peninsula. At Sian Ka’an in Mexico it uses coastal vegetation with palms and shrubs and feeds on fruit and other foods.

• Common Water Rat Hydromys chrysogaster

  The common water rat is a large rodent adapted to life near water. It has webbed feet and a thick tail with a white tip.

• Abyssinian Catbird Sylvia galinieri

  This babbler is found in the Ethiopian highlands. Its sooty-gray body, black spot before the eye, whitish forehead, and chestnut lower belly are distinctive.

• Durango Chipmunk Tamias (Neotamias) durangae

  A chipmunk of the Sierra Madre Occidental in western Mexico. It inhabits mountain forests containing pine, oak, and juniper.

• Orange-cheeked Waxbill Estrilda melpoda

  This small bird has a grey face, orange cheeks, and a red bill. It eats seeds and insects in grasslands and scrub in western and central Africa.

• California Red-backed Mouse Myodes californicus

  This vole is recorded along the Pacific coast of northern California and Oregon. It lives among leaf litter and fallen logs in moist forest and searches for fungi at night.

• Yellow-legged Thrush Turdus flavipes

  This thrush occurs widely in South America. An island study by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro reports it in lowlands during the coldest months and conspicuous near mountaintops in spring and summer on Bom Jesus Island.

• Vangunu Giant Rat Uromys vika

  This rat has a cinnamon-brown back and creamy-white underside. The 2017 account describes a single subadult specimen found in a cut-down tree in lowland rainforest on Vangunu Island.

• Southern Carmine Bee-eater Merops nubicoides

  The Southern Carmine Bee-eater has reddish-pink plumage and long central tail streamers. It nests in colonies in burrows on river sandbanks and catches insects in flight.

• Jentink's Squirrel Sundasciurus (Sundasciurus) jentinki

  Jentink's squirrel has pale-speckled brown upperparts, a creamy underside, and a long, thin tail. It is active by day and uses the crowns of small trees in montane forest.

• White-naped Xenopsaris Xenopsaris albinucha

  This small passerine occurs in separated parts of South America, from Venezuela to the southern cone. A study found resident, partly migratory, and migratory breeding populations, with seasonal plumage change in the records.

• Short-tailed Cane Mouse Zygodontomys brevicauda

  The short-tailed cane mouse lives in grass and waterside cover and is active on the ground at night.

• Black-browed Barbet Psilopogon oorti

  The Black-browed Barbet has red, blue, and yellow markings on the head and a black brow-like stripe. It forages in the canopy and mid-level branches, and accounts differ on the details of its diet.

• Common Australian Rock Rat Zyzomys argurus

  The common Australian rock rat is a small-to-medium rodent associated with rocky outcrops. A juvenile was recorded at a sandstone outcrop in southern Queensland.

• Bicolored Conebill Conirostrum bicolor

  This small tanager occurs in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and northern Brazil, along rivers and in coastal wetlands. Adults are bluish grey with a reddish iris.

• Northern Amazon Red Squirrel Sciurus (Urosciurus) igniventris

  The northern Amazon red squirrel is a large tree squirrel of northwestern Amazonia. It can be difficult to distinguish from the southern Amazon red squirrel in the field, and one feeding study analyzed the two together.