Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,636 · Stories: 19,540

• Javan Tesia Tesia superciliaris

  

  This tiny bird hides in low thickets in Java's mountains. Its very short tail, black crown, and dark eye stripe are distinctive.

• Cream-coloured Giant Squirrel Ratufa affinis

  The cream-coloured giant squirrel is a large squirrel active by day in the upper canopy. It eats fruit and other plant matter, as well as insects.

• Lovely Fairywren Malurus amabilis

  This fairywren is endemic to the wet tropics of northeastern Australia. The male retains bright plumage through the year.

• Chiapan Deermouse Peromyscus zarhynchus

  The Chiapan deermouse is a forest mouse from Chiapas in southern Mexico. It has large ears and a long tail, and has also been recorded as a host for a beetle.

• Tropical Shearwater Puffinus bailloni

  The Tropical Shearwater dives for small fish and squid and breeds in burrows on islands. In Seychelles it has breeding sites on several islands.

• Mohave Ground Squirrel Xerospermophilus mohavensis

  This small ground squirrel lives only in California's western Mojave Desert. It is active by day and spends much of the year underground.

• Yellow-crested cockatoo Cacatua sulphurea

  A white cockatoo from Indonesia, with a yellow crest that can be raised.

• Western Amazonian Nectomys Nectomys apicalis

  Nectomys apicalis is a rodent of the western Amazon. A study recorded it in mature forest close to streams at Peru's Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve. The paper also reports the western Amazon form from eastern Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil's Juruá region.

• Siberian Nuthatch Sitta arctica

  A 2006 taxonomic study examined the Siberian form arctica within the Eurasian Nuthatch group and supported treating it as a separate species. That form has dark bluish-grey upperparts, a white belly centre and chestnut flanks. A current species account lists forest habitat and invertebrates as food, but the taxonomic study says ecological information about arctica remains fragmentary.

• White-tailed antelope squirrel Ammospermophilus leucurus

  A ground squirrel that moves with its tail held over its back, it lives in deserts and dry shrublands.

• Verditer Flycatcher Eumyias thalassinus

  The Verditer Flycatcher is a flycatcher with striking blue-green plumage. It hunts insects in the middle and upper canopy and breeds from the Himalayas into Southeast Asia.

• Yellow-nosed Cotton Rat Sigmodon (Sigmodon) ochrognathus

  The Yellow-nosed Cotton Rat uses high-elevation grasslands and rocky slopes, where it makes nests and burrows.

• Rusty-bellied Fantail Rhipidura teysmanni

  This fantail lives on Sulawesi. An old specimen account describes one unsexed individual with a cinnamon-brown forehead, back, rump, and basal tail, and an olive-brown head and neck. It searches for invertebrates in forest and thickets.

• Washington Ground Squirrel Urocitellus washingtoni

  The Washington ground squirrel lives in grasslands from eastern Washington to north-central Oregon. It has short legs and rounded ears, and spends the long winter underground.

• Black-backed Grosbeak Pheucticus aureoventris

  The Black-backed Grosbeak has a black head and a black-and-white back. It occurs around Andean montane forest edges and valleys, preferring wetter habitats than a close relative.

• Amazonian Marsh Rat Holochilus sciureus

  The Amazonian Marsh Rat uses waterside habitats and wet grasslands. Coat color and reported range vary, and the older broad species account includes records that its authors considered uncertain.

• Long-tailed Minivet Pericrocotus ethologus

  The Long-tailed Minivet male is notable for a black head and red on the wings. It searches for insects in treetops and is usually social outside the breeding season.

• Gray-footed Chipmunk Tamias (Neotamias) canipes

  This chipmunk lives in mountains of southeastern New Mexico and western Texas. It is mainly terrestrial and stores acorns and other seeds for winter.

• Wattled Starling Creatophora cinerea

  The Wattled Starling lives in dry grasslands and other open habitats in Africa and may move in flocks to find food. Breeding males have black wattles on the head.

• Hirsute Cotton Rat Sigmodon (Sigmodon) hirsutus

  The hirsute cotton rat occurs in grasslands and agricultural areas from Central America into northern South America. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of S. hispidus.

• Brown Trembler Cinclocerthia ruficauda

  The Brown Trembler inhabits forests of the Lesser Antilles. Its rounded body is rufous-brown, and it searches for food while tossing leaves.

• Woolly Flying Squirrel Eupetaurus cinereus

  The woolly flying squirrel has a dense coat and a gliding membrane between its limbs. In the northern Pakistan highlands, it remains active in winter and feeds on mosses and other foods.

• Short-tailed Lark Spizocorys fremantlii

  The Short-tailed Lark is a small lark, about 14–15 cm long. It walks on rocky ground and short-grass plains to eat seeds, and may also occur near human habitation.

• Sanborn’s Akodont Abrothrix sanborni

  This small mouse is uniformly blackish brown, including its tail and feet, with little contrast between the upper and lower sides. It has been recorded in coastal rainforests of southern Chile and in Argentina.