Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,825 · Stories: 19,540

• 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.

• Glaucous Gull Larus hyperboreus

  The Glaucous Gull is a large gull with pale wing tips. Young birds have different plumage from adults.

• Spot-winged Falconet Spiziapteryx circumcincta

  A small raptor with short wings and a long tail. It occurs in dry and scrubby habitats of southern South America and takes prey ranging from insects to small birds.

• Ituri Batis Batis ituriensis

  Males have a gray head, black band, and white underparts. Females are paler gray with a white eyebrow. It uses lowland rainforest canopy in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and western Uganda.

• Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker Dicaeum cruentatum

  Males have red on the head and back, while females are gray-brown apart from a red rump and upper tail. It is a common resident in Singapore.

• Greater White-fronted Goose Anser albifrons

  A brown goose with a white patch at the bill. It occurs across the Northern Hemisphere and gathers in wetlands and fields in winter.

• Nocturnal Curassow Nothocrax urumutum

  The Nocturnal Curassow lives in lowland forest of upper and middle Amazonia. Despite its name, it searches for food on the ground by day and is also active around dawn and dusk.

• Pacific Parrotlet Forpus coelestis

  The Pacific Parrotlet is a small green parrot. Males show blue on the rump and wings, and the species eats fruits and seeds and moves in small groups.

• Maroon-backed Whistler Coracornis raveni

  Males are sooty grey with a maroon back. Females and juveniles are rusty brown above and olive below. It is shy and stays low in Sulawesi's montane forest, usually alone or in pairs.

• Sardinian Warbler Curruca melanocephala

  The Sardinian Warbler is a small bird of Mediterranean scrub. Males are marked by a black head and a red eye-ring.

• Scottish Crossbill Loxia scotica

  The Scottish Crossbill extracts seeds from conifer cones. It has a large head and thick bill, but can be difficult to distinguish from similar crossbills.

• Prothonotary Warbler Protonotaria citrea

  The Prothonotary Warbler stands out as a bright yellow bird in dim wet forests. It forages low near water and nests in holes in standing dead trees.

• Samoan Starling Aplonis atrifusca

  The Samoan Starling is endemic to the Samoan Archipelago. A National Park of American Samoa survey recorded it in native forest and human-dominated forest, including fruiting trees.

• Angola Waxbill Coccopygia bocagei

  The Angola Waxbill is a small finch occurring in Angola. A field guide describes a grey head, green back, red rump, and black tail; the male has a black face. It forages on the ground for seeds in shrubland and semi-open country.

• Blue-naped Pitta Hydrornis nipalensis

  A pitta with a reddish-brown head and body and a blue rump, living quietly in forest.

• Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler Pomatorhinus ruficollis

  A bird with a long curved yellow bill, a bold white eyebrow, and a chestnut breast. Hong Kong birds are thought to derive from captive stock, so local records are kept separate from the natural range.

• Hunter’s Sunbird Chalcomitra hunteri

  A sunbird of dry scrub and open woodland in East Africa. The male is mostly black with green and scarlet marks, while the female is browner.

• Beautiful Nuthatch Sitta formosa

  A large nuthatch with a black back streaked white, bright blue back and shoulders, and orange underparts, it forages on large trees in wet high-elevation evergreen forest.

• Ocellated Tapaculo Acropternis orthonyx

  A locally distributed tapaculo of the Andes from Venezuela to northern Peru. It occurs in cloud, temperate, and elfin forests.

• Golden-headed Manakin Ceratopipra erythrocephala

  The Golden-headed Manakin is striking for the male's golden head and black body. Males perform courtship displays in the forest, and the birds eat fruit and small arthropods.

• White-faced Quail-Dove Zentrygon albifacies

  The White-faced Quail-Dove occurs patchily in mountains from southern Mexico through northern Central America. It walks on the forest floor, and adults show a gray crown, a pale face, and chestnut upperparts.

• Superciliated Wren Cantorchilus superciliaris

  The Superciliated Wren is about 15 cm long. It has a rufous back and tail with black bars on the tail and flight feathers. A white eyebrow, head sides, throat, and breast contrast with the rufous lower underparts. It forages in semideciduous-forest understory and midstory and dry scrub in northwestern Peru, up to about 1,000 m.

• Japanese Cormorant Phalacrocorax capillatus

  A coastal cormorant that dives for fish; white patches appear on its face and thighs during breeding season.

• Tawny-backed Fantail Rhipidura superflua

  The Tawny-backed Fantail lives in humid forest on Buru Island. It is about 14 cm long and catches flying insects and other small invertebrates by day.