Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,636 · Stories: 19,540

• Pollen's Vanga Xenopirostris polleni

  

  This vanga is endemic to humid evergreen forest in eastern Madagascar. It is recorded from sea level to 2,000 m, though its distribution is patchy.

• Sclater's Lark Spizocorys sclateri

  A lark of dry, open landscapes in western southern Africa. In its core range it is mostly sedentary or moves only locally.

• Malayan Black-capped Babbler Pellorneum nigrocapitatum

  This ground-dwelling bird occurs in southern Thailand, the Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra, in moist forest and dense vegetation.

• Indochinese Barbet Psilopogon annamensis

  The Indochinese Barbet is a near-endemic resident of Vietnam. A Vietnamese species account reports it above 750 m in parts of eastern Laos and Cambodia and central to south-central Vietnam.

• Mangrove Vireo Vireo pallens

  This vireo occurs in coastal parts of Mexico and Central America and on Providencia Island, Colombia. It searches leaves and branches for small invertebrates in mangroves and scrub.

• Trilling Tapaculo Scytalopus parvirostris

  This tapaculo forages in the understory of humid Andean forest and bamboo patches. Adult males are dark gray; females have rufous-brown and black bars on the lower back, rump, and vent.

• Blue-crowned Trogon Trogon curucui

  The male has a blue head and chest with a red belly; the female’s head and chest are gray. In a Peruvian account, birds watched for prey from lower and middle parts of the canopy and dropped down to catch insects.

• Long-tailed Paradigalla Paradigalla carunculata

  This bird-of-paradise lives in the mountains of western New Guinea. It has black plumage, colorful facial wattles, and a diet of fruit.

• Black-and-white Mannikin Lonchura bicolor

  This small African finch has striking black-and-white markings. In the wild it feeds mainly on seeds and occurs in small groups around grassland and forest edges.

• Chestnut-cheeked Starling Agropsar philippensis

  The Chestnut-cheeked Starling breeds in Japan and Sakhalin and moves south for the winter. Males have chestnut cheek patches, and the species eats insects and fruit.

• Black-headed Cuckooshrike Coracina melanoptera

  Males have a black head and wings with a grey body; females have a grey head and black-and-white underparts. In Bangladesh, it searches foliage for insects and berries in forests and secondary growth.

• White-eared Night Heron Oroanassa magnifica

  The White-eared Night Heron is a nocturnal heron with a pale stripe running from behind the eye along the cheek and throat. It lives in hill forests near water in parts of China and northeastern Vietnam.

• New Caledonian Thicketbird Megalurulus mariei

  This 17–18 cm ground-dwelling bird is restricted to New Caledonia. It has olive-brown upperparts, a long pale eyebrow, and creamy underparts washed rusty. It walks through grass and scrub and feeds on small invertebrates.

• Apurimac Brush Finch Atlapetes forbesi

  A Peruvian brush-finch with a grey body and rufous head. It forages in Andean scrub and Polylepis woodland.

• Olive-backed Pipit Anthus hodgsoni

  This account focuses on the seasonal movements of the Japanese subspecies of Olive-backed Pipit. It breeds in open woodland and grassland from Shikoku and Honshu northward, then moves to lowlands with little persistent snow in autumn and winter.

• Spangle-cheeked Tanager Tangara dowii

  The Spangle-cheeked Tanager lives in wet mountain forests of Costa Rica and western Panama. Adults have black-and-blue scaling on the cheeks and a rufous crown patch; immatures are duller and lack that crown patch. It eats fruit as well as insects and spiders.

• Trindade Petrel Pterodroma arminjoniana

  The Trindade Petrel glides over the sea and feeds on fish and squid, returning to oceanic islands to breed.

• Snowy-browed Flycatcher Ficedula hyperythra

  This small flycatcher lives in moist forests and montane forests across Asia. The male is notable for its combination of an ash-blue head and orange chest.

• Gilbert's Whistler Pachycephala inornata

  This whistler is sparsely distributed through arid and semi-arid inland southern Australia. Males have a black patch between the red eye and bill, while females are more uniformly brown.

• Malayan Banded Pitta Hydrornis irena

  This pitta occurs in peninsular Thailand, Malaysia, and Sumatra in Indonesia. BirdLife records it in lowland swamp and evergreen forests.

• Doherty's Bushshrike Telophorus dohertyi

  This bushshrike inhabits montane forests from eastern Congo into the East African highlands. Its bright colors can be hard to see because it moves quietly through dense cover.

• Ecuadorian Seedeater Amaurospiza aequatorialis

  This bird is recorded in bamboo stands in Ecuador and northwestern Peru. Recent Ecuadorian and Peruvian records describe feeding on seeds and insects in bamboo.

• Channel-billed Cuckoo Scythrops novaehollandiae

  The Channel-billed Cuckoo is a large cuckoo with a massive pale, down-curved bill. It migrates to Australia from New Guinea and Indonesia and lays its eggs in other birds' nests.

• Chestnut-collared Swift Streptoprocne rutila

  The Chestnut-collared Swift catches flying insects above mountain forests and open areas. Males have a rufous collar; in females and young birds it may be incomplete or absent.