Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,825 · Stories: 19,540

• Socorro Wren Troglodytes sissonii

  

  The Socorro Wren is a wren of Socorro Island, Mexico. Species accounts record it in dry forest and dry shrubland.

• White-rumped Swift Apus caffer

  A swift that catches insects in flight. In southern Africa, it may breed in nests taken over from other birds.

• Lemon-bellied White-eye Zosterops chloris

  This white-eye is centered on Sulawesi and the Lesser Sundas in Indonesia. It has yellow underparts and a white eye-ring. A university reference lists open coastal forest, forest edges, plantations, and urban areas; a survey in south-east Sulawesi also recorded it at mangrove and riparian forest edges.

• 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.

• Kosrae Fruit Dove Ptilinopus hernsheimi

  This fruit-dove lives on Kosrae. Calls are often heard in rainforest, and an older comparison found higher density there than in mangroves. Micronesian forms, including the Kosrae group, have a yellow band at the tail tip.

• White-bibbed Babbler Stachyris thoracica

  This babbler lives in the forest understory of Java. A white patch from throat to breast is distinctive, and it searches for insects in shaded thickets.

• Purple-bearded Bee-eater Meropogon forsteni

  The Purple-bearded Bee-eater occurs only on Sulawesi. Adult males have long purple throat feathers that hang like a beard.

• Polynesian Triller Lalage maculosa

  This cuckooshrike occurs across islands of the southwest Pacific. A Niue regional guide describes it in vegetated habitats, where it searches leaves of trees and shrubs for insects.

• Yap Monarch Monarcha godeffroyi

  The Yap Monarch is a monarch flycatcher endemic to Yap in Micronesia. It uses lowland forest, mangroves, and coastal scrub, moving slowly as it searches leaves and branches for food.

• Himalayan Grasshopper-warbler Locustella kashmirensis

  This small bird is recorded in the western Himalaya. Plumage alone does not distinguish the sexes, and uncertainty remains at the edges of its known range.

• Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella

  A bunting that stays on farmland in Britain year-round; males have a bright yellow head.

• Ruff Calidris pugnax

  A shorebird that breeds in wetlands from arctic to temperate regions and also uses mudflats and grasslands during migration and winter. Breeding males display elaborate head and neck feathers.

• Common Merganser Mergus merganser

  A streamlined diving duck with a long, narrow bill that eats fish. It breeds widely across the north and moves south for winter.

• Manipur Fulvetta Fulvetta manipurensis

  This babbler ranges from northeastern India to northern Vietnam. Records in China are from western and southeastern Yunnan, where it searches for insects in forest undergrowth and bamboo thickets.

• Banded Wattle-eye Platysteira laticincta

  This small bird lives in the montane forests of western Cameroon. The male has a broad blue-black band across its white belly and a red bare wattle above the eye.

• Sickle-billed Vanga Falculea palliata

  The Sickle-billed Vanga is a black-and-white bird with a long, slender bill that curves down. It searches among branches for food in Madagascar's forest and savanna habitats.

• Black-eared Sparrow-Lark Eremopterix australis

  The Black-eared Sparrow-Lark lives in dry grasslands of southern Africa and may move after good rains.

• Sangihe Scops Owl Otus collari

  This small owl lives only on Sangihe Island. It is brown with black streaks and pale wing marks, and occurs in forest, plantations, and tree patches.

• Yellow-billed Malkoha Rhamphococcyx calyorhynchus

  The Yellow-billed Malkoha is a large cuckoo endemic to Sulawesi. Its rusty upperparts, long tail, and thick red-and-yellow bill are distinctive.

• Naked-faced Barbet Gymnobucco calvus

  This barbet inhabits forests in western and central Africa. The skin on its face and crown is bare, and groups use trees bearing fruit.

• Hunter's Cisticola Cisticola hunteri

  Hunter’s Cisticola occurs locally in the highlands of Kenya, at Mount Elgon in Uganda and in northern Tanzania. Two or more birds may sing together.

• Mangrove Golden Whistler Pachycephala melanura

  Males have a black head and breast, a yellow nape band, and an olive back. Females are duller, and the yellow on their underparts varies among subspecies.

• Black Heron Egretta ardesiaca

  The Black Heron is a dark heron found in sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar. In shallow water it may spread its wings like an umbrella while foraging for fish.

• Golden-winged Laughingthrush Trochalopteron ngoclinhense

  This laughingthrush is restricted to a few mountains in central Vietnam. It forages on the ground in montane evergreen forest understory and has golden wing markings.