Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,673 · Stories: 19,540

• Cook's Swift Apus cooki

  

  Cook's Swift has long, sickle-shaped wings and a tail that closes to a needle-like point. It flies high over mountains, woodland, towns, and coasts, catching insects in the air.

• Wakolo Myzomela Myzomela wakoloensis

  This honeyeater occurs on Buru and Seram in Indonesia. A male described in a museum catalogue had a scarlet body, black wings and tail, and a scarlet band across the upper wing. It feeds on nectar and fruit.

• Taveta Weaver Ploceus castaneiceps

  Males are bright yellow with chestnut patches, while females are yellowish olive. Groups build woven nests and use wetlands and riparian areas.

• Fraser's Sunbird Deleornis fraseri

  This small sunbird inhabits forests in western and central Africa. Both sexes are olive-green, and males have orange-red pectoral tufts.

• Rüppell's Parrot Poicephalus rueppellii

  Rüppell’s Parrot is a dark brown parrot with yellow markings. Its diet changes with the season and includes seeds, buds, and fruits.

• Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot Loriculus beryllinus

  This small parrot is found only in Sri Lanka. It is bright green with a red bill and rump; males also have a red crown. It is seen alone or in pairs in forest canopies and other wooded places.

• Pacific Emerald Dove Chalcophaps longirostris

  This dove ranges from the eastern Lesser Sundas through Australia and New Guinea to Vanuatu and New Caledonia. It uses forest and mangroves and feeds mainly on fallen fruit and seeds on the ground.

• Mangrove Swallow Tachycineta albilinea

  A waterside swallow with a metallic blue back and white rump. It occurs around mangroves, rivers, and coastal waters.

• Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus

  A large owl widespread in North America, recognized by its earlike feather tufts and yellow eyes. It uses forests, wetlands, grasslands, and even green spaces in towns.

• Australasian Swamphen Porphyrio melanotus

  New Zealand birds of the Australasian Swamphen have a red frontal shield and bill and a deep blue-violet breast. Groups may defend territory and raise young cooperatively.

• Bertoni's Antbird Drymophila rubricollis

  The male has a black crown, a long white supercilium and a broad black band through the eye. The species ranges from southeastern Brazil through eastern Paraguay to Misiones, Argentina, and searches for arthropods in bamboo thickets.

• Verreaux's Eagle Aquila verreauxii

  A large eagle with a striking white V on its black back. It lives among rocky landscapes in Africa and hunts hyraxes as its main prey.

• Gray-breasted Woodpecker Melanerpes hypopolius

  The Gray-breasted Woodpecker lives in interior southwestern Mexico, using montane scrub and gallery forest.

• Dwarf Koel Microdynamis parva

  The Dwarf Koel occurs on New Guinea and nearby islands. About 20–22 cm long, it searches for fruit in the forest canopy and is seen alone or in pairs.

• Chestnut-faced Babbler Zosterornis whiteheadi

  This babbler is endemic to Luzon in the Philippines. It is recorded in mountain forest as well as open forest, secondary growth, and scrub.

• Azure Kingfisher Ceyx azureus

  The Azure Kingfisher is a small kingfisher with blue to violet upperparts and orange sides to the neck. It dives from a waterside perch to catch prey.

• Sao Tome Prinia Prinia molleri

  This prinia is endemic to São Tomé. The study reports it as common in disturbed and edge habitats such as savanna, plantations, farmland and gardens, but rare and locally distributed in the primary-forest sites surveyed. It feeds low in the vegetation, from leaf undersides or the ground.

• Lesser Violetear Colibri cyanotus

  The Lesser Violetear is a small hummingbird, about 11 cm long, found in the Andes from Colombia to Bolivia. In Peru it occurs in humid montane forest on the eastern slope and at high forest edges in the northwest.

• Yellow-lored Bristlebill Bleda notatus

  A lowland forest bird of West-Central Africa, also recorded in older secondary growth and forest–grassland mosaics. Records reach 650 m.

• Scarlet-throated Tanager Compsothraupis loricata

  This tanager is recorded in dry woodland, caatinga, and carnauba-palm stands in northeastern Brazil. A bird guide for Sete Cidades National Park describes flocks of up to about 20.

• Orange-billed Sparrow Arremon aurantiirostris

  A local survey in Colombia recorded it on the forest floor and in the understory, at forest edges, and in bamboo and riverside thickets. Records at the study area reached 1,200 m.

• Tennessee Warbler Leiothlypis peregrina

  The Tennessee Warbler is a small bird that breeds in Canada’s boreal forests. Breeding males show a gray head and pale eyebrow, while females and nonbreeding birds look more yellow-green overall.

• Black Grouse Lyrurus tetrix

  In spring, male Black Grouse gather at traditional display grounds to court. Females are smaller and brownish.

• Flying Steamer Duck Tachyeres patachonicus

  A grey duck with a white wing patch, it lives around Patagonian lakes and rivers, with different head and bill colors by sex