Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,676 · Stories: 19,540

• Southern Banded Snake Eagle Circaetus fasciolatus

  

  A forest snake-eagle of coastal East and southeastern Africa. Its grayish face and three white bars on a relatively long tail are useful identification marks.

• Rufous-naped Tit Periparus rufonuchalis

  This tit lives in mountain regions from the western Himalayas into Central Asia. The male is marked by a black head and white cheeks.

• Fasciated Tiger Heron Tigrisoma fasciatum

  This tiger-heron waits quietly beside fast forest streams, with pale bars across its neck and body

• Pine Bunting Emberiza leucocephalos

  The male Pine Bunting is notable for its white head and chestnut coloring. The species has separate breeding areas in Asia, and migration differs between subspecies.

• Buff-breasted Sandpiper Calidris subruficollis

  The Buff-breasted Sandpiper is a shorebird with buff plumage and a short bill. It walks through dry grass to find insects, and males display with raised wings on the breeding grounds.

• Black Lark Melanocorypha yeltoniensis

  A lark of dry Central Asian steppe. Males are conspicuously black, and a study in Kazakhstan recorded nests on the ground.

• Slender-tailed Woodstar Microstilbon burmeisteri

  This tiny hummingbird occurs from central and southern Bolivia to northwestern Argentina along the eastern Andes. The male is notable for its slender, elongated tail.

• Fire-breasted Flowerpecker Dicaeum ignipectus

  The Fire-breasted Flowerpecker is a small bird whose male has a scarlet chest patch and a fine black stripe down the belly. In Taiwan it is one of the birds described as dispersing mistletoe seeds.

• Ochre-rumped Antbird Drymophila ochropyga

  An antbird of humid forest in Brazil. Males and females differ in head and breast markings.

• Eye-ringed Thistletail Asthenes palpebralis

  This thistletail is reported as restricted to the eastern Andes of Peru’s Junín region. The pictured bird is of unknown sex; its broad white eye-ring and long graduated tail are conspicuous.

• Fairy Pitta Pitta nympha

  The Fairy Pitta is a brightly colored migrant that breeds in Taiwan's low-elevation, damp broadleaf forests in summer. It searches the ground for insects and earthworms.

• Papyrus Gonolek Laniarius mufumbiri

  This bush-shrike lives in East African papyrus wetlands. Adults have black upperparts, a yellow crown, a white wing bar, and orange-red underparts.

• Javan Scimitar Babbler Pomatorhinus montanus

  A yellow, downcurved bill, white eyebrow and chestnut back identify this babbler. It forages in the lower growth of forests on Java and Bali.

• Caucasian Snowcock Tetraogallus caucasicus

  A pheasant-family bird of high rocky slopes in the Caucasus, it may move lower during severe winter weather.

• Crimson Rosella Platycercus elegans

  The Crimson Rosella lives in forests and woodlands of eastern Australia. Alongside red adults, yellow and orange color forms occur in parts of its range.

• Green Jay Cyanocorax luxuosus

  The jay has a green body, blue crown, black throat and facial markings, and yellow outer tail feathers. Family groups search woodland and scrub for food. This account is scoped to the northern Cyanocorax luxuosus group recognized in the AOS proposal.

• Sooty Fox Sparrow Passerella unalaschcensis

  This entry concerns the Pacific Sooty group within the broader Fox Sparrow account. It has dark upperparts and uses different habitats during breeding and winter.

• Golden-tailed Woodpecker Campethera abingoni

  It has a streaked breast and throat, with different head markings in males and females. It inhabits savanna and woodland from eastern to southern Africa.

• Crested Guan Penelope purpurascens

  The Crested Guan is a large bird with a prominent crest. A Belize Zoo guide describes it in Belizean forests and as an arboreal species.

• Mentawai Scops Owl Otus mentawi

  This island owl lives in lowland forest on the Mentawai Islands. It has reddish-chestnut and dark brown plumage morphs, with pale eyebrows and ear-tufts.

• Eastern Phoebe Sayornis phoebe

  A small flycatcher of eastern North America, the Eastern Phoebe often launches from a low perch to catch flying insects.

• Rufous-chested Flycatcher Ficedula dumetoria

  Southern Flores specimens are described with brown irises, black bills, and bluish-purple legs. A specimen from Tjeréng was collected in primary forest.

• Great Dusky Swift Cypseloides senex

  A dark-brown swift, it catches insects above forests and uses rocky waterfalls for resting and breeding.

• Chestnut-crested Puffbird Malacoptila striata

  The Chestnut-crested Puffbird is endemic to Brazil. Its dark brown streaks and white crescent-shaped breast band stand out, and it searches in forest for insects and small animals.