Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,824 · Stories: 19,540

• 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.

• Bar-winged Wren-Babbler Spelaeornis troglodytoides

  A small babbler of the eastern Himalaya and nearby mountains. It moves through bamboo and ferns in the forest understory while looking for small invertebrates.

• Cape Eagle Owl Bubo capensis

  This large owl has heavy barring on its tawny chest, dark blotches on the flanks, orange eyes and powerful feet. It hunts mainly mammals at night and occurs in scattered rocky areas.

• Ethiopian White-eye Zosterops poliogastrus

  This small white-eye lives in the highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Its white eye-ring and yellow face stand out as it searches forests and shrubland for fruit, nectar, and invertebrates.

• 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.

• Black-fronted Nunbird Monasa nigrifrons

  The Black-fronted Nunbird stands out for its coral-red bill and nearly black, dark-gray plumage. It may gather in family groups at forest edges.

• Shining Sunbird Cinnyris habessinicus

  The male has a purple forecrown and iridescent green head and upperparts. It eats nectar, fruit, insects, and spiders.

• King Rail Rallus elegans

  A large rail of North American wetlands, it has a chestnut back, gray face, and black-and-white bars on its flanks. It walks through reeds and grasses to find food.

• Trindade Petrel Pterodroma arminjoniana

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

• Japanese grosbeak Eophona personata

  A bird with a large yellow bill and clear, ringing calls.

• Chestnut-breasted Whiteface Aphelocephala pectoralis

  A small bird of elevated gibber plains in central to eastern South Australia. It uses dry shrubland and stony hills and plains.

• Black-thighed Falconet Microhierax fringillarius

  A small falcon of tropical Asian forest and forest edges. It hunts small birds and insects from perches and is marked by a pale eyebrow, rufous underparts, and black thighs.

• Sulphur-vented Whistler Pachycephala sulfuriventer

  This whistler inhabits moist forests on Sulawesi. Its basic adult description combines olive-brown and white plumage with bright yellow lower belly and undertail feathers.

• Neumann's Starling Onychognathus neumanni

  This starling has a patchy range from West Africa into western Central Africa. It uses rocky cliffs, outcrops, and gorges and feeds mainly on fruit, with insects and snails also recorded.

• Mexican Chickadee Poecile sclateri

  The Mexican Chickadee has a black cap and bib, white cheeks, and a gray back. It searches branches for insects and other food in high-elevation pine-oak forests.

• Japanese Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus xanthodryas

  The Japanese Leaf Warbler visits subalpine forests from Kyushu northward and repeats a slightly husky song. It was once grouped with the Kamchatka and Arctic Leaf Warblers.

• Rusty-tinged Antpitta Grallaria przewalskii

  This antpitta is endemic to Peru and searches for food near the ground in montane forest. It has a brown back, with rusty coloring on the sides of the head and neck.

• Rothschild's Grosbeak Cyanocompsa rothschildii

  Rothschild's Grosbeak occurs in western Amazonian forest. The male is deep blue and the female chestnut; both are associated with the leafy forest understory.

• Magnolia Warbler Setophaga magnolia

  The Magnolia Warbler is a small bird that breeds in dense conifer stands. Males and females have different facial and breast patterns, and the species uses a range of forests during migration.

• Flat-billed Vireo Vireo nanus

  This small vireo is endemic to Hispaniola. With a broad, flattened bill, it moves low through scrub and thickets in limestone dry forest while looking for fruit and insects.

• Slaty Egret Egretta vinaceigula

  This egret forages mainly in shallow wetlands of northern Botswana. Adults are blue-grey, though they can look black in poor light.

• Baikal Bush-warbler Locustella davidi

  The 2014 paper summarizes breeding from north-central China to Siberia and wintering in northern Southeast Asia. It also documents three records in Assam, India, in 2012–2013.

• North Moluccan Pitta Erythropitta rufiventris

  This pitta occurs on islands of the North Moluccas. In the nominate form rufiventris, a blue breast band and red underparts are prominent.

• Black-backed Dwarf-Kingfisher Ceyx erithaca

  The Black-backed Dwarf-Kingfisher is a small kingfisher found from India to Southeast Asia. Northern populations move south for winter.