Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,813 · Stories: 19,540

• Spot-billed Toucanet Selenidera maculirostris

  

  This toucanet is endemic to Atlantic Forest in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. It usually lives alone or in pairs in humid forest and eats fruit, along with invertebrates and small vertebrates.

• Blue-cheeked Flowerpecker Dicaeum maugei

  The Blue-cheeked Flowerpecker is a tiny, short-tailed bird found in forests and plantations.

• White-tailed Lapwing Vanellus leucurus

  It lives around wetlands in Central Asia and the Middle East, with pale sandy plumage and long yellow legs. In flight its wings show brown, black and white, and the tail is white. It is a very rare vagrant to Britain.

• Lanceolated Monklet Micromonacha lanceolata

  This puffbird has a large-looking head, a plump body, and a short tail. In Bolivia’s Río Paracti valley, one male was recorded in understory forest near a river.

• Scarlet-tufted Sunbird Nectarinia johnstoni

  A sunbird of East Africa’s high mountains, it feeds on Lobelia nectar in Kenya’s alpine moorlands. Males have iridescent green plumage and scarlet pectoral tufts.

• Red-headed Tanager Piranga erythrocephala

  This tanager inhabits mountain forests in western Mexico. Males have a red head and throat; females lack the red areas.

• Short-winged Cisticola Cisticola brachypterus

  It is a small cisticola of African savannas and grasslands. During breeding, males sing from exposed perches and also perform aerial courtship displays.

• Cape Verde Swift Apus alexandri

  The Cape Verde Swift is endemic to the Cape Verde Islands and breeds in crevices on cliffs and ravines.

• Black Thicket Fantail Rhipidura maculipectus

  This fantail lives in lowland New Guinea and nearby islands. The male is marked by a black head and a narrow white brow.

• Scaled Antpitta Grallaria guatimalensis

  This antpitta has dark rufous-brown plumage, a gray head, and a scaled pattern on its back. In Peru, it is recorded foraging on the forest floor.

• Cuban Nightjar Antrostomus cubanensis

  The Cuban Nightjar is endemic to Cuba. Its cryptic plumage blends with the forest floor, where it rests between insect-hunting bouts.

• Red-headed Manakin Ceratopipra rubrocapilla

  This manakin lives in the understory of southern Amazonian forest in Peru. Males stand out with a red head on a black body, while females are green.

• Burmese Myna Acridotheres burmannicus

  The Burmese myna is a starling with a pale crest and wine-colored chest. It searches for insects on the ground in groups.

• Rufous-winged Buzzard Butastur liventer

  The Rufous-winged Buzzard is a raptor that searches for prey in wooded grassland and farmland. By day, it watches open ground from a perch.

• Martens's Warbler Seicercus omeiensis

  Martens’s Warbler (Seicercus omeiensis) breeds in China and winters in Southeast Asia. In Hong Kong it is a rare winter visitor to closed-canopy woodland and shrubland.

• White-necked Laughingthrush Garrulax strepitans

  An older bird account describes a reddish-brown head, black face, and white neck spots, and reports flocks of twenty or more in deep forest ravines. These are historical observations.

• European Shag Gulosus aristotelis

  The European Shag is a seabird of rocky coasts. It dives after fish, and breeding adults show a raised crest.

• Redhead Aythya americana

  The Redhead is a diving duck of North America. In breeding plumage the male has a reddish-brown head and blue-gray bill; the female is brown with a paler face.

• Esmeraldas Woodstar Chaetocercus berlepschi

  This tiny hummingbird is endemic to the Pacific coast of western Ecuador. A 2007–08 survey found 11 additional localities and 26 nests; the study also corrected female descriptions that had been based on misidentified juvenile males.

• Yellow-chinned Spinetail Certhiaxis cinnamomeus

  This spinetail has chestnut-brown upperparts and head, with white underparts. Its pale yellow chin can be hard to see.

• Yellow-throated Fiji Whistler Pachycephala graeffii

  The Yellow-throated Fiji Whistler occurs on Fiji's islands. Male breast bands differ among island forms, and a tour account recorded very vocal birds on Taveuni.

• Indian peafowl Pavo cristatus

  A bird native to India and Sri Lanka whose males spread a long train like a fan.

• Red-necked Phalarope Phalaropus lobatus

  The Red-necked Phalarope breeds in Arctic wetlands and often spends winter at sea. Females have brighter breeding plumage, while males incubate and care for the young.

• Crimson Finch Neochmia phaeton

  The Crimson Finch ranges from northern Australia to southern New Guinea. Much breeding takes place during the wet season, and nests are built among palm-like fronds or sometimes on artificial structures.