Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,813 · Stories: 19,540

• Bachman's Sparrow Peucaea aestivalis

  

  Bachman's Sparrow lives in open pine woods and grasslands in the southeastern United States. It searches the ground for grass seeds and insects and has reddish streaks on its back.

• Rosy-patched Bushshrike Telophorus cruentus

  The Rosy-patched Bushshrike is about 22–24 cm long. It is active by day in dry thorn scrub and searches the ground for invertebrates.

• Mottled Swift Tachymarptis aequatorialis

  The Mottled Swift is a large swift found across much of Africa. It has gray plumage and a mottled belly.

• Magellanic Tapaculo Scytalopus magellanicus

  This small tapaculo lives year-round in the Andean-Patagonian forest of northwestern Patagonia. It uses humid forest, forest transitions, and dense marsh vegetation.

• Plain-breasted Hawk Accipiter ventralis

  This small hawk occurs in Andean mountain forest and cloud forest. Its plumage is variable; one adult-male form in the guide has reddish-brown flanks and thighs.

• Grey-headed Babbler Stachyris poliocephala

  The Grey-headed Babbler lives in forests from southern Thailand through the Malay Peninsula to Sumatra and Borneo. It has a dark grey head with white lines and a chestnut body.

• Little Wattlebird Anthochaera chrysoptera

  The Little Wattlebird is an Australian bird found in dry scrub, banksia heath, and even urban parks. White streaks on the underside and a reddish-brown wing patch are useful marks.

• Fatu Hiva Monarch Pomarea whitneyi

  This monarch is endemic to Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas. Adults are glossy purplish-black and forage for insects and spiders in stream-centred valley forest.

• Hill Swallow Hirundo domicola

  This small swallow has a green-glossed back. It catches insects in flight over the hills of southern India and Sri Lanka.

• Tropical Parula Setophaga pitiayumi

  The Tropical Parula is a small bird widespread across the Americas. Blue-grey and yellow plumage is distinctive, and males have a black facial mask.

• African Reed Warbler Acrocephalus baeticatus

  This small warbler lives in reedbeds and grassy vegetation near water in Africa and feeds on insects. Sources differ on whether baeticatus is treated as a separate African Reed Warbler species or as a subspecies of Common Reed Warbler.

• Northern Grey-headed Sparrow Passer griseus

  This sparrow is marked by its grey head and white throat, and occurs in the grasslands, farmland, and settled areas of western and central Africa.

• Para Foliage-gleaner Automolus paraensis

  The Para Foliage-gleaner occurs in the southern Brazilian Amazon. Its species account notes a greyish crown and rufous tail, and it uses terra firme forest as well as floodplain and secondary forest. This account follows the range of Automolus paraensis as a separate species.

• Green-backed Gerygone Gerygone chloronota

  This small bird occurs in Indonesia, New Guinea, and northern Australia, using riverine forest, mangroves, and thickets. It has a grayish head and eats insects and spiders.

• Little Gull Hydrocoloeus minutus

  The world's smallest gull. In breeding plumage it has a black head and dark underwings; it flies low over water to catch insects and small fish.

• Salvadori's Antwren Myrmotherula minor

  This small antwren lives in Brazil's Atlantic Forest. Males have a black throat patch extending onto the chest, and the species joins mixed-species flocks in lowland forest.

• Eastern Curlew Numenius madagascariensis

  A large shorebird that breeds in the Northern Hemisphere and passes through Japan during migration. It uses its long bill to search for food on tidal flats.

• Regent Whistler Pachycephala schlegelii

  The Regent Whistler is marked by a male’s black head and yellow collar and a female’s gray head. It stays year-round in New Guinea’s mountains and feeds mainly on insects.

• White-browed Bulbul Pycnonotus luteolus

  The White-browed Bulbul is a resident breeder in peninsular India and Sri Lanka. Its white eyebrow is distinctive, and it searches bushes for fruit, nectar, and insects.

• Sooty Munia Lonchura melaena

  This is a small mannikin described here from its New Britain population. It has a black head and breast and eats grass seeds and sugarcane seed heads.

• Blue Petrel Halobaena caerulea

  The Blue Petrel is a small seabird with a blue-gray back, a dark eye mask, and a white belly. It feeds at sea and carries food to its chick at a breeding site.

• Buff-breasted Babbler Pellorneum tickelli

  This small babbler keeps near dense cover and the ground. A study in northern Thailand found nests along creeks, where both sexes incubated eggs and cared for nestlings.

• Long-tailed Koel Urodynamis taitensis

  The Long-tailed Koel is a long-distance migrant. It breeds in New Zealand and spends the southern winter on Pacific islands.

• Rufous-crowned Laughingthrush Pterorhinus ruficeps

  This laughingthrush is endemic to Taiwan. It occurs in forest, secondary growth, and scrub, and forages mainly on the ground.