Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,676 · Stories: 19,540

• Lava Heron Butorides sundevalli

  

  Endemic to the Galápagos Islands, this small heron lives on rocky shores, in mangroves, and at salt lagoons. Plumage varies, and bill and leg colors change with season.

• Indian Scops Owl Otus bakkamoena

  This small owl lives in forests and wooded areas of South Asia. It has conspicuous ear tufts and hunts insects at night.

• Antarctic Tern Sterna vittata

  The Antarctic Tern occurs on southern subantarctic islands and exposed rocky areas of Antarctica. New Zealand birds belong to subspecies bethunei.

• Príncipe Sunbird Anabathmis hartlaubii

  This sunbird is endemic to Príncipe Island in São Tomé and Príncipe. It uses lowland forest, scrub and cultivated areas, where it gleans small invertebrates.

• Mountain Cacique Cacicus chrysonotus

  The Peru account describes this cacique in montane forest on the eastern Andes. It reports a yellow wing patch north of Junín and a yellow rump in southern populations.

• Lincoln's Sparrow Melospiza lincolnii

  Lincoln's Sparrow often stays low and hidden in grass or brush. During the breeding season it uses moist mountain meadows.

• White-bibbed Babbler Stachyris thoracica

  This babbler lives in the forest understory of Java. A white patch from throat to breast is distinctive, and it searches for insects in shaded thickets.

• American Coot Fulica americana

  A dark waterbird with a white bill. It swims like a duck but has broad lobes on its toes and feeds on aquatic plants.

• Diademed Plover Phegornis mitchellii

  The Diademed Plover is a small shorebird with a black head crossed by a white band, a chestnut neck, and a long slender bill. It lives along rivers and wetlands in the high Andes and is recorded along the Argentine Andes.

• Melanesian Flycatcher Myiagra caledonica

  This flycatcher occurs in New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. Adult males are glossy black; females combine grey and rufous-orange plumage.

• White-chinned Petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis

  This large petrel ranges widely over the Southern Ocean and breeds in burrows on vegetated island slopes.

• Blue Swallow Hirundo atrocaerulea

  An African migrant with glossy blue-black plumage and a long tail. At its breeding grounds it nests in holes in the ground.

• Scarlet-horned Manakin Ceratopipra cornuta

  A manakin of humid forests in northern South America. Males and females differ in head plumage, and males display in small groups.

• Iberian Magpie Cyanopica cooki

  The Iberian Magpie is a corvid found on the Iberian Peninsula. Its blue wings and tail and black crown are distinctive.

• Makira Dwarf Kingfisher Ceyx gentianus

  This small kingfisher occurs on Makira in the Solomon Islands. The account treats Ceyx gentianus separately from the grouping in which it was formerly included, Variable Dwarf Kingfisher.

• 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.

• Masked Fruiteater Pipreola pulchra

  This fruiteater is restricted to montane forest on the eastern Andes of Peru, using the canopy and subcanopy.

• Jackal Buzzard Buteo rufofuscus

  The Jackal Buzzard is a large raptor of southern African hills and mountains. Its plumage varies, and it searches for prey from the air or a perch.

• Niceforo's Wren Thryophilus nicefori

  This highly threatened wren occurs on the western slope of Colombia's northern Eastern Andes. It uses dry-forest understory and has also been recorded in shaded coffee and cacao plantations.

• Austral Thrush Turdus falcklandii

  This thrush is resident in northwestern Patagonia. Dark streaks mark its white throat, and ochre coloring spreads across the breast and belly.

• Seven-colored Tanager Tangara fastuosa

  This tanager has noticeable violet and orange plumage. It eats fruit and arthropods and also uses forest edges and gardens.

• Cassin's Malimbe Malimbus cassini

  This weaver occurs in forests from the Gulf of Guinea toward the Congo Basin. In north-eastern Gabon, small groups were seen in the canopy of wet and flooded forest, sometimes feeding with other bird species.

• Blue Mountain Vireo Vireo osburni

  This vireo lives in humid montane forests of north-western Jamaica and feeds within dense leaf cover.

• Natterer's Slaty Antshrike Thamnophilus stictocephalus

  Natterer's Slaty Antshrike occurs south of the Amazon and east of the Madeira. Males are grey and black, while females are brown; the species searches among foliage in forest for small invertebrates.