Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,673 · Stories: 19,540

• Buru Dwarf Kingfisher Ceyx cajeli

  

  A small kingfisher endemic to Buru Island, Indonesia. Wallace's original description notes a black upper surface with pale-blue spots and feather edges, rufous-yellow underparts, a white throat, and coral-red bill and feet. A later nineteenth-century letter describes feeding in swamp thickets.

• Beesley's Lark Chersomanes beesleyi

  This lark is restricted to a small area of northern Tanzania. Checklists have changed its rank; this account follows the current split treatment as Chersomanes beesleyi.

• Green Shrike-Vireo Vireolanius pulchellus

  The Green Shrike-Vireo ranges from southeastern Mexico to eastern Panama. It occurs in humid forest canopies and second-growth woodland in lowlands and foothills.

• Orange-breasted Waxbill Amandava subflava

  A small passerine with an orange-red breast, it feeds on grass seeds in wetlands and dry savannas of equatorial Africa.

• White-shouldered Starling Sturnia sinensis

  The White-shouldered Starling is marked by white shoulders and gathers in open areas with scattered trees.

• Black Cicadabird Coracina melas

  The Black Cicadabird occurs on New Guinea and is included in a field guide for the Mimika region. The guide describes different plumages for males and females.

• American Bittern Botaurus lentiginosus

  A brown-and-buff heron that can blend into marsh vegetation by stretching its neck and pointing its bill upward.

• Rufous-eared Brush Finch Atlapetes rufigenis

  The Rufous-eared Brush-Finch is endemic to Peru. It forages in Andean scrub and Polylepis forest; its rufous head and black-and-white facial markings are distinctive.

• Paddyfield Pipit Anthus rufulus

  A pipit of open country in South and Southeast Asia, seen in fields, grassland, and wetlands.

• Yellow-bellied Tanager Ixothraupis xanthogastra

  This tanager lives in Amazonian forest and along the eastern Andean foothills. It is green with dark spots and a yellow center to the belly.

• Spectacled Petrel Procellaria conspicillata

  The Spectacled Petrel is dark, with white markings around its eyes, and ranges over the South Atlantic. Its only known breeding site is Inaccessible Island in the Tristan da Cunha group.

• Saxicola ferreus

  Saxicola ferreus is a scarce winter visitor and passage migrant in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong bird account describes both sexes and their foraging in open shrubland and other cleared habitats.

• Banded Bay Cuckoo Cacomantis sonneratii

  The Banded Bay Cuckoo lives in woodland and gardens from the Indian subcontinent into Southeast Asia. In Singapore, it is known to lay its eggs in the nest of a Common Iora.

• Spot-fronted Swift Cypseloides cherriei

  The Spot-fronted Swift occurs in Costa Rica and scattered areas of northern South America. It has a short, square tail and a distinctive pale pattern around the eyes.

• Flores Crow Corvus florensis

  The Flores Crow is a relatively small crow found only on Flores Island, Indonesia. BirdLife's older account recorded it widely in lowland forests in the west of the island.

• Eastern Screech-Owl Megascops asio

  The Eastern Screech-Owl is a small owl that hides in tree cavities and nest boxes. It lives in woods, suburbs, and parks east of the Rocky Mountains, and its calls can be heard at night.

• Crowned Lapwing Vanellus coronatus

  The Crowned Lapwing lives in open grasslands of eastern and southern Africa. Adults have a white ring around the black head and search the ground for ants, termites, and other insects.

• Owston's Tit Sittiparus owstoni

  This tit inhabits forests on the southern Izu Islands. It eats insects as well as seeds and nuts.

• Golden-headed Manakin Ceratopipra erythrocephala

  The Golden-headed Manakin is striking for the male's golden head and black body. Males perform courtship displays in the forest, and the birds eat fruit and small arthropods.

• Chuuk Monarch Metabolus rugensis

  The Chuuk Monarch is endemic to the Chuuk Islands. Baker’s 1951 account describes a mostly white male with a black face and throat and a mostly sooty-black female. The species uses large patches of primary forest and mangroves.

• Screaming Piha Lipaugus vociferans

  The Screaming Piha inhabits humid Amazonian forest and searches the canopy for fruit and small prey. In eastern Ecuador it is recorded in lowlands and locally into the foothills.

• Baillon's Crake Zapornia pusilla

  Baillon’s Crake is a small, secretive rail. The species ranges across Eurasia, southeastern Africa, Madagascar, New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand; the BTO account identifies eastern Europe as its main range.

• Racket-tipped Thorntail Discosura longicaudus

  This small hummingbird lives in northern South America. The male’s outer tail feathers are greatly elongated and end in racket-shaped tips.

• Russet Antshrike Thamnistes anabatinus

  This antshrike inhabits forests from Mexico to Ecuador. It has warm-brown plumage, a pale eyebrow, and a rustier tail, and forages in the middle to upper levels of forest understory. The Rufescent Antshrike in Peru and Bolivia is a separate species.