Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,768 · Stories: 19,540

• Band-tailed Earthcreeper Ochetorhynchus phoenicurus

  

  The Band-tailed Earthcreeper is a ground-dwelling bird of arid shrub steppe. It walks through low vegetation with its tail raised and sometimes makes short flights between shrubs.

• Gray-barred Wren Campylorhynchus megalopterus

  This wren lives in mountain forest in Mexico's central highlands. It is gray with narrow dark bars and moves through the forest in small groups.

• Striated Yuhina Yuhina castaniceps

  The Striated Yuhina moves through the middle storey and undergrowth, sometimes in groups with other birds. The account also uses Staphida and notes subspecies differences in crest colour.

• Pine Warbler Setophaga pinus

  This yellowish warbler searches among pine needles high in pine forests. It eats insects and also takes seeds, especially pine seeds, in colder months.

• Great Swallow-tailed Swift Panyptila sanctihieronymi

  This swift has long, narrow wings and a deeply forked tail. It catches insects on the wing over highlands and builds a long, hanging tubular nest.

• Sooty Myzomela Myzomela tristrami

  The Sooty Myzomela is a small honeyeater about 11–12 cm long. It is active in forest by day and feeds mainly on nectar, also taking small insects and fruit.

• Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrush Catharus frantzii

  This thrush lives in mountain forests from Mexico to Panama. A gray breast and pale orange lower bill help identify it, and it forages on the ground and in fruiting trees or shrubs.

• White-flanked Sunbird Aethopyga eximia

  This sunbird lives in the highlands of Java. Males and females differ in color, and both show white feathers on the flanks.

• Reunion Stonechat Saxicola tectes

  This stonechat lives on Réunion. Males show a white eyebrow and wing patch and an orange breast, while the sexes differ in color.

• Cinnamon-crested Spadebill Platyrinchus saturatus

  A small tyrant flycatcher of Amazonian forest understory. Its species account lists several South American countries and includes an observation from Mato Grosso, Brazil.

• Kai Monarch Symposiachrus leucurus

  A black-and-white monarch restricted to Indonesia's Kai Islands. Adults are black, with a white lower chest, belly, and outer tail feathers.

• Vieillot's Black Weaver Ploceus nigerrimus

  The Vieillot's Black Weaver lives along forest edges and in grassland in western and central Africa. Plumage differs by sex and subspecies, and birds may forage in flocks.

• American Golden-Plover Pluvialis dominica

  The American Golden-Plover breeds on Arctic and subarctic tundra and winters from eastern Brazil to Argentina.

• Red-tailed Laughingthrush Trochalopteron milnei

  This laughingthrush ranges through southern China and mainland Southeast Asia, in a fragmented mountain distribution. Some plumage details differ among subspecies.

• Little Curlew Numenius minutus

  A small wader with mottled brown and white plumage. It breeds in northern Eurasia and migrates to northern Australia for winter.

• MacGillivray's Prion Pachyptila macgillivrayi

  A seabird breeding around St Paul Island in the southern Indian Ocean and on Gough Island in the South Atlantic. It eats small crustaceans at sea and ranges widely outside the breeding season.

• Southern Nutcracker Nucifraga hemispila

  The Southern Nutcracker is a corvid of Himalayan forests. It has chestnut plumage with white spots on the head and neck. Gould’s 1831 species account places it in thick woods and lists insects, worms, and fruit as food.

• Little Kingfisher Ceyx pusillus

  A tiny blue-and-white kingfisher of rivers, wetlands, and mangroves. It watches for prey from a perch near the water.

• Chestnut-sided Shrike-Vireo Vireolanius melitophrys

  A shrike-vireo of forests and scrub in Mexico and Guatemala. Males and females differ in the chestnut markings on the head and breast.

• Blue-capped Cordon-bleu Uraeginthus cyanocephalus

  This small waxbill lives in dry thorn savanna and scrub. It has a slim body, long tail, and is often seen in small flocks.

• Forest Bittern Zonerodius heliosylus

  The Forest Bittern is a forest heron with a black crown and brown-and-buff barring. It forages alone along streams in New Guinea's rainforests.

• Coppery Metaltail Metallura theresiae

  This small hummingbird is endemic to Peru. It is recorded on the eastern Andean slopes in humid montane forest and scrub at 2,800–3,550 m.

• 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.

• Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark Eremopterix nigriceps

  The Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark lives in dry, open country from Africa into the Arabian Peninsula and searches for seeds on the ground.