Meet the world’s animals.
Photos: 12,825 · Stories: 19,540
- Winter Wren Troglodytes hiemalis
Photo: Derek Spencer · (c) Derek Spencer, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY 4.0 The Winter Wren is a tiny, rounded brown bird that often holds its tail upright. It hops among fallen logs and roots while searching for insects.
- Grey Goshawk Tachyspiza novaehollandiae
In Tasmania, this large raptor is described as white. It nests in mature wet forest near waterways and looks for prey from trees.
- Rodrigues Fody Foudia flavicans
A small bird endemic to Rodrigues. Both sexes are usually brown on the back, wings and tail, and search branches and leaf undersides for insects.
- Klaas's Cuckoo Chrysococcyx klaas
Klaas's Cuckoo lives in forests and woodlands of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. It searches among leaves for caterpillars and lays its eggs in other birds' nests.
- Malayan Laughingthrush Trochalopteron peninsulae
This laughingthrush lives in montane forest on the Malay Peninsula. Its cinnamon-brown body, olive-yellow wings, and narrow white eye-ring stand out.
- Aleutian Tern Onychoprion aleuticus
The Aleutian Tern breeds along coasts and islands of the northern North Pacific and catches small fish and crustaceans in summer.
- Elegant Scops Owl Otus elegans
The Elegant Scops Owl is a small owl resident on the Ryukyu Islands. On Amami-Oshima it uses forests from near sea level to mountain tops and nests in tree hollows.
- Madanga Madanga ruficollis
This mountain bird is known only from Buru Island, Indonesia. During a 2006 survey, birds at 1,750 m clung to tree bark and fed in a nuthatch-like manner. Its habitat was described as montane forest with abundant epiphytes and stunted trees.
- Melodious Lark Mirafra cheniana
This lark occurs in open grassland in South Africa. A study comparing it with a close relative describes color differences that are clearest in fresh plumage.
- Green-tailed Sunbird Aethopyga nipalensis
This sunbird has a long, curved bill and a long tail and lives in montane forest. Its diet is reported to include nectar and small arthropods.
- Spot-flanked Gallinule Porphyriops melanops
Its grey head and breast, brown back and large white flank spots make it distinctive. It lives in ponds and marshes across much of South America and picks food from floating vegetation while swimming; the specific foods are not known from the source.
- Buller's Shearwater Ardenna bulleri
Buller's Shearwater breeds on the Poor Knights Islands of New Zealand and migrates to the North Pacific outside the breeding season. At sea it feeds on krill and small fish, among other prey.
- Brown-capped Rosy Finch Leucosticte australis
The Brown-capped Rosy-Finch breeds high in the central Rocky Mountains and descends to nearby lower elevations in winter to find seeds and insects. Males show pinkish markings on the wings and rump that are less evident in females.
- Black-winged Myna Acridotheres melanopterus
The Black-winged Myna is a black-and-white starling.
- Blyth's Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus reguloides
A small leaf warbler that searches forests for insects. It uses higher-elevation forest in the breeding season and is known to move to lower ground in winter.
- Barbuda Warbler Setophaga subita
The Barbuda Warbler is a small bird whose only known home is Barbuda in the Caribbean. It lives in the island’s forest and hunts insects.
- Purple Heron Ardea purpurea
A heron with a buff head and neck, black cap, gray back, and deep chestnut shoulder patch. It favors dense plants beside shallow water.
- Malaita Dwarf Kingfisher Ceyx malaitae
The Malaita Dwarf-Kingfisher is endemic to Malaita in the Solomon Islands.
- Superb Fruit Dove Ptilinopus superbus
The Superb Fruit-Dove is a fruit-eating pigeon with different plumage in males and females. It searches for fruit in trees.
- Dusky Twinspot Euschistospiza cinereovinacea
This African mountain bird has red on the rump and flanks, with white spots providing useful identification clues. The sources also describe a difference in tone between males and females.
- Noble Snipe Gallinago nobilis
The Noble Snipe is a secretive wader of wetlands near the Andean treeline. Its back has pale stripes, and the center of its belly is unmarked white.
- Torrent Duck Merganetta armata
The torrent duck lives on fast rivers in the Andes. It dives into the current to catch aquatic insect larvae and other small prey.
- Yellow-backed Oriole Icterus chrysater
This oriole has a golden-yellow back and underparts set off by a black face and wings. It occurs in parts of Central America and northern South America, where it searches bark and epiphytes for food and also takes fruit and nectar.
- Moorland Francolin Scleroptila psilolaema
This francolin occurs on mountaintops in the Ethiopian highlands, in Afroalpine and sub-Afroalpine environments.