Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,768 · Stories: 19,540

• Ochraceous Wren Troglodytes ochraceus

  

  The Ochraceous Wren is a small wren about 9.5 cm long and 9.5 g. It is recorded in Costa Rica’s humid mountain forest, nearby second growth and pastures with scattered trees.

• Andean Teal Anas andium

  A small duck of high Andean lakes and wetlands, it has finely spotted gray-brown plumage and feeds close to the water surface.

• Glossy Antshrike Sakesphorus luctuosus

  This antshrike occurs in Amazonian Brazil. The white tips of its tail feathers vary geographically, tending to be more extensive in northern populations.

• Red-capped Plover Charadrius ruficapillus

  This small plover lives around Australian coasts and wetlands. An adult male has a reddish-brown head and neck, and the species searches for small shellfish and crustaceans on mudflats and beaches.

• White-winged Lark Alauda leucoptera

  The White-winged Lark is a lark whose white wing patches stand out in flight. It uses dry steppe and fields, and may gather in flocks outside the breeding season.

• Mountain Bulbul Ixos mcclellandii

  It has a ragged crest and lime-green wings and tail. It moves through forest canopies in small parties and sometimes joins mixed-species flocks.

• Shelley's Starling Lamprotornis shelleyi

  This starling lives in dry bushland and wooded country in East Africa. Its recorded breeding and non-breeding areas differ, and it forages in small flocks in trees and bushes.

• Blue-and-yellow macaw Ara ararauna

  A large South American parrot with bright blue upperparts and yellow underparts.

• Blue-vented Hummingbird Saucerottia hoffmanni

  A 2010 adult photograph notes blue tones on the lower body and tail as an identifying feature. At one Costa Rican study site in 2022, birds visited flowers; this is a local record.

• Streak-breasted Woodpecker Picus viridanus

  It is a green woodpecker with a streaked breast, found in moist lowland forests and mangroves.

• Red-breasted Meadowlark Leistes militaris

  A breeding-plumaged male shows a red throat and chest against dark plumage; the breeding female is more buff and streaked, with a duller red breast. The species searches for food on the ground.

• Tschudi's Nightjar Systellura decussata

  This nightjar uses dry open country, where its sandy plumage blends with the ground and sparse vegetation.

• Sharp-tailed Streamcreeper Lochmias nematura

  The Sharp-tailed Streamcreeper is about 15.5 cm long, with a dark brown body, a pale eyebrow, and white-scaled underparts. It uses streamside scrub and nests near water.

• Madagascar Martin Riparia cowani

  This martin occurs in Madagascar. An older field report records birds drinking at a pool and one bird flushed from a nest tunnel in a roadside bank.

• Buff-throated Partridge Tetraophasis szechenyii

  The Buff-throated Partridge is a high-mountain pheasant relative in which males and females have similar plumage. A study in western Sichuan found that its preferred woodland changed by season.

• Saunders's Gull Chroicocephalus saundersi

  It breeds in Yellow Sea coastal saltmarshes, mainly in eastern China and occasionally on the southwestern coast of South Korea. Outside the breeding season it moves to coasts of eastern China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea.

• Buff-fronted Owl Aegolius harrisii

  The Buff-fronted Owl has a rufous face and white spots on its wings and tail. Argentine records place it in forests in the northeast and northwest of the country.

• Half-collared Kingfisher Alcedo semitorquata

  The Half-collared Kingfisher is small, with a blue back, pale orange underparts and a white throat.

• White-eared Ground Sparrow Melozone leucotis

  This ground-dwelling bird occurs in the highlands of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. It searches on or near the ground for insects, spiders, and seeds.

• Fox's Weaver Ploceus spekeoides

  This weaver has been recorded in northeastern Uganda. Males show a black facial mask and yellow rump, and records link the bird with Whistling-thorn Acacia grasslands.

• Rufous-faced Crake Rufirallus xenopterus

  The Rufous-faced Crake is an elusive rail recorded in shallowly flooded grassland in South America. Its head and back are rufous, and its wings have bold black-and-white bars.

• Streak-throated Barwing Actinodura waldeni

  This barwing lives in mossy forests of the eastern Himalayas. Its short tail and barred wings and tail are distinctive, while the color of the underparts varies among subspecies.

• Cardinal Honeyeater Myzomela cardinalis

  A National Park of American Samoa guide records this bird on Tutuila, American Samoa, but not on the Manuʻa Islands. Adult males have red bodies with black wings and tails; females are grayish with a red rump. The guide describes it visiting flowers for nectar.

• Masatierra Petrel Pterodroma defilippiana

  The Masatierra Petrel is a seabird of the open Pacific off South America. It has a grey crown and back, a black eye patch, and a thick bill.