Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,813 · Stories: 19,540

• Squatter Pigeon Geophaps scripta

  

  This Australian pigeon has bold black-and-white facial and throat markings. It picks up seeds among sparse grass and may run rather than fly when disturbed.

• Scaly-breasted Wren Microcerculus marginatus

  This wren lives near the forest floor in Amazonian lowlands. Adults have brown upperparts, a white throat and breast, and brown scale-like markings across the breast and flanks.

• Unspotted Saw-whet Owl Aegolius ridgwayi

  The Unspotted Saw-whet Owl has a rounded head without ear-tufts and a brown facial disc edged in white. It is nocturnal and occurs in mountain forests from southern Mexico into Central America. Details of its diet and breeding remain poorly known.

• Yellow-browed Tody-Flycatcher Todirostrum chrysocrotaphum

  The Yellow-browed Tody-Flycatcher is a tiny flycatcher, about 9–10 cm long. It has a yellow stripe behind the eye, a black head, olive upperparts, and black wings.

• Cachar Bulbul Iole cacharensis

  A bulbul of northeastern India and southeastern Bangladesh. Its plumage is similar to a close relative, while its call offers an identification clue.

• Cabot's Tern Thalasseus acuflavidus

  Cabot's Tern occurs along the Atlantic coast of South America. At the Cardos Island breeding colony in Brazil, adults were studied carrying fish and other food to chicks. The black bill with a yellow tip describes breeding adults of the nominate subspecies, T. a. acuflavidus.

• Cape Weaver Ploceus capensis

  Breeding males are bright yellow and weave hanging nests on branches or reeds near water. After a female accepts a nest, she lines it with grass and leaves.

• Common Nighthawk Chordeiles minor

  It has long wings with white patches and hunts flying insects at dusk and dawn. It lays its eggs on open ground or flat gravel rooftops.

• White-breasted Negrofinch Nigrita fusconotus

  This small bird has records from forests in western and central Africa. The historical description gives it a black head, shoulders, flight feathers, and tail, a gray-brown back, and a whitish belly. At Luki Biosphere Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, small groups were observed in the forest-edge canopy.

• White-chinned Thrush Turdus aurantius

  The White-chinned Thrush is endemic to Jamaica. Adult males and females look similar, with a dark grey head and back, a white wing patch, pale chin, and orange bill. It searches forest floors for small animals and fruit.

• Turquoise Tanager Tangara mexicana

  This small bird lives in humid tropical forest in northeastern South America and Trinidad. It moves in small flocks in the canopy and eats fruit and insects.

• Philippine Drongo-Cuckoo Surniculus velutinus

  This cuckoo has a glossy black, slender body and a flared tail. It lives in lowland and foothill forests of the Philippines and searches for insects in the canopy.

• Pohnpei Kingfisher Todiramphus reichenbachii

  This kingfisher is endemic to Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. It occurs at forest edges and mangroves and excavates a nest burrow in rotten wood.

• Gabon Woodpecker Dendropicos gabonensis

  It has a green back and pale yellow underparts with dark spots. Males have red on the head, while females lack red on the head.

• Ancient Antwren Herpsilochmus gentryi

  The Ancient Antwren occurs in lowland forest in southeastern Ecuador and northern Peru. It has yellowish sides of the head and underside, with white wing bars on a gray back.

• Rarotonga Starling Aplonis cinerascens

  This starling is endemic to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. It feeds in the forest canopy on fruit, insects and nectar; one study records it visiting flowers of native Fitchia.

• Green Pygmy Goose Nettapus pulchellus

  The Green Pygmy Goose is a small waterbird with green on its head and back and a short bill. It lives in vegetated freshwater wetlands, often in pairs or small groups.

• Iraq Babbler Argya altirostris

  The Iraq Babbler is a social bird centered on the Tigris–Euphrates basin. Small groups use reed beds and riverside shrubs.

• Yellow-shouldered Blackbird Agelaius xanthomus

  The Yellow-shouldered Blackbird occurs in Puerto Rico. Adults have glossy black plumage and a yellow shoulder patch that can be hidden when the bird is perched.

• African Harrier-Hawk Polyboroides typus

  The African Harrier-Hawk is a sub-Saharan raptor that uses unusually flexible legs to reach prey in holes and nests.

• White-whiskered Spinetail Synallaxis candei

  The White-whiskered Spinetail has a black face marked by a white moustache stripe. A Colombia field page documents the nominate form in dry scrub at Los Flamencos, La Guajira, and notes that nearby forms differ in face and throat color.

• Dune Lark Calendulauda erythrochlamys

  The Dune Lark is treated as endemic to Namibia's Namib Desert and lives on sparsely vegetated dunes. Some taxonomies include a closely related lark within this species.

• Vanuatu White-eye Zosterops flavifrons

  This small white-eye is 11–13 cm long. The account lists forest, second growth, and farmland, with an omnivorous diet. Sound recordings include Loru on Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu.

• 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.