Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,824 · Stories: 19,540

• Sao Tome Spinetail Zoonavena thomensis

  

  This small swift is endemic to Sao Tome and Principe. It feeds on the wing and is marked by a pale rump band and a streaked underside.

• Lesser Nighthawk Chordeiles acutipennis

  The Lesser Nighthawk lives in dry country and catches insects on the wing at dusk. It lays eggs directly on the ground with little or no nest material.

• Fischer's Starling Lamprotornis fischeri

  This starling lives in wooded savanna and dry open thornveld in East Africa. It forages on the ground for insects and berries, in pairs or small flocks.

• Hen Harrier Circus cyaneus

  The sexes look different: males are gray, while females are brown with a white rump.

• Plain Laughingthrush Pterorhinus davidi

  This laughingthrush inhabits shrubs and low scrub in the mountains and nearby foothill plains of northern and central China. The nominate form is grey-brown and has a bright yellow down-curved bill. Birds answer one another’s calls.

• Pink-eared Duck Malacorhynchus membranaceus

  The Pink-eared Duck is a small duck with white and dark brown bars, a large brown patch around the eye, and a small pink patch behind it.

• Violet-throated Metaltail Metallura baroni

  This hummingbird was studied in the south-central Ecuadorian Andes. Males and females differ in throat and belly color, and the birds take arthropods as well as flower nectar.

• Chestnut-rumped Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus pardalotus

  A woodcreeper of northern South American forests. Pale streaks on its dark crown contrast with its chestnut rump, wings and tail.

• Temminck's Tragopan Tragopan temminckii

  Temminck’s Tragopan is a pheasant of mountain forests. Males show a blue face and spotted russet plumage, and display during courtship.

• Green Sandpiper Tringa ochropus

  A sandpiper with dark upperparts and a white rump, seen mainly on passage and in winter in lowland wetlands in Hong Kong.

• 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.

• Antioquia Brush Finch Atlapetes blancae

  This bird is restricted to the Altiplano Norte de Antioquia in Colombia. Its 2007 description was based on three museum specimens; a live bird was found in the field in 2018.

• Crested Doradito Pseudocolopteryx sclateri

  The Crested Doradito is a small bird with a yellow belly and a black-and-yellow crest. It moves alone or in pairs, and studies report bill-snapping notes within its song.

• Orange-billed Lorikeet Neopsittacus pullicauda

  This small lorikeet lives in New Guinea's mountain forests. It feeds on nectar, pollen, and fruit, and its head and belly colors vary somewhat by subspecies.

• Luzon Bleeding-heart Gallicolumba luzonica

  The Luzon Bleeding-heart is a ground-dwelling dove of forests on Luzon and Polillo. It has a red breast patch against pale plumage, and the sexes look alike.

• Pied Honeyeater Certhionyx variegatus

  This Australian honeyeater moves in search of flowering shrubs in dry country. Males are black and white; females are grey-brown and white.

• Hawaiian Petrel Pterodroma sandwichensis

  The Hawaiian Petrel is a seabird with a dark gray back and white underside. On Hawaiʻi Island it nests in burrows on Mauna Loa's slopes and flies out at night to search for food at sea.

• Black-vented Oriole Icterus wagleri

  This oriole inhabits dry forest and semi-open foothill woodland from Mexico into Central America. Adult males are conspicuously yellow and black.

• Sao Tome White-eye Zosterops feae

  The Sao Tome White-eye lives in forest and dense cover on Sao Tome Island. Its plumage description is limited to the island form formerly named as a subspecies.

• Slaty-backed Flycatcher Ficedula erithacus

  The Slaty-backed Flycatcher lives in hilly and montane forest, and males and females have different plumage.

• Indigo-banded Kingfisher Ceyx cyanopectus

  This small kingfisher lives beside waterways in the northern Philippines. Adult males of the nominate form have two blue bands across the orange chest and dive from low perches to catch prey.

• Orange-throated Tanager Wetmorethraupis sterrhopteron

  This tanager is localized in southeastern Ecuador and the Cenepa River basin of northeastern Peru. The Peru account records it in humid montane forest.

• Gray Gull Leucophaeus modestus

  The Gray Gull changes head color by season. In Chile it feeds along the coast and breeds inland in the Atacama Desert.

• Andaman Coucal Centropus andamanensis

  Its head and underside are gray-brown, while the back, wings, and tail show reddish-violet to bronze tones. It uses forest edges and farmland, and the species account notes it searching for food while walking through mangrove mud.