Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,813 · Stories: 19,540

• Western Black-eared Wheatear Oenanthe hispanica

  

  In breeding plumage, an adult male has a black facial mask, a white throat, and pale ochre upperparts. It searches for insects in dry open country and visits Europe in summer.

• Woodland Kingfisher Halcyon senegalensis

  The Woodland Kingfisher is an African kingfisher with blue upperparts and wings and a white underside. A southern African regional guide records it as a summer resident.

• Hoy's Screech Owl Megascops hoyi

  This owl occurs in the mountains of southern Bolivia and northwestern Argentina. It has brown, gray, and red color morphs; the brown morph is described with pale eyebrows and bold cross-hatched belly markings.

• Mariana Crow Corvus kubaryi

  The Mariana Crow is black with green and blue gloss across its feathers. Its native range includes Guam and Rota, and it searches for food from forest trees down to the ground.

• Water Rail Rallus aquaticus

  A secretive rail that breeds in wetlands in Britain and Ireland. Birds arriving from continental Europe add to the winter population.

• Meves's Starling Lamprotornis mevesii

  With blue-green and purple gloss and a long tail, this starling uses open places with trees, often in groups, and also feeds on the ground.

• Jackson's Widowbird Euplectes jacksoni

  Jackson's Widowbird inhabits grasslands in Kenya and northeastern Tanzania. In the breeding season, the male displays its black plumage and long tail.

• Campo Troupial Icterus jamacaii

  Campo Troupials occur in northeastern Brazil, extending south to Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo. Adults have orange, black, and white plumage; juveniles are duller, with brownish-black areas and pale orange-yellow underparts. They may use domed stick nests built by other birds.

• Pale Crag Martin Ptyonoprogne obsoleta

  This small swallow flies near cliffs and gorges, catching insects in the air. It ranges from northern Africa through Arabia to southern Pakistan.

• Apricot-breasted Sunbird Cinnyris buettikoferi

  Males have dark metallic blue-violet patches on the throat and chest, including an orange chest patch. A Sumba survey recorded the species more often at forest edges than in forest interiors.

• Worthen's Sparrow Spizella wortheni

  This small sparrow is restricted to dry upland grasslands in northeastern Mexico. It keeps low among short shrubs and feeds mostly on seeds in winter.

• Greater Thornbird Phacellodomus ruber

  This 19–21 cm thornbird occurs in wetland-edge thickets and other scrub. It searches on the ground and in dense vegetation for insects and other invertebrates.

• White-tailed Lark Mirafra albicauda

  A small, compact lark with a dark, scaly-looking back and white outer tail feathers. It is recorded in cropped grassland.

• Rufous-crested Coquette Lophornis delattrei

  The Rufous-crested Coquette is a tiny hummingbird of humid forest edges and nearby clearings in Central and South America. Males have a long rufous crest that females lack.

• Luzon Island Thrush Turdus thomassoni

  The Luzon Island Thrush inhabits mountains on Luzon. It is black with a browner, hood-like head. Current taxonomy includes the northern form and the southern subspecies mayonensis.

• Black-and-white Warbler Mniotilta varia

  The Black-and-white Warbler is a small songbird with bold black-and-white stripes. It creeps along trunks and branches, searching bark for insects.

• Long-winged Antwren Myrmotherula longipennis

  This antwren forages in the middle levels of Amazonian forest. Males are gray with a black throat; females are brown to rufous-brown, and the birds often join mixed-species flocks.

• Crested Duck Lophonetta specularioides

  A northwestern Patagonia account describes this duck's crest and its feeding near lakes and rivers, where it takes small aquatic animals.

• Red-headed Lovebird Agapornis pullarius

  The Red-headed Lovebird is a small parrot with a red face and head and a green body. It moves in flocks, eats seeds and fruit, and nests in arboreal termite mounds.

• Scaled Ground Cuckoo Neomorphus squamiger

  This rare, terrestrial cuckoo inhabits rainforest between the Xingu and Tapajós rivers in Brazil. Its behavior is still poorly known.

• White-necked Laughingthrush Garrulax strepitans

  An older bird account describes a reddish-brown head, black face, and white neck spots, and reports flocks of twenty or more in deep forest ravines. These are historical observations.

• Christmas Island Swiftlet Collocalia natalis

  Endemic to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, this small swiftlet catches insects while flying over forest and settlements.

• Swamp Harrier Circus approximans

  A large raptor that glides low with its wings in a shallow V, searching open areas for prey and carrion.

• Orangequit Euneornis campestris

  The Orangequit lives in Jamaican forests and wooded farmland. Males and females have different plumage.