Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,813 · Stories: 19,540

• Marquesan Swiftlet Aerodramus ocistus

  

  A swiftlet of the Marquesas Islands, it has dark-brown upperparts, a grey rump, grey-brown underparts and a long, forked tail.

• White-gaped Honeyeater Stomiopera unicolor

  The White-gaped Honeyeater is recorded in northern Australia. A 1977 Northern Territory account says it is common in dense vegetation and mangroves in the far north, while farther south it is confined to waterside vegetation.

• Sharpe's Rosefinch Carpodacus verreauxii

  Sharpe's Rosefinch uses scrub above the treeline and mountain meadows in southwestern China. Males are reddish, while females are grey-brown and streaked.

• Azure-winged magpie Cyanopica cyanus

  A long-tailed bird seen mainly in eastern Honshu woods and residential areas in Japan. It lives in flocks throughout the year.

• Black-thighed Puffleg Eriocnemis derbyi

  The Black-thighed Puffleg is an Andean hummingbird with metallic green and bronze plumage. The sexes differ in their leg feathers and underparts, and detailed breeding records remain limited.

• White-throated Quail-Dove Zentrygon frenata

  A dove of humid Andean forests, it has pale stripes on the face and a light throat. It may forage on the forest floor in the early morning.

• Akun Eagle-Owl Ketupa leucosticta

  The Akun Eagle-Owl is a large owl with conspicuous white spots and a pale rufous face. It inhabits lowland forests in western and central Africa.

• Greater Pewee Contopus pertinax

  The Greater Pewee occurs widely in Mexico and breeds in mountain forests in Arizona and locally in western New Mexico. In the U.S. it is mainly a summer bird.

• Hairy-backed Bulbul Tricholestes criniger

  This bulbul occurs in forests of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo. Fine, hair-like feather shafts on its back give it its name. It eats fruit and insects.

• Greater Crested Tern Thalasseus bergii

  A large tern with a shaggy black crest and cap. It feeds mainly on small fish, searching from above the water and diving head-first to catch them.

• Yellow-crowned Bishop Euplectes afer

  The Yellow-crowned Bishop is a small bird of grasslands and wetlands in sub-Saharan Africa. It mainly eats seeds, and breeding males puff out yellow back feathers and call.

• Tricolored Parrot-Finch Erythrura tricolor

  A small finch of forests and woodland edges in the Lesser Sundas. It has a green back, blue body, and red tail; females are duller than males.

• Slate-colored Solitaire Myadestes unicolor

  A gray-plumaged thrush of Central America. It keeps quietly to the understory of cloud forest and oak-pine woodland.

• Masked Flowerpiercer Diglossa cyanea

  This blue Andean bird has a large black mask around its red eyes. It lives in humid high-elevation forests and feeds on flower nectar, fruit, seeds, and insects.

• Violaceous Coucal Centropus violaceus

  The Violaceous Coucal is a large coucal found only on New Britain and New Ireland. It searches for insects and small animals in trees in humid lowland forest.

• Mangaia Kingfisher Todiramphus ruficollaris

  This kingfisher is endemic to Mangaia in the Cook Islands. An orange neck band is a field mark, and surveys have recorded it in primary and secondary forest and other island habitats.

• White-wedged Piculet Picumnus albosquamatus

  This small piculet has grey upperparts and evenly scalloped underparts. At a nest studied in southeastern Brazil, both adults fed the chicks.

• Plumbeous Antbird Myrmelastes hyperythrus

  It occurs across the western Amazon, including Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, and Bolivia, reaching 800 m along the Andean foothills.

• Grand Rhabdornis Rhabdornis grandis

  This rhabdornis lives in middle- and higher-elevation forests on Luzon. It has a gray crown, a dark facial mask, and reddish streaks on its pale underparts.

• Lesser Scaup Aythya affinis

  A North American diving duck. Males are mainly black and white, females are brown, and the back of the head has a small peak.

• Golden-winged Laughingthrush Trochalopteron ngoclinhense

  This laughingthrush is restricted to a few mountains in central Vietnam. It forages on the ground in montane evergreen forest understory and has golden wing markings.

• Montserrat Oriole Icterus oberi

  The Montserrat Oriole is endemic to the Caribbean island of Montserrat and breeds in its hill forests.

• Short-tailed Hawk Buteo brachyurus

  The Short-tailed Hawk circles above forests, looking for birds and diving to catch them.

• Coiba Spinetail Cranioleuca dissita

  The Coiba Spinetail is an island bird once treated as a subspecies of another spinetail. A 2015 AOU committee proposal recognizes Cranioleuca dissita as a separate species restricted to Coiba and nearby Rancheria Island, using forest and forest edges.