With their intense, feline gaze, barred bodies, and fierce hunting skills, the Great Horned Owl has been called the “tiger of ...

If you’ve ever witnessed a Pileated Woodpecker chiseling away at a tree trunk, you might have wondered if all that wood pecking was taking a toll on the tree. Pileated nest holes, after all, can ...

Until the 20th century, the Colorado River moved freely through the West, from forested Rocky Mountain headwaters through canyons, deserts, and lush wetlands and then out to sea. But by 1922, as ...

A spectacularly marked, sociable, noisy waterfowl. The Black-bellied Whistling-Duck often rests on low snags above water, and may perch high in dead trees. In North America found mostly near Mexican ...

Often shown in documentaries about the Galapagos, where pairs bow and shuffle and show off their blue feet, the Blue-footed Booby also nests as far north as western Mexico. In some years, small ...

All the brown-backed thrushes can be shy and hard to see, but the Gray-cheeked Thrush is perhaps the most elusive. During migration it hides in dense woods, slipping away when a birder approaches. On ...

In the East, some of the most common warbler voices are the patterned songs of the Black-throated Green Warbler. As if to confirm the identification, the brilliantly colored male often perches out in ...

Most kinds of pheasants are shy forest birds of Asia. The Ring-neck, better adapted to open country, has been introduced as a game bird to several parts of the world, including North America. Here it ...

Widespread across North America, Europe, and Asia, the Northern Pintail is probably one of the most numerous duck species in the world (although outnumbered by the omnipresent Mallard). Slim and ...

A big sea-duck of Arctic waters. Well adapted to frigid climates, diving and swimming underwater in seas near the freezing point, resting on ice floes. In its normal range, the King Eider is generally ...

The trademark white rump patch is usually hidden by the long wings, which are a clue to this bird's long migrations. Many fly annually from Canada's Arctic islands to the southern tip of South America ...

This big cinnamon-colored sandpiper inhabits the northern Great Plains in summer. When it leaves the prairies, the Marbled Godwit goes to coastal regions and becomes quite gregarious. Large flocks ...