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Common hill myna
Common hill myna (Gracula religiosa), also called hill myna or talking myna, a glossy black Asian forest starling with yellow wattles, famed for mimicking human speech and heavily traded as a cage bird; distinct from the brown, urban common myna (Acridotheres tristis).
Common kestrel
Common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus, Eurasian kestrel, windhover): small hovering falcon of Europe, Asia, and Africa; IUCN Least Concern with 4.3–6.7 million mature individuals, but declining 39% in the UK since 1995; vole specialist.
Common kingfisher
Common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), also Eurasian kingfisher, a small blue-and-orange diving bird of freshwaters from western Europe to Papua New Guinea; Least Concern, UK green-listed, Schedule 1 protected, nests in excavated bank tunnels.
Common loon
Common loon (Gavia immer), also great northern diver, a large fish-eating diving bird breeding on northern North American lakes and wintering on coasts; least concern, but lead fishing tackle is its leading documented cause of death.
Common merganser
Common merganser (Mergus merganser), also called goosander, Grand Harle, or Serreta grande: a large serrated-billed fish-eating duck of northern lakes and rivers, a cavity nester, IUCN Least Concern with about 1.9 million breeding birds.
Common myna
Common myna (Acridotheres tristis), or Indian myna, an Asian starling and one of only three birds on the IUCN 100 worst invasive species list, introduced worldwide for insect control, now a pest competing with native birds.
Common nightingale
Common nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos), a brown Muscicapidae songbird famed for the male's 200-plus song types sung by night. IUCN Least Concern globally but red-listed and declining in the UK.
Common ostrich
Common ostrich (Struthio camelus), Africa's largest flightless bird and the world's tallest and heaviest, fastest two-legged animal; two-toed feet, 43 mph sprints, two living species since the 2014 Somali ostrich split.
Common pheasant
The common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), also called the ring-necked pheasant, is a game bird native to temperate Asia and southeastern Europe, widely introduced, including the United States in 1881, and reared in large numbers for shooting.
Common potoo
Common potoo (Nyctibius griseus), also kakuy or urutau, a nocturnal Neotropical bird of family Nyctibiidae ranging from Nicaragua to Argentina; Least Concern, sister to northern potoo, cryptic branch-like posture.
Common quail
Common quail (Coturnix coturnix), also European quail: small migratory Phasianidae gamebird breeding from western Europe to central Asia, wintering in Africa; secretive, identified by the male's 'wet-my-lips' call; IUCN Least Concern.
Common raven
Common raven (Corvus corax), also northern raven, the world's largest songbird, an all-black corvid of the Northern Hemisphere with a wedge-shaped tail, deep croaking call, ape-level planning cognition, and increasing populations that create wildlife-management conflicts.
Common starling
Common starling (Sturnus vulgaris, European starling), a Sturnidae songbird native to Europe and western Asia, introduced to North America via Central Park releases (1877, 1890, 1891), now about 93 million birds; known for murmurations, mimicry of up to 20 species, and native-range declines.
Common swift
Common swift (Apus apus), a migratory Apodidae bird breeding in Europe and Asia and wintering in sub-Saharan Africa; eats, sleeps, and mates on the wing; Near Threatened in Europe since 2021 with a UK decline of 70% (1995-2024).
Common wood pigeon
Common wood pigeon (Columba palumbus), also woodpigeon, Pigeon ramier: a large European Columbidae pigeon with white neck patches and wing bars; IUCN Least Concern, 51–73 million mature individuals, major UK crop pest.
Condor
Condor: either of two endangered New World vultures, the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) and the larger Andean condor (Vultur gryphus); carrion-eating soaring birds, the California species saved from 22 wild birds in 1982 to over 600 by 2025.
Contopus
Contopus (pewees) is a genus of tyrant flycatchers established by Cabanis in 1855, with about 14 to 16 American species including the Eastern and Western Wood-Pewees, Greater Pewee, and Near Threatened Olive-sided Flycatcher; perch-hunting flycatchers identified by wingbars, no eye ring, and distinctive songs.
Conure
Conure: common avicultural name for small-to-medium Neotropical parrots across several genera (Aratinga, Pyrrhura, Psittacara), from obsolete genus Conurus (1820). 40+ species, 50–350 g, 20–30-year captive lifespan, popular pets; some species endangered by pet trade.
Cooper's hawk
Cooper's hawk (Astur cooperii, formerly Accipiter cooperii), a medium-sized North American bird-hunting raptor, 220–680 g, strongly size-dimorphic, moved to genus Astur in 2025, common urban nester, IUCN Least Concern.
Coot
Coot (genus Fulica, family Rallidae): plump, chickenlike waterbirds with white bills, frontal shields, and lobed toes instead of webbed feet; includes the American Coot (mud hen), Fulica americana.
Copsychus
Copsychus, the magpie-robins and shamas (shama, from Bengali/Hindi), is a Wagler 1827 genus of Muscicapidae songbirds from Asia to Madagascar and the Philippines; molecular work shows it paraphyletic, and cagebird trade has driven several island shama taxa extinct in the wild.
Coracias
Coracias (Linnaeus, 1758) is the type genus of rollers, family Coraciidae, order Coraciiformes, with eight to nine species of Africa and Eurasia; named for tumbling display flights.
Coraciiformes
Coraciiformes, the kingfisher order (kingfishers, bee-eaters, rollers, todies, motmots, ground rollers), is a mostly tropical bird order of six families and about 185 species with a Palaearctic late Paleocene origin.
Coracina
Coracina (cuckoo-shrikes), genus of passerine birds in Campephagidae named by Vieillot in 1816, type species C. papuensis; once 50 Old World species, now split among several genera after molecular phylogenies showed it was polyphyletic.
Cormorant
A cormorant is a large fish-eating waterbird of the family Phalacrocoracidae, about 40 species that dive from the surface to catch fish in both marine and fresh waters.
Corvidae
Corvidae (crows, ravens, jays, magpies) is a passerine bird family of about 133 species found worldwide except polar regions and southern South America, known for caching, tool use, ape-like cognition, and seed-dispersal ecosystem services.
Corvus
Corvus is the crow and raven genus of the Corvidae, with at least 46 species worldwide; known for tool use, planning, and large winter roosts, and including the endangered Hawaiian Crow.
Coscoroba
Coscoroba (Coscoroba coscoroba, Molina 1782), the Coscoroba Swan, smallest of all swans (900–1150 mm), native to southern South America; phylogenetically disputed between swans, geese, and a sister relationship with the Cape Barren Goose.
Cotinga
Cotinga (genus Cotinga Brisson, 1760) is a group of seven species of small Neotropical cotingid birds, including the spangled, plum-throated, and banded cotingas, whose males show brilliant blue and purple structural-plus-pigment plumage and are largely silent.
Coua
Coua is a genus of ten cuckoo species (family Cuculidae) endemic to Madagascar, named from the Malagasy koa. Mostly terrestrial, insectivorous dry-forest birds; Coua delalandei is extinct and Giant Coua was listed Vulnerable in 2025.