1,039 articles
Dendrocygna
Dendrocygna, the whistling-ducks or tree ducks (genus Swainson 1837), eight tropical Anseriformes species with whistled calls, long legs, and debated family rank as Dendrocygnidae versus subfamily Dendrocygninae of Anatidae.
Dicaeum
Dicaeum (typical flowerpeckers), genus Cuvier 1816 in family Dicaeidae, small tropical passerines from southern Asia to New Guinea and Australia; fruit- and mistletoe-eating, distinct from Prionochilus.
Dicrurus
Dicrurus is the main genus of drongos, family Dicruridae, tropical Old World corvoid passerines with about 21 species across Africa, Asia, and Madagascar, conserved in plumage but variable in voice.
Dinornis
Dinornis, the giant moa genus of New Zealand, contains two extinct flightless ratite species, D. novaezealandiae and D. robustus, named by Richard Owen in 1843, famous for extreme reversed sexual size dimorphism and extinction by overhunting around 600 years ago.
Diomedea
Diomedea (great albatrosses) is a Linnaean 1758 genus of six Southern Ocean albatross species, including the wandering, Amsterdam, Tristan, Antipodean, and royal albatrosses, threatened mainly by longline bycatch.
Diuca
Diuca is a monotypic genus of tanagers (Thraupidae) holding only the Common Diuca-Finch, Diuca diuca (Molina, 1782), of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay; its former second species, speculifera, was moved to Chionodacryon after molecular phylogenetic work.
Dodo
Dodo (Raphus cucullatus), a flightless pigeon endemic to Mauritius, first recorded 1598, last seen 1662; extinct from hunting and introduced rats, pigs, and cats; closest living relative the Nicobar pigeon; sister species the Rodrigues solitaire.
Dolichonyx
Dolichonyx is a genus of New World songbirds in the blackbird family, erected by William Swainson in 1827 and containing a single species, the Bobolink.
Domestic canary
Domestic canary (Serinus canaria), cage songbird from the wild Atlantic canary of the Canary Islands, Madeira, and Azores; domesticated within 500 years, yellow plumage by 1610-1677, bred for song, color, and type varieties.
Domestic duck
Domestic duck (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus; also Muscovy, Cairina moschata): poultry descended mainly from the mallard, domesticated in southern China. 1.15 billion kept in 2020, 89 percent in Asia; raised for meat, eggs, foie gras, and rice-paddy integration.
Domestic pigeon
Domestic pigeon (Columba livia domestica), domesticated form of the rock dove, kept for food, racing, and messaging; ancestor of feral city pigeons; central to Darwin's artificial selection studies and to rotavirus and Chlamydia psittaci disease research.
Doolysaurus
Doolysaurus is a small plant-eating dinosaur from mid-Cretaceous South Korea, named for the cartoon character Dooly; its 2026 description was the first new Korean dinosaur species in 15 years.
Dovecote
Dovecote (also culverhouse, columbarium, doocot): a structure for housing and breeding pigeons or doves. A medieval aristocratic privilege in England and France, built for meat, eggs, feathers, and manure; over 25,000 existed in England by the mid-17th century.
Doves as symbols
Doves as symbols: meanings attached to doves across cultures, from mother-goddess emblems of Asherah, Astarte, and Venus, to Noah's olive-branch dove, the Holy Spirit at Jesus' baptism, and the modern political peace dove after 1919.
Down feather
Down feather (plumule): the soft, hookless insulating feather of birds, first in both ontogeny and feather evolution, providing most thermal insulation, nest lining for eiders, and commercial down under RDS/DOWNPASS welfare standards.
Downy woodpecker
Downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens), also Pic mineur, the smallest North American woodpecker at about 6.5 inches, distinguished from the similar hairy woodpecker by a bill shorter than the head and black-spotted outer tail feathers; common feeder bird across most of the continent.
Dromaius
Dromaius (emus) is an Australian genus of large flightless ratite birds; the sole living species, the emu Dromaius novaehollandiae, reaches 1.9 m, numbers 630,000-725,000 (IUCN Least Concern), and extinct dwarf island forms once lived on Tasmania, Kangaroo Island, and King Island.
Dryobates
Dryobates (Boie, 1826), meaning tree walker, is a woodpecker genus of Picidae holding the lesser spotted, downy, Nuttall's, and ladder-backed woodpeckers after the 2025 split that moved six species to Leuconotopicus and fourteen to Veniliornis.
Dryocopus
Dryocopus (Boie, 1826) is a genus of large, powerful excavating woodpeckers in Picidae, type species the Black Woodpecker D. martius; includes pileatus, lineatus, javensis, hodgei, schulzii; Mulleripicus merged in, Helmeted Woodpecker moved to Celeus.
Duck
Duck: waterbird of family Anatidae (Anseriformes), including mallard, pintail, and Muscovy; mallard is ancestor of nearly all domestic ducks; 34 million breeding ducks in 2025 US survey.
Ducula
Ducula, imperial pigeons or Pacific Pigeons, is a genus of about 36-39 large frugivorous Columbidae pigeons of Asia and the Pacific, sister group context with Ptilinopus, important seed dispersers, including D. aenea and D. galeata.
Dumetella
Dumetella is a monotypic bird genus in the mockingbird and thrasher family Mimidae, established by C. T. Wood in 1837 and holding only the Gray Catbird, Dumetella carolinensis.
Dunnock
Dunnock (Prunella modularis), also called hedge sparrow or hedge accentor, a small Eurasian accentor of hedgerows and gardens, known for its variable polyandrous mating system, cloaca-pecking, blue eggs, and UK Amber-listed 43% population decline.
Dusky moorhen
The dusky moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa) is a dark waterbird of the rail family, found across eastern and south-western Australia, Indonesia, and New Guinea, and known for its communal breeding.
Eagle
Eagle: large birds of prey mainly in Accipitridae (with hawks and kites), in sea, snake, harpy, and booted eagle groups; includes bald, golden, Philippine, and extinct Haast's eagles.
Eagle eye
Eagle eye: the eye of eagles and other raptors, with 2-2.5x human visual acuity, two foveae, up to 1 million photoreceptors/mm², and a telephoto optical design; also a figurative term and an unconfirmed autism hypothesis.
Eastern bluebird
Eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis), a small North American thrush, blue above with red-brown breast, nesting in cavities and nest boxes from eastern US and Canada to Nicaragua; about 23 million, low conservation concern, recovering via nest-box trails.
Eastern rosella
Eastern rosella (Platycercus eximius, white-cheeked rosella), a red-headed Australian parrot of south-eastern Australia and Tasmania, introduced to New Zealand from 1910; IUCN Least Concern, cavity nester, BFDV carrier in NZ.
Eastern whip-poor-will
Eastern whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus), a nocturnal North American nightjar named for its repeated call; split from the Mexican whip-poor-will in 2010; declining, Near Threatened, nests on the ground in phase with the lunar cycle.
eBird
eBird is a participatory-science bird monitoring program run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology since 2002, in which birdwatchers submit checklists feeding a database used by researchers.