Birds

Eclectus

Eclectus (Eclectus Wagler, 1832), eclectus parrots: a parrot genus of Oceania with four extant species (Moluccan, Sumba, Tanimbar, Papuan) plus extinct E. infectus; green males, red females, cooperative breeding, male-biased sex ratio.

Egret

An egret is any of several white wading birds in the heron family Ardeidae, named for their plumage rather than their ancestry, and known for breeding plumes called aigrettes.

Egretta

Egretta, the true egrets, is a genus of medium wading birds in Ardeidae erected by Forster in 1817, including the snowy egret, little egret, little blue heron, tricolored heron, and reddish egret; molecular work shows it paraphyletic as formerly circumscribed.

Egretta garzetta

Egretta garzetta, the Little Egret or Lesser Egret, is a small white heron (Ardeidae) of Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, with black bill, yellow feet, foot-stirring foraging, and IUCN Least Concern status.

Egyptian goose

Egyptian goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca, Nilgans), an African shelduck native to the Nile valley and sub-Saharan Africa, introduced to Europe since the 17th century; invasive in the EU since 2017, Least Concern globally.

Egyptian vulture

Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus), a small Endangered Old World vulture of Europe, Africa, and Asia; the only long-distance migratory European vulture, a tool-using egg-breaker, declining 50-79% over three generations from poisoning and electrocution.

Elaenia

Elaenia, genus of tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae) established by Sundevall in 1836; about 21 cryptic, crested Neotropical species from Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, split into three Pleistocene-diversified clades.

Elanus

Elanus, the black-shouldered kites, a genus of four Accipitridae raptor species (caeruleus, leucurus, axillaris, scriptus) that hover-hunt rodents in open tropical and subtropical habitats worldwide; the letter-winged kite is the only nocturnal hawk.

Elanus caeruleus

Elanus caeruleus, the black-winged kite (elanio común), a small gray-and-white Accipitridae raptor of Africa, southern Europe, and Asia, hunting rodents by hovering; Least Concern globally, Near Threatened regionally in South Africa.

Elephant bird

Elephant birds, also known as Vorompatra, were giant extinct flightless birds of Madagascar that stood over 9 feet tall, weighed more than 1,500 pounds, and laid the largest eggs of any bird.

Emarginata

Emarginata is a Shelley 1896 genus of Muscicapidae chats from southern Africa's Karoo, holding the Karoo, Tractrac, and Sickle-winged Chats, formerly placed in Cercomela.

Emberiza

Emberiza, the Old World buntings, is a genus of about 44 passerine species in Emberizidae, including the Yellowhammer, Corn Bunting, and Critically Endangered Yellow-breasted Bunting.

Emberizidae

Emberizidae is a family of passerine birds containing the Old World buntings, small seed-eating songbirds found on all continents except Australia and Antarctica; New World sparrows were split into the separate family Passerellidae in 2017.

Emblema

Emblema is a monotypic estrildid finch genus (Gould, 1842) containing the Painted Finch, Emblema pictum, of arid inland Australia; named from Latin for mosaic, after its mottled red-and-white underparts.

Emperor penguin

Emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri), largest living penguin and the only one breeding during the Antarctic winter on Antarctic sea ice; sister lineage to all other penguins, extreme diver, IUCN Endangered since April 2026 due to sea-ice loss.

Empidonax

Empidonax is a genus of small tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae) established by Cabanis in 1855; its North American species, such as Willow, Alder, Least, and Western Flycatcher, are notoriously similar and identified mainly by voice.

Emu

The emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) is Australia's tallest native bird, a flightless ratite found only in Australia. Males incubate 5–15 dark green eggs for about 55 days without eating; extinct dwarf island forms existed.

Ensifera

Ensifera is a name for two taxa: the cricket and katydid suborder of Orthoptera, and a hummingbird genus whose sword-billed hummingbird has the longest bill of any hummingbird.

Erithacus

Erithacus is a genus of Muscicapidae songbirds erected by Cuvier in 1800, holding the European Robin (E. rubecula) and, in ITIS, the Japanese and Ryukyu Robins; a 2022 study split Canary Islands robins into E. superbus and E. marionae.

Erythrura

Erythrura (parrotfinches), genus of estrildid finches established by Swainson 1837; 10-12 species from southeast Asia to the Pacific; Gouldian Finch is its sister taxon.

Estrilda

Estrilda (Swainson, 1827) is a genus of African waxbill finches in the family Estrildidae, type species the Common Waxbill Estrilda astrild. A 2020 phylogeny found the genus non-monophyletic, splitting off Brunhilda and Glaucestrilda.

Eudocimus

Eudocimus is a genus of ibises with two living species, the American white ibis and the scarlet ibis, native to warm regions of the New World.

Eudocimus ruber

Eudocimus ruber, the scarlet ibis (guará, corocoro rojo), is a scarlet-plumaged Threskiornithidae wader of northern South America and the Caribbean; its species rank versus the white ibis is disputed, its color comes from dietary carotenoids, and it is Trinidad and Tobago's national bird.

Eudyptula

Eudyptula (Bonaparte, 1856) is the penguin genus holding the Little Penguin, Eudyptula minor (kororā), the smallest and only nocturnal penguin, endemic to southern Australia and New Zealand; debated split into E. minor and E. novaehollandiae.

Eugenes

Eugenes, the magnificent hummingbirds, is a Trochilidae genus with two species: Rivoli's Hummingbird (Eugenes fulgens) and Talamanca Hummingbird (Eugenes spectabilis), large montane hummingbirds of Mexico and Central America.

Eulampis

Eulampis, the caribs, is a genus of two West Indian hummingbirds erected by F. Boie in 1831: the purple-throated carib (E. jugularis) and green-throated carib (E. holosericeus), with luminous tail-coverts and a proposed merger into Anthracothorax.

Euphonia

Euphonia (euphonias), genus of Neotropical finches in Fringillidae, subfamily Euphoniinae, established by Desmarest 1806; distinguished from Chlorophonia by paraphyly findings, blue-hooded species moved to Chlorophonia in 2021, and specialized mistletoe-fruit diet.

Euplectes

Euplectes (Swainson, 1829) is the African genus of bishops and widowbirds, 17 polygynous weaverbird species (Ploceidae) of sub-Saharan grasslands, whose breeding males wear black plumage with carotenoid yellow-to-red patches and, in widowbirds, long nuptial tails.

Euplectes ardens

Euplectes ardens, the Red-collared Widowbird (euplecte veuve-noire), a polygynous Ploceidae weaver of African savannas; black breeding males with ~22 cm tails and red collars; IUCN Least Concern.