1,039 articles
Eurasian blue tit
Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus, Mésange bleue, Blaumeise): small European tit of woodlands and gardens with blue cap, white face, yellow underparts; cavity nester, insect eater, IUCN Least Concern, known for milk-bottle cream raiding.
Eurasian bullfinch
Eurasian bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula), a Palearctic finch from the British Isles to the Far East; male rose-red with black cap; feeds on seeds and fruit-tree buds; Least Concern, increasing in Europe.
Eurasian collared dove
The Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) is a pale gray-buff dove with a black neck collar, native to Asia and Europe and common across much of North America.
Eurasian eagle-owl
Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo), also Uhu or Grand-duc d'Europe, a large Strigidae owl across Eurasia and North Africa; IUCN Least Concern, 37,100–59,500 mature individuals in Europe, increasing, threatened mainly by powerline electrocution and persecution.
Eurasian goshawk
Eurasian goshawk (Astur gentilis, formerly Accipiter gentilis, Northern Goshawk): large Palearctic forest hawk, split from American Goshawk in 2023; ~291,000 European mature individuals, decreasing; extinct in Britain by 1900, re-established from falconers' releases.
Eurasian hoopoe
The Eurasian hoopoe (Upupa epops) is a distinctive insect-eating bird with a fan-shaped crest and long curved bill; it breeds across Eurasia and winters mainly in Africa.
Eurasian jay
Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius), a colourful corvid of Europe and Asia; caches 4,500-11,000 acorns, shows episodic-like memory, disperses oaks up to 4 km; IUCN Least Concern, stable population of 24-46.2 million mature individuals.
Eurasian magpie
Eurasian magpie (Pica pica), also called common magpie, is a black-and-white corvid of Europe and Asia, 45 cm long with a long tail, omnivorous, urban-adapted, IUCN Least Concern; famous but unreplicated 2008 mirror self-recognition claim.
Eurasian sparrowhawk
Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus), also called sparrowhawk or European sparrowhawk, a small Old World bird-hunting raptor of Accipitridae; females much larger than males; Least Concern, 2-3.2 million mature individuals; recovered from organochlorine pesticide crash.
Eurasian tree sparrow
Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus), moineau friquet, gorrión molinero: small chestnut-capped, white-cheeked Old World sparrow of Europe and Asia; cavity nester; introduced to the US from 12 birds in St. Louis, 1870.
Eurasian wren
Eurasian wren (Troglodytes troglodytes, often Nannus troglodytes), the Old World wren: 9–10 cm, ~9.9 g, extremely loud year-round song, 28–29 subspecies, communal winter roosts, king-of-the-birds folklore.
European goldfinch
European goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), a colorful finch of Europe, North Africa, and western Asia; red face, yellow wing bars, thistle-seed diet; IUCN Least Concern, 101-155 million birds, declining in North Africa from cagebird trapping.
European herring gull
European herring gull (Larus argentatus), a large gray-backed, black-wing-tipped gull of northern and western Europe with subspecies argentatus and argenteus; declining coastal populations but expanding urban roof-nesting colonies that read human cues to find food.
European robin
European robin (Erithacus rubecula), also called robin redbreast: a small territorial Old World flycatcher with an orange breast, singing year-round, breeding across Europe, and navigating by a cryptochrome-based magnetic compass.
European turtle dove
European turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur), a Vulnerable migratory pigeon breeding in Europe and wintering in the Sahel; down 83% in Europe since 1980, but western flyway rose 40.5% under the 2021-24 EU hunting moratorium.
Evolution of birds
Evolution of birds: birds are living theropod dinosaurs (Avialae), arising from small feathered coelurosaurs about 160-150 million years ago via Archaeopteryx; beaked birds alone survived the K-Pg extinction 66 Ma, yielding today's 11,000 species.
Falco mexicanus
Falco mexicanus, the prairie falcon (Halcón mexicano), is a large light-brown falcon of western North America's arid grasslands and deserts, nesting on cliffs, hunting ground squirrels in low fast flight, and ranked G5/Least Concern.
Falco naumanni
Falco naumanni, the lesser kestrel (Cernícalo primilla), is a small colonial Palearctic falcon, authority Fleischer 1818, that eats insects in cereal fields, winters in sub-Saharan Africa, and is IUCN Least Concern globally with 80,000-134,000 mature individuals.
Falco subbuteo
Falco subbuteo, the Eurasian hobby, is a small Palearctic falcon hunting insects and birds in flight, migrating to Africa; IUCN Least Concern, 900,000–1,500,000 mature individuals, namesake of the Subbuteo game.
Falco subniger
Falco subniger, the Black Falcon (Wandhala in Gamilaraay), is a large sooty-black Australian falcon of the subgenus Hierofalco, closest to the Laggar Falcon. It hunts birds by stooping and piracy, nests in appropriated raven and raptor stick nests, and is listed Vulnerable in NSW and Critically Endangered in Victoria.
Falcon
Falcon: a bird of prey of family Falconidae (Falco and relatives, caracaras), long pointed wings, kills with notched beak; peregrine stoops at 320 km/h; worldwide except Antarctica; 64 species.
Falconidae
Falconidae, the falcon family (falcons, caracaras, forest-falcons; genus Falco), is a worldwide group of diurnal birds of prey, 64-65 species, that kill prey with the beak, include the 180 km/h stooping peregrine falcon, and serve 20,000 falconers.
Falconiformes
Falconiformes is an order of birds that in modern classifications contains a single family, Falconidae, comprising about 65 species of falcons, caracaras, and forest-falcons worldwide.
Falconry
Falconry, or hawking, is hunting wild quarry with trained birds of prey. Inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list, it spans medieval royal courts, peregrine recovery programs, and modern licensed practice worldwide.
Feather
Feather: branched beta-keratin skin appendage unique to birds and their dinosaur ancestors, built from calamus, rachis, barbs, and interlocking barbules; first feathers were simple filaments, with origin timing still debated.
Feathered dinosaur
Feathered dinosaurs: non-avian dinosaurs with feathers or protofeathers, first proven by Sinosauropteryx (Liaoning, 1996) and Archaeopteryx (1861). Feathers concentrate in coelurosaur theropods; earliest dinosaurs were probably scaly; feathers served insulation, display and camouflage before flight.
Fenghuang (凤凰)
Fenghuang (凤凰), the Chinese phoenix, a five-colored composite mythical bird symbolizing virtue and harmony, paired with the dragon for the empress; unlike the Western phoenix, it never burns or is reborn from ashes.
Feral pigeon
Feral pigeon (Columba livia), city pigeon descended from escaped domestic pigeons; found on all continents, hybridizing with the wild rock dove, and managed by food reduction, nicarbazin fertility control, and shelters rather than culling.
Ficedula
Ficedula (Brisson, 1760) is the largest genus of Old World flycatchers in Muscicapidae, about 30 species including the pied and collared flycatchers; molecular work shows it is not monophyletic as traditionally defined.
Finch
Finch: true finches are seed-eating passerine birds of Fringillidae with conical bills, found worldwide except Australia. Darwin's finches and zebra finches are not finches but tanagers and waxbills; HMGA2 links to Galápagos beak evolution.