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Red-shouldered hawk
Red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus), also Busardo Pechirrojo or Buse à épaulettes: a medium-sized North American forest buteo of wet woods, with barred reddish underparts, banded tail, kee-rah call, five subspecies, and Low Concern status.
Red-tailed hawk
Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), the most common North American Buteo hawk, named for the adult's cinnamon-red tail. Large open-country raptor, 690–1,460 g, mammal-heavy diet, 3.1 million breeding birds, low conservation concern.
Red-winged blackbird
Red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), Sargento Alirrojo, Carouge à épaulettes: abundant North American icterid of marshes; glossy black male with red-and-yellow epaulets, polygynous harems up to 15 females, 180 million population declining 28% since 1966.
Reeves's Pheasant
Reeves's Pheasant (白冠长尾雉) is a large, vulnerable pheasant endemic to central and eastern China, best known for the male's extremely long barred tail, the longest of any bird; fewer than 2,000 remain.
Regulus (animal)
Regulus (kinglets and crests), genus Regulus Cuvier 1800, family Regulidae, tiny crested insectivorous songbirds including goldcrest R. regulus, firecrests, and golden-crowned kinglet R. satrapa.
Remiz
Remiz is a genus of Palearctic penduline tits (family Remizidae) with four species, type species the Eurasian penduline tit R. pendulinus; known for hanging domed nests, polygynous male nest building, and egg burial.
Resplendent quetzal
Resplendent quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno), a trogon of Mesoamerican cloud forests from southern Mexico to western Panama, national bird of Guatemala, Near Threatened, feeding mainly on Lauraceae fruits and dispersing their seeds.
Rhea (bird)
Rhea (bird): South American flightless ratite genus Rheidae, with greater rhea (Rhea americana) and lesser rhea (Rhea pennata); three-toed, 15-30 kg, male-incubated nests, up to 60 km/h.
Rhea americana
Rhea americana, the greater rhea or common rhea (ñandú), is the largest South American bird, a flightless ratite of grasslands from Brazil to Argentina. Near Threatened; males incubate eggs of several females.
Rhipidura
Rhipidura (fantails) is a genus of small insectivorous passerine birds in Rhipiduridae, erected by Vigors and Horsfield in 1827; about 48 species across Asia, Australasia, and the Pacific, named for tail-fanning foraging behavior.
Rhodopis
Rhodopis, also called the Oasis Hummingbird genus (Colibrí del Atacama), is a monotypic hummingbird genus (Reichenbach 1854) holding only Rhodopis vesper, a 12 cm sexually dimorphic hummingbird of arid Pacific coasts from Peru to northern Chile, IUCN Least Concern.
Riparia
Riparia is a genus of burrow-nesting swallows (Hirundinidae) called bank swallows or sand martins; type species Riparia riparia, six species, near-cosmopolitan, IUCN Least Concern but decreasing.
Roadrunner
Roadrunner (Geococcyx): two cuckoo species, chiefly the Greater Roadrunner (G. californianus, NCBI 8947) of the southwestern US and Mexico, a 52-54 cm long-legged ground-running bird that kills rattlesnakes and nests in scrub habitat.
Roc (mythology)
Roc, or Rukh, a giant bird of Middle Eastern legend able to carry elephants, known from the Arabian Nights' Sindbad voyages and Marco Polo, possibly inspired by Madagascar's extinct elephant bird Aepyornis.
Rock dove
Rock dove (Columba livia), the wild cliff-nesting pigeon of Europe, North Africa, and Asia, ancestor of all domestic and feral pigeons; domesticated about 5,000 years ago, hunted by Neanderthals 67,000 years ago, IUCN Least Concern but declining through hybridization with feral pigeons.
Rock ptarmigan
The rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) is a medium-sized grouse of arctic and alpine tundra that changes from white winter plumage to mottled brown in summer.
Rockhopper penguin
Rockhopper penguin, Eudyptes chrysocome and E. moseleyi (northern rockhopper): small crested penguin with red eyes and yellow brow plumes that hops up cliffs; northern taxon Endangered, southern Vulnerable.
Rodrigues solitaire
Rodrigues solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria), extinct flightless pigeon of Rodrigues, Mascarene Islands; sister species of the dodo, closest living relative the Nicobar pigeon; last recorded 1761/1765.
Rook (bird)
Rook (Corvus frugilegus), a sociable Eurasian corvid of farmland, told from carrion crow by bare grey bill base and peaked head; nests in long-lived rookeries; UK population down 26% since 1995.
Rose-breasted grosbeak
Rose-breasted grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus), a cardinal-family songbird breeding in eastern North American forests and wintering in Central and northern South America; males show a red breast chevron, populations number about 4.7 million with a slow decline since 1966.
Rose-ringed parakeet
Rose-ringed parakeet (Alexandrinus krameri, formerly Psittacula krameri; Indian ringneck), a green long-tailed parrot native to Africa and South Asia, four subspecies, IUCN Least Concern, and the most abundant invasive parrot in Europe.
Roseate spoonbill
The roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) is a medium-sized pink wading bird of the Americas with a flat, spoon-shaped bill it sweeps through shallow water to catch prey by touch.
Rostrhamus
Rostrhamus (snail kites), Lesson 1830, a monotypic Accipitridae genus holding the snail kite Rostrhamus sociabilis; Neotropical Pomacea-snail specialist; Florida subspecies plumbeus federally endangered since 1967.
Royal penguin
Royal penguin (Eudyptes schlegeli), a crested penguin breeding almost entirely on Macquarie Island and Bishop and Clerk Islets, about 750,000 pairs; white-faced, larger macaroni penguin relative, near threatened, taxonomy debated.
Ruby-throated hummingbird
Ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris), the only breeding hummingbird of eastern North America; migrates to Central America, may cross the Gulf of Mexico non-stop, weighs about 4.8 g, wings beat about 53 times per second, population roughly 36 million.
Ruffed grouse
Ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), also called partridge or thunder-chicken, is North America's most widespread resident game bird, a Phasianidae forest grouse known for the male's wing-beat drumming display, 10-year northern population cycles, and eastern declines from young-forest loss.
Rupicola
Rupicola (cocks-of-the-rock) is a genus of two South American cotingid birds, R. rupicola and R. peruvianus, with orange crested males, lek courtship, rock-cave nesting, and CITES Appendix II listing.
Rynchops
Rynchops, the skimmers, a genus of three tern-like seabirds (Black, African, Indian Skimmer) in Laridae, named by Linnaeus in 1758; they uniquely skim-feed in flight with the elongated lower mandible, foraging by touch even at night.
Saker falcon
The saker falcon (Falco cherrug) is a large migratory falcon breeding from Central and Eastern Europe across Central Asian steppes to Mongolia and northern China, and is listed as Endangered.
Salim Ali
Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali (1896–1987), the "Birdman of India", ornithologist who surveyed princely-state birds, co-wrote the ten-volume Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan with Ripley, led BNHS, and inspired SACON.