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Saltator
Saltator, a genus of stout-billed Neotropical songbirds from Mexico to Argentina, formerly in Cardinalidae, now classified in the tanager family Thraupidae; partly folivorous frugivores, with "Saltator" rufiventris excluded as a true tanager.
Sandpiper
Sandpiper, common name for wading birds of the family Scolopacidae (Calidris, Tringa, and allies), order Charadriiformes; long-billed tactile foragers, long-distance migrants, many species declining and uplisted on the 2024 IUCN Red List.
Sarcoramphus
Sarcoramphus is a monotypic New World vulture genus (Duméril, 1805) whose sole living species is the king vulture, Sarcoramphus papa, a white, brightly headed tropical forest scavenger ranging from southern Mexico to northern Argentina.
Sarimanok
Sarimanok (papanok in feminine form): legendary bird of the Maranao people of Lanao del Sur, Mindanao, Philippines; a colorful okir bird holding a fish, symbol of fortune, nobility, and Philippine national culture.
Sarus crane
Sarus crane (Antigone antigone, syn. Grus antigone), the world's tallest flying bird, a Vulnerable crane of South and Southeast Asian farmlands and wetlands; about 20,000–30,000 birds in three subspecies, threatened by wetland loss and power lines.
Saxicola
Saxicola (stonechats) is a genus of small insectivorous Muscicapidae birds across Eurasia and Africa, with 13–15 recognized species, an Asian origin in the late Miocene, and S. stejnegeri recently confirmed as a distinct species.
Sayornis
Sayornis (phoebes) is a genus of three American tyrant flycatcher species, Tyrannidae, established by Bonaparte in 1854: Black, Eastern, and Say's Phoebe, insect-eating tail-pumping birds that nest on buildings and bridges.
Scaly-breasted munia
Scaly-breasted munia (Lonchura punctulata), also spotted munia, nutmeg mannikin, or spice finch: a sparrow-sized estrildid finch native to tropical Asia, brown above with white scaly underparts, seed-eating, highly social, introduced to the US, Japan, Australia, and Hawaii; IUCN Least Concern.
Scarlet macaw
Scarlet macaw (Ara macao), large red-and-blue neotropical parrot from Mexico to South America; IUCN Least Concern but decreasing, CITES Appendix I, national bird of Honduras.
Scarlet tanager
Scarlet tanager (Piranga olivacea), a Cardinalidae songbird breeding in eastern North American forests and wintering in South America; red-and-black males, 2.6 million population, Least Concern, forest-fragmentation sensitive.
Schistes
Schistes (wedgebills) is a genus of Andean hummingbirds, family Trochilidae, erected by John Gould, with two species, Geoffroy's and the White-throated Wedgebill, known for a needle-sharp wedge bill used to pierce flowers and rob nectar.
Scissor-tailed flycatcher
Scissor-tailed flycatcher (Tyrannus forficatus), Oklahoma's state bird; a pale gray, salmon-flanked tyrant flycatcher of the southern Great Plains with a long forked tail, breeding in savannas and wintering in Mexico and Central America.
Screech owl
Screech owls (Megascops) are small New World cavity-nesting owls with ear tufts and yellow eyes; the Eastern (M. asio) and Western (M. kennicottii) North American species, split in 1983, are told apart by bill color and voice.
Scytalopus
Scytalopus, tapaculos (Rhinocryptidae), a genus of small drab South and Central American birds from Costa Rica to Argentina; species limits set by voice and DNA, rising from 10 to 44+ recognized species.
Sea eagle
Sea eagle, genus Haliaeetus (Savigny, 1809), a group of eight large fish-eating eagles including the bald eagle, white-tailed eagle, and Steller's sea eagle; broad-winged Accipitridae related to kites, not true eagles.
Seabird
Seabirds are birds adapted to marine life, including albatrosses, petrels, gulls, and penguins; long-lived colonial breeders, some migrating over 40,000 miles yearly, with 31% of species threatened and bycatch and invasive species the leading threats.
Secretarybird
Secretarybird (Sagittarius serpentarius), sole species of Sagittariidae, a terrestrial African raptor of savannas that kills prey, including venomous snakes, with fast kicks; IUCN Endangered since 2020, population 6,700-67,000 and declining.
Seiurus
Seiurus (Swainson, 1827) is a monotypic wood-warbler genus containing only the Ovenbird, Seiurus aurocapilla; the two waterthrushes formerly placed here were moved to the genus Parkesia in 2008 after genetic studies.
Selasphorus
Selasphorus is a genus of small rufous-plumaged hummingbirds (Trochilidae) described by Swainson in 1832, including the rufous, Allen's, and broad-tailed hummingbirds of western North America, migratory, hybridizing, with a southern Costa Rica–Panama group.
Serinus
Serinus is a genus of Fringillidae finches (canaries and serins) established by Koch in 1816, type species the European serin. Once large, it was shown polyphyletic; Afrotropical species moved to Crithagra, leaving about eight Eurasian-Afrotropical species including the wild canary.
Serinus serinus
Serinus serinus, the European serin (Girlitz, Serin cini), is a tiny streaked yellow finch of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East; a recent range expander whose old populations declined 48% since 1980.
Setophaga
Setophaga is a genus of migratory New World warblers erected by William Swainson in 1827, including the American Redstart, Yellow Warbler, and former Dendroica species.
Sharp-shinned hawk
Sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus), smallest North American accipiter, a songbird-hunting forest hawk. IUCN Least Concern, but recent BBS and eBird data show declines; Puerto Rican subspecies endangered.
Shrike
Shrike (Laniidae): predatory songbirds of Africa, Eurasia, and North America, also called butcherbirds, known for impaling prey on thorns or barbed wire; about 28 Lanius species, with Pliocene radiation and declining populations in several species.
Siberian crane
The Siberian crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus), also known as the Siberian white crane, is a critically endangered white crane that breeds in arctic Russia and winters mainly at Poyang Lake in China.
Sicalis
Sicalis (Saffron Finches, Yellow Finches), a genus of Neotropical yellow-plumaged tanagers (Thraupidae) established by Friedrich Boie in 1828; 10-13 South American species, polyphyletic, including the Saffron Finch Sicalis flaveola.
Silkie
Silkie (Chinese Silkie, wugu ji) is a Chinese chicken breed with hair-like hookless feathers, black skin and bones from EDN3 fibromelanosis, five toes, and broody docile temperament; first US standard 1874.
Simurgh (سیمرغ)
Simurgh (سیمرغ), also Sēnmurw, is the mythical bird of Persian mythology: Avestan bird Saēna, Sasanian dog-headed composite, guardian of Zal in the Shahnameh, and Attar's thirty-birds metaphor for God in The Conference of the Birds.
Skua
Skua (Stercorariidae): seven gull-like predatory seabirds in one genus, Stercorarius; northern species called jaegers. Known for kleptoparasitism, penguin-egg predation, recent Southern Hemisphere colonization, and HPAI-driven Great Skua declines.
Snipe
Snipes are stocky, long-billed waders found in marshes and bogs, famous for their camouflage and zigzag flight. Common and Wilson's Snipe are two of the most recognized species.