1,039 articles
Tufted puffin
Tufted puffin (Fratercula cirrhata), largest puffin, North Pacific auk breeding from Big Sur, California to Hokkaido; ~3 million birds, mostly Alaska; carries up to ~20 fish crosswise; declining at southern range edges.
Tufted titmouse
Tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor), eastern North American crested songbird of the Paridae; gray with black forehead and rusty flanks, peter-peter-peter song, cavity nester, range expanded ~300-500 miles north, population ~11-12 million.
Turdoides
Turdoides, babblers, a genus of cooperatively breeding Leiothrichidae passerines of Africa and southern Asia; several species moved to Argya; Arabian and pied babblers are key study species.
Turdus
Turdus is a genus of passerine birds containing the true thrushes, established by Linnaeus in 1758 and including the Common Blackbird, American Robin, and Clay-colored Thrush.
Turkey (bird)
Turkey (bird), Meleagris gallopavo, the large North American game bird of Galliformes domesticated in Mexico over 2,000 years ago and again in the US Southwest; males weigh 15-25 pounds, gobble audibly a mile away, and the wild population rebounded from a few thousand birds to about 7 million.
Turkey vulture
Turkey vulture (Cathartes aura), a large New World carrion-eating bird of family Cathartidae, ranging from southern South America to southern Canada, identified by teetering dihedral soaring, red bald head, and a keen sense of smell for ethyl mercaptan.
Turnix
Turnix (buttonquails, 三趾鶉屬) is the principal genus of the family Turnicidae, order Charadriiformes: three-toed, quail-like ground birds of Africa, Southeast Asia, and Australia, with reversed sex roles and sequential polyandry.
Turtur
Turtur (wood doves) is a genus of five small African doves in Columbidae, established by Boddaert in 1783; distinct from the European turtle dove Streptopelia turtur, with forest and savannah lineages.
Tympanuchus
Tympanuchus, the prairie-chickens and sharp-tailed grouse, a North American grouse genus with three lekking species (T. cupido, T. pallidicinctus, T. phasianellus), marked by neck air sacs, very low genetic divergence, and declining grassland populations.
Tympanuchus cupido
Tympanuchus cupido, the greater prairie-chicken, is a 43 cm barred North American grouse (Linnaeus 1758) with lek-booming males; heath hen extinct 1932, Attwater's endangered, nominate hunted in four states.
Tyrannidae
Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers, the largest passerine bird family, breeding across the Americas; suboscine, innate songs, roughly 399-430 species, with pipromorphine and core divisions.
Tyrannus
Tyrannus (kingbirds) is a Lacépède 1799 genus of New World tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae) with 13 species including the eastern, western, tropical, and scissor-tailed kingbirds, defined by skull synapomorphies and studied for migration-driven wing and bill evolution.
Tyto soumagnei
Tyto soumagnei, the Madagascar red owl or Effraie de Soumagne, is a small orange-red barn owl (Tytonidae) endemic to Madagascar, described in 1878, rediscovered in 1993, IUCN Vulnerable, diet mostly small mammals.
Uraeginthus bengalus
Uraeginthus bengalus, the red-cheeked cordonbleu, is a small African estrildid finch (12.5–13 cm) in which males have red cheek patches and both sexes sing individualistic, unique songs; native to sub-Saharan savannas, introduced in Hawaii, IUCN least concern.
Vanellus
Vanellus (lapwings) is a genus of about 22 ground-nesting waders in Charadriidae, established by Brisson in 1760; type species the northern lapwing V. vanellus, known for aggressive mobbing nest defense and Near Threatened status.
Vanga
Vanga (Vieillot 1816) is a monotypic genus of Malagasy Vangidae containing the hook-billed vanga, Vanga curvirostris, a widespread Madagascar forest bird; the name also anchors the vanga adaptive radiation of about 15–21 species.
Vermivora
Vermivora (Swainson, 1827) is a wood-warbler genus now holding the blue-winged, golden-winged, and extinct Bachman's warblers; known for extensive hybridization, Brewster's and Lawrence's hybrids, and steep golden-winged declines.
Vestiaria
Vestiaria is a monotypic Hawaiian honeycreeper genus (ITIS TSN 179602) holding the ʻIʻiwi, Vestiaria coccinea (also Drepanis coccinea), a scarlet nectar-feeding finch now restricted to high-elevation forests and listed as threatened.
Vidua
Vidua (indigobirds and whydahs), genus of 19 African brood-parasitic finches in Viduidae. Nestlings mimic host mouth markings; males mimic host song; speciation occurs by host switch.
Village weaver
Village weaver (Ploceus cucullatus), also spotted-backed or black-headed weaver, a colonial African Ploceidae songbird; males weave hanging nests, females show individually variable eggs used to reject diederik cuckoo and cowbird parasitism.
Vireo
Vireo (Vieillot, 1808) is a New World songbird genus in Vireonidae, Passeriformes, with 34 species, 13 breeding in North America; monophyletic family from an Asian ancestor via Beringia, with cryptic species in warbling, red-eyed, and Bell's vireo complexes.
Vogelkop lophorina
Vogelkop lophorina (Lophorina niedda), crescent-caped or Vogelkop superb bird-of-paradise, a bird-of-paradise endemic to New Guinea's Bird's Head Peninsula; split from Lophorina superba in 2017 and confirmed by its distinct gliding courtship dance, crescent cape, and whistle call.
Vulture
Vulture: carrion-feeding birds in two unrelated groups, Old World (Accipitridae, 15 species) and New World (Cathartidae, 7 species), united by convergent evolution; 14 of 22 species are threatened, mainly by poisoning and the drug diclofenac.
Warm-blooded
Warm-blooded animals combine endothermy (internal heat generation) and homeothermy (stable body temperature), as in birds and mammals. It evolved independently at least twice, costs 10 to 20 times more energy than ectothermy, and first appeared in dinosaurs around 180 to 250 million years ago.
Wattle (anatomy)
Wattle (anatomy): bare, fleshy, often brightly coloured skin flap hanging from a bird's gape, eye area, or throat, used in display and thermoregulation; also a cartilage-cored neck appendage in goats. Distinct from combs, snoods, and caruncles.
Wedge-tailed eagle
Wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax), Australia's largest bird of prey, with a 2.3 m wingspan and wedge-shaped tail; feeds on carrion and rabbits; Tasmanian subspecies fleayi is Endangered with under 1000 birds.
Welcome swallow
Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena), an Australasian swallow of Hirundinidae, 15 cm, blue-black above with rusty throat and forked tail; breeds in Australia, New Zealand (since 1958), and New Caledonia.
Western capercaillie
Western capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), the largest grouse, a lekking taiga and montane forest bird. Globally Least Concern but near extinction in Scotland (532 birds in 2021-22) and critically reduced in Cantabrian Spain.
Western jackdaw
Western jackdaw (Coloeus monedula, also Corvus monedula): a small sociable Eurasian corvid with grey nape and pale eye; UK population up 139% since 1967; urban breeding limited by low-protein food; long monogamous pair bonds.
White stork
White stork (Ciconia ciconia), a large red-billed wading bird breeding across Europe, North Africa, and western Asia; IUCN Least Concern with 526,000-588,000 mature individuals, increasing trend, and a shift toward residency at Iberian landfills.