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White-tailed eagle
White-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), also called sea eagle or erne: Europe's largest raptor, wingspan to 2.4 m, Palearctic range; extinct in Britain by 1918, reintroduced to Scotland (1975), Ireland (2007) and England (2019).
White-tailed ptarmigan
White-tailed ptarmigan (Lagopus leucura), smallest North American grouse, alpine tundra bird from Alaska to New Mexico with year-round white tail; declining, climate-threatened, Mount Rainier subspecies federally listed 2024.
Whooping crane
Whooping crane (Grus americana), North America's tallest bird, an endangered white crane that fell to 14-15 birds in 1941 and now numbers about 540-557 in the wild Aransas-Wood Buffalo flock, plus reintroduced populations.
Wild turkey
Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), also eastern, Rio Grande, Merriam's, Osceola, and Gould's wild turkey, a large North American game bird of open woodlands restored to 49 states; recent eastern declines documented.
Wood duck
Wood duck (Aix sponsa), also Carolina duck, a North American cavity-nesting perching duck of wooded swamps; males iridescent chestnut and green, diet mostly plants, recovered from near extinction in the early 1900s.
Woodcock
Woodcock (genus Scolopax, also called timberdoodle): woodland shorebirds, eight species including Eurasian Scolopax rusticola and American Scolopax minor, probing soil for earthworms, with crepuscular sky-dance displays and long-term population declines.
Woodpecker
Woodpecker, family Picidae (Picinae, Picumninae, Jynginae), about 183 true woodpecker species; zygodactyl climbing birds with barbed tongues, stiff tails, cavity nesting, and Old World origin per molecular phylogenies.
Wren
Wrens (family Troglodytidae, Eurasian Wren Troglodytes troglodytes) are tiny brown songbirds, 86 species mostly in the Americas; the Eurasian Wren is the sole Old World wren, split from Winter and Pacific Wrens in 2010.
Wyandotte chicken
Wyandotte chicken, an American dual-purpose chicken breed from New York, first standardized in 1883 as the Silver Laced (formerly American Sebright); rose-combed, cold-hardy, nine APA large-fowl varieties, about 200 brown eggs a year.
Yellow-crested cockatoo
Yellow-crested cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea, 小葵花鳳頭鸚鵡), a critically endangered white Indonesian cockatoo with a yellow crest; 1,200–2,000 mature birds remain after pet-trade trapping, with an introduced population of about 200 in Hong Kong.
Yellow-naped amazon
Yellow-naped amazon (Amazona auropalliata), also yellow-naped parrot or loro nuca amarilla: a large green Mesoamerican parrot with a yellow nape patch, vocal call dialects, three subspecies, and Endangered/Critically Endangered status due to habitat loss and poaching.
Yellowhammer
Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella, Hurukōwhai in New Zealand) is a Eurasian farmland bunting with a yellow-headed male, chestnut rump, and 'a little bit of bread and no cheese' song; UK population fell 68% from 1967 to 2024, red-listed since 2002.
Zanda
Zanda (Mathews, 1913) is an Australian genus of black cockatoos with white or yellow subterminal tail bands, split from Calyptorhynchus; it includes Baudin's, Carnaby's, and the yellow-tailed cockatoos, with species limits still debated.
Zebra finch
Zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), a small Australian estrildid songbird and premier model for vocal learning neuroscience; males learn song from fathers during a critical period; second bird genome sequenced; IUCN Least Concern.
Zenaida
Zenaida is a genus of seven New World dove species (Columbidae, tribe Zenaidini) named by Bonaparte in 1838, including the Mourning, White-winged, Zenaida, Eared, Galapagos, Socorro, and West Peruvian doves.
Zonotrichia
Zonotrichia (crowned sparrows), genus of five large American sparrows in Passerellidae: white-crowned, golden-crowned, Harris's, white-throated, and rufous-collared sparrows; studied for plumage status signalling, a white-throated sparrow supergene, and winter sociality.
Zoothera
Zoothera is a genus of ground-dwelling thrushes (Turdidae) erected by Vigors in 1832, type species Z. monticola; about 18 Asian, African, and Pacific island forest species, several threatened endemics.
Zosteropidae
Zosteropidae (white-eyes), family of small passerine birds with a white eye-ring, sister to babblers; about 141 species in 13 genera, dominated by the rapidly radiating genus Zosterops, the "great speciator" of Old World tropics and islands.
Zosterops
Zosterops, the typical white-eyes (Vigors & Horsfield, 1827), is a genus of about 100 small passerine birds of the family Zosteropidae across the Old World, famed as a 'great speciator' with diversification rates of 1.95–2.63 species per million years and three main clades centered in Indo-Africa, Asia, and Australasia.