Birds

Atlantic puffin

Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica, Macareux moine), a small North Atlantic auk nesting in burrows from Maine to Iceland; IUCN Vulnerable, Iceland holds about half the global population, and Maine colonies were restored by Project Puffin from about 70 pairs.

Atlapetes

Atlapetes (brush-finches, brushfinches) is a genus of about 30 species of New World sparrows (Passerellidae) inhabiting montane forests from Mexico to northern Argentina, type species A. pileatus, with several threatened Andean endemics.

Augury

Augury (Latin augurium): ancient Roman divination in which augurs interpreted the gods' will from birds' flight, cries, and feeding, distinct from haruspicy; five sign classes, templum procedure, political use, decline by Cicero's time.

Auk

Auk (Alcidae): Northern Hemisphere wing-propelled diving seabirds including puffins, murres, and auklets; 23 extant species, Pacific Paleocene origin, extinct flightless Great Auk with penguin-like wing loading.

Australian magpie

Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen, also Cracticus tibicen), an Australian black-and-white artamid songbird related to butcherbirds, famed for carolling song, mimicry, territorial groups, and seasonal swooping.

Australian white ibis

Australian white ibis (Threskiornis molucca), aka bin chicken or Sacred Ibis: a large white Australian waterbird with bare black head and down-curved bill, common in northern and eastern Australia, scavenging in cities while declining in natural wetlands.

Australian wood duck

Australian wood duck (Chenonetta jubata), also Maned Duck or Maned Goose: a goose-like Australian duck, 44-50 cm, that grazes on land, nests in tree hollows, is Least Concern, and is a game species in Victoria, SA, Tasmania, and NT.

Aviculture

Aviculture is the keeping, rearing, and breeding of birds in captivity, from Latin avis (bird). Distinct from poultry farming; spans hobby bird keeping, exhibition, scientific ornithology, conservation breeding, and the commercial parrot trade regulated under CITES.

Ayam Cemani

Ayam Cemani, the entirely black chicken from Kedu, Temanggung, Central Java, Indonesia; a rare fibromelanotic breed whose EDN3 duplication blackens skin, meat, bones, and organs, with fewer than 3,500 birds worldwide.

Aythya

Aythya (diving ducks; Ancient Greek aithuia) is a genus of twelve pochard species in Anatidae, established by F. Boie in 1822 with Aythya marila as type, studied for diving physiology and ranging from Least Concern to Critically Endangered.

Aythya ferina

Aythya ferina, the common pochard, is a Palearctic diving duck (Anatidae) listed IUCN Vulnerable since 2015, with about 760,000-790,000 mature individuals and steep flyway declines from habitat loss, eutrophication, and hunting.

Aythya fuligula

Aythya fuligula, the tufted duck, is a Eurasian diving duck (Anatidae, genus Aythya) described by Linnaeus in 1758. It breeds across northern Eurasia, winters southward, and is IUCN Least Concern globally but Near Threatened in Europe.

Aythya marila

Aythya marila, the Greater Scaup, is a circumpolar diving duck of tundra wetlands, wintering on coasts in large flocks. Distinguished from Lesser Scaup by rounded head, longer wing stripe, and larger size; populations declining.

Bald eagle

Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), North America's only native eagle and U.S. national bird (legislated December 2024). Recovered from 417 nesting pairs in 1963 to over 316,000 individuals; delisted in 2007; lead poisoning remains a key threat.

Bali myna

Bali myna (Leucopsar rothschildi), also Bali starling or jalak Bali: a white crested starling endemic to Bali, Indonesia, Critically Endangered with 1-49 wild mature individuals, kept alive by captive breeding, releases, and anti-poaching work.

Baltimore oriole

Baltimore oriole (Icterus galbula), also called Northern Oriole historically: an orange-and-black migratory songbird breeding in eastern North America, wintering in Central and South America; Maryland's state bird, declining about 36% since 1966.

Bambusicola

Bambusicola (bamboo partridges), genus Gould 1863 of Phasianidae galliform birds; three species including Chinese Bamboo Partridge B. thoracicus and Taiwan endemic B. sonorivox, sister genus to Gallus.

Barn owl

Barn owl: pale, heart-faced nocturnal owl (Tytonidae), split in 2024 into American (Tyto furcata), Western (Tyto alba), and Eastern (Tyto javanica) species; hunts rodents by sound with silent flight.

Barn swallow

Barn swallow (Hirundo rustica), the world's most widespread swallow: steely blue above, cinnamon below, deeply forked tail; mud nests on human structures; declining in North America, Special Concern in Canada.

Barnacle goose

Barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis), small black-and-white Arctic goose named for a medieval myth of hatching from barnacles. Four populations (Greenland, Svalbard, Russia, Baltic) winter in western Europe; Svalbard birds recovered from ~300 in 1948 to ~41,700.

Barred owl

Barred owl (Strix varia), a large earless North American forest owl with the "Who cooks for you?" call; native to the east, it expanded to the Pacific Northwest, where it competes with the threatened northern spotted owl and is subject to a federal removal plan.

Bartramia

Bartramia names two valid genera: a monotypic bird genus (Lesson, 1831) holding the Upland Sandpiper Bartramia longicauda, and a moss genus (Hedw.) of about thirty Bartramiaceae species; the two are parahomonyms across kingdoms.

Basileuterus

Basileuterus is a genus of New World wood-warblers (Parulidae) established by Cabanis in 1849, now reduced to about a dozen Neotropical species after molecular work moved most species to Myiothlypis; its monophyly is still questioned by B. lachrymosus.