1,039 articles
Bluebird
Bluebirds (genus Sialia): Eastern, Western, and Mountain Bluebird, North American cavity-nesting thrushes. Insect and fruit eaters, dependent on nest cavities or nest boxes, monitored via bluebird trails and the Breeding Bird Survey.
Boat-tailed grackle
Boat-tailed grackle (Quiscalus major, Zanate Marismeño), a coastal U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coast blackbird with a keel-shaped tail, harem-defense polygyny, and dark western versus yellow Atlantic-coast eyes.
Bombycilla
Bombycilla (waxwings) is a genus of three Holarctic passerine birds, Bohemian, Japanese, and cedar waxwings, type genus of Bombycillidae, frugivorous flocking birds with waxy wing tips.
Bonelli's eagle
Bonelli's eagle (Aquila fasciata, águila perdicera), a medium-sized Mediterranean eagle of rocky hills, 55–65 cm long, threatened mainly by power-line electrocution; about 920–1,100 European pairs, mostly in Spain, with active reintroductions in Mallorca and Madrid.
Booby
Booby (genus Sula): seven tropical seabird species, including the Blue-footed, Brown, Masked, Nazca, Peruvian, Cocos, and Red-footed Boobies, known for plunge-diving, colorful feet, and ground or tree nesting on oceanic islands.
Bostrychia
Bostrychia is a genus name shared by two organisms: Bostrychia Montagne, 1842, a red alga in Rhodomelaceae, and Bostrychia Gray, 1847, an African ibis genus in Threskiornithidae with five species; the names are parahomonyms.
Botaurus
Botaurus, the bittern genus (Ardeidae, Pelecaniformes), Stephens 1819; now includes former Ixobrychus small bitterns after Hruska et al. 2023. Includes Eurasian, American, Australasian, and Least Bitterns; reedbed birds with booming males.
Bowerbird
Bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchidae), New Guinea and Australia birds whose males build decorated twig bowers to court females in polygynous, non-resource-based leks; catbirds are the monogamous exception, and satin bowerbird mating skews toward decorated bowers.
Brahma chicken
The Brahma chicken is a large, feather-legged American breed developed from Chinese fowl imported through Shanghai in the mid-1800s, once nicknamed the King of All Poultry.
Branta
Branta is the genus of black geese in Anatidae, including Brant (Branta bernicla), Canada Goose, Barnacle Goose, Hawaiian Goose, and Red-breasted Goose; marine-feeding Brant, Arctic breeding, about 220,000 birds.
Branta bernicla
Branta bernicla, the Brent Goose or Brant, is a small dark migratory sea goose of Arctic coasts with three subspecies (bernicla, hrota, nigricans), feeding on eelgrass in coastal bays and estuaries; IUCN Least Concern, about 560,000-650,000 birds.
Breeding bird
Breeding bird: a bird nesting or holding territory in an area during the breeding season. Central to bird atlases and Breeding Bird Surveys (UK BBS 1994, North American BBS 1966), graded as possible, probable, or confirmed breeding evidence.
Brown pelican
The brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) is a large seabird of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts of the Americas that catches fish by plunging head-first into the water.
Brown thrasher
Brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum), a large Mimidae songbird of eastern North America, foxy brown with streaked underparts and yellow eyes; sings over 1,100 song types, nests in thickets, population about 6.2 million and declining.
Brown-headed cowbird
Brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater), a North American blackbird and obligate brood parasite laying eggs in over 220 host species' nests; formerly followed bison, now follows cattle; IUCN Least Concern, BBS index down 11% since 1968; managed for endangered songbirds and rice-crop damage.
Bucephala
Bucephala, the goldeneyes, is a genus of three diving duck species in Anatidae: Common Goldeneye (B. clangula), Barrow's Goldeneye (B. islandica), and Bufflehead (B. albeola), cavity-nesting boreal ducks.
Bucephala clangula
Bucephala clangula, the common goldeneye (German Schellente), is a Holarctic cavity-nesting diving duck of boreal forests; males have oval white face patches and yellow eyes, and the species is IUCN Least Concern globally but Red-listed in the UK.
Budgerigar
Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus), budgie or parakeet: small Australian nomadic parrot, 18-20 cm, about 30 g, IUCN Least Concern. Open-ended vocal learner that mimics human speech; domesticated since 1840s, world's most known pet bird, model for speech neuroscience.
Bulbul
Bulbuls (Pycnonotidae) are about 130 Old World passerine species of Africa, the Middle East, and southern Asia; frugivorous seed dispersers with operculate nostrils, from the Common Bulbul to the Critically Endangered Straw-headed Bulbul.
Burhinus
Burhinus (thick-knees, stone-curlews) is a genus of large nocturnal ground-nesting shorebirds in Burhinidae, Illiger 1811, type species B. grallarius; six Old World species remain after the 2023 Hesperoburhinus split.
Burrowing owl
Burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia; Mochuelo de Madriguera), a small long-legged diurnal owl of the Americas that nests in underground burrows, often those of prairie dogs and ground squirrels; endangered in Canada, low concern globally.
Bustard
Bustards (Otididae, order Otidiformes) are 26 species of large ground-dwelling birds of dry open grassland across Africa, Eurasia, and Australia, including the great bustard, the heaviest flying bird at up to about 21 kg, with nearly two-thirds of species at conservation risk.
Buteo
Buteo (buzzards, buteonine hawks) is a genus of 25-28 soaring Accipitridae raptors with Neotropical origin; molecular studies show traditional Buteo is not monophyletic, prompting transfers of Asturina, Geranoaetus, Rupornis, and Percnohierax species.
Buteo lagopus
Buteo lagopus, the rough-legged hawk (Eurasian rough-legged buzzard; French Buse pattue), is a large Arctic-breeding buteo raptor with feathered legs, black carpal patches, hovering flight, and a lemming-and-vole diet, wintering in open country of northern North America and Eurasia.
Buteo regalis
Buteo regalis, the ferruginous hawk (Busardo herrumbroso, Buse rouilleuse), is the largest North American buteo, a grassland raptor of the western US and Canada that eats prairie dogs, ground squirrels, and jackrabbits and nests on trees, structures, or the ground.
Buteogallus
Buteogallus (black-hawks) is a genus of nine American Accipitridae hawks, from the Common Black Hawk to the Solitary Eagle, revised by molecular phylogenies that merged Harpyhaliaetus and part of Leucopternis into the genus.
Cacatua
Cacatua (white cockatoos) is a genus of cockatoos erected by Vieillot in 1817, including C. galerita, C. alba, and C. sulphurea; island-dwelling Australasian parrots, several species endangered by the pet trade and prone to feather-plucking in captivity.
Cacicus
Cacicus (caciques) is a genus of colonial New World blackbirds (Icteridae) from Mexico to South America, weaving pendulous nests often near wasp nests; includes Yellow-rumped Cacique Cacicus cela and Selva Cacique C. koepckeae.
Calcarius
Calcarius is a genus of Calcariidae songbirds called longspurs, named for the long hind-toe claw. Three species, lapponicus, ornatus, and pictus; McCown's longspur was split off as Rhynchophanes after cytochrome b phylogenetics.
Calidris
Calidris (stints) is a genus of sandpipers in Scolopacidae, established by Merrem in 1804 with the red knot as type species. Since 2012 it includes the ruff, sanderling, spoon-billed sandpiper, and other former monotypic genera.