Birds

Cepphus

Cepphus is a genus of auks (guillemots) with three species: black guillemot (C. grylle, Atlantic/Arctic), pigeon guillemot (C. columba, North Pacific), and spectacled guillemot (C. carbo); inshore, wing-propelled divers that lay two eggs.

Certhia

Certhia is the genus of treecreepers (Certhiidae), small cryptic-plumaged bark-climbing birds of Eurasia and North America; nine species distinguished mainly by song and mitochondrial DNA, including cryptic C. hodgsoni and C. manipurensis.

Ceryle

Ceryle is a genus of water kingfishers (Cerylinae, Alcedinidae) erected by F. Boie in 1828, now containing only the pied kingfisher Ceryle rudis of Africa and Asia, sister to Chloroceryle.

Cettia

Cettia (Bonaparte, 1834) is a genus of cettiid bush warblers, type species Cetti's Warbler Cettia cetti. Molecular phylogenies showed the genus non-monophyletic, with species moved to Horornis and Urosphena.

Chaetura

Chaetura, the spine-tailed swifts, a New World genus of Apodidae with 9-11 species including the Chimney Swift and Vaux's Swift; monophyletic, South American origin, unsettled species limits.

Chalcites

Chalcites, the Australasian bronze-cuckoos (Horsfield's, shining, little bronze-cuckoo and allies), a genus split from Chrysococcyx in 2020s checklists; obligate brood parasites with mimetic nestlings and host-specific races.

Channel-billed toucan

Channel-billed toucan (Ramphastos vitellinus), a large black South American lowland toucan named for a groove on its bill; croaking voice, white-to-orange throat, four subspecies, IUCN Least Concern but declining from Amazon deforestation.

Charadriiformes

Charadriiformes (shorebirds, gulls, terns, skuas, auks) is a monophyletic bird order with three suborders, Lari, Scolopaci, and Charadrii, about 392 species in 19 families, a debated Cretaceous-to-Paleocene origin, and many declining migratory species.

Charadrius

Charadrius, the ringed plovers (Linnaeus 1758), a genus of Charadriidae shorebirds breeding on all continents except Antarctica; phylogenomics has split many species into Anarhynchus and other genera, leaving 23 under IOC v14.1.

Chauna

Chauna is a genus of South American screamers (Anhimidae, Anseriformes) with two species, the Northern Screamer C. chavaria and Southern Screamer C. torquata, established by Illiger in 1811.

Chayka

Чайка (чайка, "gull") is the Russian and Ukrainian name for gulls, covering species like the black-headed gull (Larus ridibundus) and herring gull (Larus argentatus), plus many places and enterprises named Chayka.

Chickadee

Chickadee (Poecile): small North American Paridae songbirds named for their chick-a-dee call. Known for food caching with spatial memory for thousands of sites, cavity nesting, and the black-capped/Carolina hybrid zone.

Chicken

Chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus), domesticated mainly from the red junglefowl subspecies G. g. spadiceus in Southeast Asia; the world's most numerous domestic animal, supplying about 40% of global meat, with debated domestication timing and major avian influenza losses since 2022.

Chionis

Chionis (sheathbills) is a genus of two all-white, pigeon-sized shorebird species in the family Chionidae: the snowy sheathbill of Antarctica and the black-faced sheathbill of subantarctic Indian Ocean islands.

Chlamydotis

Chlamydotis is a genus of desert bustards (Otididae) with two Vulnerable species: the African houbara (C. undulata) of North Africa and the Canary Islands, and the Asian houbara or Macqueen's bustard (C. macqueenii) of Central and Southwest Asia, split from one species in 2014.

Chlamydotis undulata

Chlamydotis undulata, the African Houbara, is a Vulnerable North African and Canary Islands bustard, split as a separate species from the Asian Houbara C. macqueenii in 2014.

Chlidonias

Chlidonias (Rafinesque, 1822), the marsh terns or black terns, is a Laridae tern genus with four species: Black, Whiskered, White-winged, and Black-fronted Tern; the last is Endangered, and the others breed in freshwater marshes.

Chlorostilbon swainsonii

Chlorostilbon swainsonii, the Hispaniolan Emerald, now Riccordia swainsonii, is a hummingbird endemic to Hispaniola's mountain forests, 300-2500 m, one of three hummingbird species on the island, Least Concern.

Chordeiles

Chordeiles is a New World genus of nightjars (Caprimulgidae) called nighthawks, established by Swainson in 1832; best-known species is the Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor), a crepuscular aerial insectivore migrating 4,000-11,000 km to South America.

Chroicocephalus

Chroicocephalus (Eyton, 1836) is a gull genus of the masked-gull clade in Laridae, revived after Pons et al. 2005 mtDNA work showed Larus paraphyletic; includes Black-headed, Bonaparte's, Gray-hooded, Slender-billed, Silver, and Andean Gulls.

Chrysolophus

Chrysolophus, the ruffed pheasants (Gray, 1834), is a Chinese pheasant genus of two species, golden pheasant C. pictus and Lady Amherst's pheasant C. amherstiae; both IUCN Least Concern, hybridizing in captivity, with the British Lady Amherst's population extinct since 2016.

Chukar partridge

Chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar), a Palearctic Phasianidae gamebird native from China to southeastern Europe, introduced to western North America, Hawaii, and New Zealand; sandy-brown, red-billed, IUCN Least Concern, national bird of Pakistan.

Ciconia boyciana

Ciconia boyciana (Oriental Stork, コウノトリ) is an endangered East Asian migratory stork breeding in the Amur and Ussuri basins, with 1,000–2,499 mature individuals, reintroduced in Japan after 1971 extinction.

Ciconia nigra

Ciconia nigra, the black stork (Cigogne noire), is a large glossy-black migratory stork with white underparts and red bill, breeding from Iberia to Siberia and in southern Africa; IUCN Least Concern globally, 24,000-44,000 individuals, but regionally Endangered in South Africa.

Ciconiiformes

Ciconiiformes, an order of long-legged wading birds (storks, herons, ibises, spoonbills; traditionally also shoebill, hamerkop, New World vultures), now often restricted to the stork family Ciconiidae within the waterbird clade Aequornithes.

Cinclodes

Cinclodes, South American ovenbird genus (Furnariidae) of Andes and Patagonia, 15-16 species, ca. 7 Ma radiation; includes the most maritime passerines, C. nigrofumosus and C. taczanowskii.

Cinclus

Cinclus is the genus of the five dipper species (family Cinclidae), the only songbirds that dive and walk underwater in fast-flowing streams; Eurasian and American lineages diverged about 4 million years ago.

Cinnyris

Cinnyris, a genus of about 53 sunbird species (family Nectariniidae) from Africa to Australia, feeding on nectar by intralingual suction; includes purple sunbird C. asiaticus and olive-backed sunbird C. jugularis.

Circaetus

Circaetus, the snake eagles, is a genus of seven Accipitridae raptors of Eurasia and Africa established by Vieillot in 1816, specialized in eating snakes and reptiles; type species the short-toed snake eagle C. gallicus.