• Photo: A puffin standing in grass

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Bird Features

  • Photo: A red bird with black wings on a branch

    Backyard Birding Central

    Want to learn more about our feathered friends of the sky? Visit our Backyard Birding site for facts, photos, videos, and more.

  • Illustration: Great horned owl

    What's That Bird?

    Identify your backyard visitors in a flash! Just answer four simple questions to search our database of 150 backyard birds common to Canada and the U.S.

  • Photo: bowerbird mating game between female and male bowerbirds.

    Bowerbirds Photo Gallery

    To win choosy females, male bowerbirds swagger, croon, and … decorate. In some species, only males with the most spectacular lairs, like this Vogelkop on New Guinea, succeed in passing on their genes.

  • Photo: Zebras splash through a river

    Coming This Fall

    Don't miss Great Migrations, a seven-part television event taking you around the world on the arduous journeys millions of animals undertake to ensure the survival of their species.

  • Photo: Cardinal in tree with snow

    Cardinal

    Find out more about a familiar feathered friend. Discover how their brilliant color can mean success with the opposite sex.

Bird News

  • Semi-palmated Sandpiper taking bath

    Spill Still Threatens Migrating Birds

    Despite the BP Gulf spill cap, millions of migrating birds this fall, and for years to come, may face oil threats—starvation in particular. Video.

  •  Picture of an oiled royal tern chick on a beach.

    Photos: Oil Hits Major Nesting Site

    Only a month after teams reported the area free from oil, Raccoon Island, home to the largest waterbird nesting colonies in Louisiana, has been "devastated" by the Gulf spill.

Animals A-Z

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Go Backyard Birding

  • Illustration: Great horned owl

    What's That Bird?

    Identify your backyard visitors in a flash with four simple questions.

  • Photo: Close-up of a duck

    Bird Photos

    View fantastic user-submitted bird photos from all over the world.

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National Geographic Magazine