Birds

Bali Mynah

Bali Mynah

The snow-white, black-tipped feathers and sky blue eye patches of the Bali mynah make this one beautiful bird. It’s the only native bird on Bali, one of the Indonesian islands. In addition to being a beauty, it is also extremely rare: Fewer than 50 Bali mynahs remain in the wild, where they live in just one place, Bali Barat National Park.

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

The fierce-looking bald eagle is our national symbol. It is the only eagle unique to North America. The brown body, white head, and white tail of the adult birds make it easy to identify as it soars through the skies on long, broad wings.

Flamingo

Caribbean Flamingo

Supermodels of the bird world, flamingos are very social and spend much of their day preening and wading on their long, thin legs. But they are far more rugged than they look, able to live at high altitudes, in frozen lakes, or on muddy flats. Caribbean flamingos are also called American flamingos.

Penguin

Magellanic Penguin

The Magellanic penguin does not dwell on the ice like so many of its cousins. Instead, it lives near the ocean in more temperate climates with grass, shrubs, and even forests. This medium-sized penguin was named after explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who spotted the birds in 1520 as he rounded the tip of South America.

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monk parakeet

Monk Parakeet

Able to survive in colder climates than most parrots, flocks of these colorful escaped pets show up in the strangest places—like New York and Chicago! Also called Quakers, these birds are mostly green with a patch of gray on their breast and blue tails and wingtips.

scops owls

White-faced Scops Owl

With their bright orange eyes set in white faces, white-faced scops owls, also called northern white-faced owls, have an entrancing gaze. They roost in trees during the day, and hunt by night. With their long, trilling call—a fluty “ploo pluuu”—white-faced scops owls sound a bit like American screech owls. But the scops owls are native to Africa, living between the fringes of the savannah and the Equator.

Bee-eater

White-throated Bee-eater

The white-throated bee-eater is a gregarious bird from equatorial Africa with a black-and-white striped head and green and golden plumage. It’s pretty easy to guess the favorite food of these winged hunters: bees and other insects.