Aves › Passeriformes › Cardinalidae
Northern cardinal
In one study, 9 to 35% of nestlings came from extra-pair copulations.
Field Guide · Chapter 7 of 29
Songbirds
Swipe across, tap a card to turn it over, then scroll down its back. Try Look closer on a front, spin a globe, and lift the question on a park sign.
Aves › Passeriformes › Corvidae
Blue jay
22 to 30 cm long
In winter a blue jay hides far more food than it can eat.
Aves › Passeriformes › Sturnidae
Common starling
Up to 1.5 million
Some roosts hold up to 1.5 million of them, and their droppings cause trouble.
Aves › Passeriformes › Turdidae
Common blackbird
About 25 cm long
A few of its former Asian subspecies are now treated as species of their own.
Aves › Passeriformes › Turdidae
Song thrush
20 to 23.5 cm long
It breaks snail shells by smashing them on a favourite stone it uses as an anvil.
Aves › Passeriformes › Fringillidae
House finch
About 40 million
A male house finch gets its red from the berries it eats, and the color rises and falls with the seasons.
Aves › Passeriformes › Fringillidae
American goldfinch
Molts twice a year
The only cardueline finch that molts twice a year, so its plumage changes with the seasons.
Aves › Passeriformes › Fringillidae
European goldfinch
Flocks of up to 40+
One goldfinch in Armenia ate 30 seeds from one sunflower head in a single hour.
Aves › Passeriformes › Estrildidae
Zebra finch
Only males sing
Only the males sing, and each finch has a song that is its own.
Aves › Passeriformes › Fringillidae
Atlantic canary
10 to 12 cm long
A bird that often nests in groups, each pair defending its own small territory.
Aves › Passeriformes › Paridae
Great tit
12.5 to 14 cm long
Apple orchards suffer far less caterpillar damage where great tits feed, by up to half.
Aves › Passeriformes › Paridae
Eurasian blue tit
10.5 to 12 cm long
Blue tits once taught one another to open milk bottles for the cream.
Aves › Passeriformes › Paridae
Black-capped chickadee
Weighs 10 to 14 g
On cold winter nights it lowers its body temperature to save energy.
Aves › Passeriformes › Alaudidae
Eurasian skylark
Sings 50 to 100 m up
Its song comes from so high up that the singer can look like a dot in the sky.
Aves › Passeriformes › Muscicapidae
Common nightingale
Up to 250 song types
Early writers thought the female sang, but it is the male who does.
Aves › Passeriformes › Troglodytidae
Eurasian wren
9 to 10 cm long
Weight for weight, its song is ten times louder than a cockerel.
Aves › Passeriformes › Mimidae
Northern mockingbird
At least 39 songs
Its repertoire runs to at least 39 songs and 50 call notes.
Aves › Passeriformes › Icteridae
Red-winged blackbird
As many as 3 broods
Some say it may be the most numerous land bird on the continent.
Aves › Passeriformes › Icteridae
Baltimore oriole
Nests 7 to 9 m up
Its name comes from a 17th-century lord's coat of arms, because the male's colours match it.
Aves › Passeriformes › Parulidae
Mangrove warbler
About 13 cm long
A small yellow bird once thought to be the same species as its migratory cousin.
Aves › Passeriformes › Bombycillidae
Bohemian waxwing
Several hundred a day
Its name comes from red tips on its wing feathers, which look like sealing wax.
Aves › Passeriformes › Corvidae
Eurasian magpie
Over half is tail
One of the few birds known to pass the mirror test.
Aves › Passeriformes › Corvidae
Eurasian jay
Acorns: up to 20 km
Jays are credited with helping oaks spread north quickly after the last ice age.
Aves › Passeriformes › Corvidae
American crow
About 31 million crows
One of only a few birds known to modify and use tools to get food.
Aves › Passeriformes › Corvidae
New Caledonian crow
Makes its own tools
It makes its own hooks from twigs and ferns.
Aves › Passeriformes › Ptilonorhynchidae
Satin bowerbird
Twenty-six years
A wild satin bowerbird lived twenty-six years, the longest of any banded passerine bird.
Aves › Passeriformes › Paradisaeidae
Greater bird-of-paradise
Males up to 43 cm
Early trade skins had no wings or feet, so people believed these birds never touched the ground.
Aves › Passeriformes › Passeridae
Sociable weaver
Up to four broods
A small bird that builds large shared nests, a rarity among birds.
1 of 28
On this page
- Northern cardinal
- Blue jay
- Common starling
- Common blackbird
- Song thrush
- House finch
- American goldfinch
- European goldfinch
- Zebra finch
- Atlantic canary
- Great tit
- Eurasian blue tit
- Black-capped chickadee
- Eurasian skylark
- Common nightingale
- Eurasian wren
- Northern mockingbird
- Red-winged blackbird
- Baltimore oriole
- Mangrove warbler
- Bohemian waxwing
- Eurasian magpie
- Eurasian jay
- American crow
- New Caledonian crow
- Satin bowerbird
- Greater bird-of-paradise
- Sociable weaver
What is real here
Every photograph and every outline comes from a real, openly licensed image, credited at the bottom of its card. Only plain charts are drawn.
The words on these cards are written by AI from the sources named on each card. Software matched every number and claim to a sentence in those sources. Mistakes are still possible, so follow a card's links before relying on it.
Globe dots are real recorded sightings from GBIF. Where a card says native range only, they are clipped to that range. Otherwise they can include zoos, gardens and places the species was introduced.