Birds that contain A

List of Birds That Contain A

1

Adelie Penguin

Pygoscelis adeliae

A medium-sized Antarctic penguin recognized by white eye-rings on a black face — one of the most-southerly breeding birds on Earth, completing 13,000 km annual migrations on sea ice.

2

Albatross

Diomedea exulans

The largest flying bird by wingspan, a Southern Ocean seabird that can glide thousands of kilometers without flapping and live over 60 years.

3

Avocet

Recurvirostra avosetta

Britain's most elegant wader — a black-and-white bird with an extraordinary upturned bill that it swings from side to side through shallow water to catch invertebrates; the symbol of the RSPB, the avocet returned to breed in Suffolk in 1947 after an absence of over 100 years and is now one of British conservation's greatest success stories.

4

Bearded Tit

Panurus biarmicus

A tiny, tawny gem of the reedbed — the male is unmistakable with a blue-grey head and long drooping black moustache stripes that give the species its name; not closely related to true tits, the bearded tit (or bearded reedling) is a specialist of large reedbeds, its life played out almost entirely among the reed stems; a sedentary species but capable of dramatic post-breeding dispersal.

5

Bee-eater

Merops apiaster

A brilliantly colored aerial hunter that catches bees, wasps, and other stinging insects in mid-flight — then systematically beats the insect against a perch and wipes the stinger clean before swallowing.

6

Blue Jay

Cyanocitta cristata

A bold, intelligent corvid with vivid blue, white, and black plumage native to eastern North America, a notorious mimic that imitates hawks to scare other birds.

7

Brambling

Fringilla montifringilla

A handsome winter finch from Scandinavian forests that arrives in Britain each autumn — the male has a striking orange-and-black plumage in breeding dress, and in exceptional years when beech mast crops are abundant, millions can gather at single sites across Central Europe in breathtaking communal roosts.

8

Canary

Serinus canaria

A small yellow finch native to the Canary Islands — domesticated for centuries as a singing pet, used historically in coal mines as gas detectors, and now bred in dozens of color and song varieties.

9

Cardinal

Cardinalis cardinalis

A vivid red songbird of the eastern and central United States, the official bird of seven U.S. states, with a distinctive crest and a year-round musical presence.

10

Chaffinch

Fringilla coelebs

Britain's second most common bird and one of Europe's most abundant — the male in spring is a strikingly handsome bird with a pink-red breast, slate-blue head, and bold white wing bars; males sing a loud, rattling song ending in a distinctive flourish that varies in dialect between regions.

11

Chickadee

Poecile atricapillus (Black-capped); Poecile carolinensis (Carolina)

A small, fearless North American songbird with distinctive black cap and bib — beloved feeder birds known for sophisticated alarm calls that encode information about predator size and danger level.

12

Cockatoo

Cacatuidae (family)

A loud, intelligent Australasian parrot with a distinctive crest of feathers — including the most affectionate parrot species and some of the most ecologically destructive flocks, with several species critically endangered.

13

Cormorant

Phalacrocoracidae (family)

A diving water bird with non-waterproof feathers — visible drying with spread wings on rocks and pilings, used for centuries by Asian fishermen as living fishing tools, and now ecologically critical fish-eaters across coastal and inland waters worldwide.

14

Crane

Gruidae (family)

A tall, long-legged wading bird famous for elaborate courtship dances, lifelong pair bonds, and distinctive trumpeting calls — 15 species worldwide, with several critically endangered and others recovered through dedicated conservation.

15

Eagle

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

A large North American sea eagle and the national bird of the United States, recovered from near-extinction to abundance over the past five decades.

16

Falcon

Falco peregrinus (peregrine falcon)

A swift, sharp-winged raptor — including the peregrine, the fastest animal on Earth — with extraordinary diving speeds and a long history as a hunting partner in royal falconry traditions.

17

Fieldfare

Turdus pilaris

A large, handsome thrush that arrives in Britain from Scandinavia each autumn in clattering flocks to feast on hawthorn berries and windfall apples — with its distinctive chestnut back, grey rump, and spotted orange breast, it is one of Britain's most striking winter visitors.

18

Flamingo

Phoenicopterus roseus

A long-legged wading bird whose pink color comes from carotenoid pigments in its food, famous for filter-feeding upside-down and standing on one leg.

19

Frigatebird

Fregata magnificens

A large, long-winged tropical seabird with a remarkable red throat pouch that males inflate like a balloon during courtship, and a well-earned reputation as an aerial pirate that terrorizes other seabirds into dropping their food.

20

Gannet

Morus bassanus

A large white seabird that plunge-dives from 30 meters at 100 km/h to catch fish underwater — with a suite of anatomical adaptations specifically evolved for this extreme impact, including no external nostrils and built-in air-sac cushioning.

21

Great Grey Shrike

Lanius excubitor

A bold, predatory songbird that behaves like a miniature raptor — the great grey shrike is pale grey, black and white, perching prominently on the tops of bushes and lone trees, scanning for prey; famous for impaling prey on thorns to create a larder, it is a scarce winter visitor to Britain, with individual birds often returning to the same heathland site for multiple winters.

22

Hawfinch

Coccothraustes coccothraustes

Britain's most powerful-billed finch — the hawfinch has a massive, pale bill capable of cracking cherry stones and olive pits that require 50–70 kg of force to split; a bulky, short-tailed finch with rich chestnut, black, and white plumage and a distinctive white wing bar; notoriously shy and elusive, spending most of its time in high tree canopy and often detected only by its sharp call.

23

Hawk

Accipitridae and Buteoninae (multiple species)

A general name for medium-sized day-flying raptors — including the Cooper's, sharp-shinned, and red-tailed hawks of North America — built for speed in forest pursuit and for soaring on thermals.

24

House Martin

Delichon urbicum

A familiar summer visitor that builds its distinctive mud nest under the eaves of houses — arriving from southern Africa each April, house martins construct domed cup nests from hundreds of individual pellets of mud gathered from puddle edges; the white rump is the key identification feature separating it from the swallow.

25

Jacana

Jacana spinosa

A tropical wading bird with extraordinarily long toes that distribute its weight across floating vegetation — earning it the nickname "lily-trotter" for its ability to walk on water lilies.

26

Lapwing

Vanellus vanellus

A pied farmland wader with a wispy black crest and spectacular aerial courtship display — once Europe's most abundant wader, now in rapid decline due to agricultural change, and the subject of major conservation concern.

27

Macaw

Ara macao

A large, brilliantly colored Central and South American parrot with a powerful nutcracking bill and lifelong pair bonds, threatened across most of its range by habitat loss and poaching.

28

Magpie

Pica pica (Eurasian); Cracticus tibicen (Australian — different family)

A long-tailed black-and-white corvid with iridescent blue-green wing flashes — Eurasian magpies are among the most-studied intelligent birds, while Australian magpies are renowned for spring swooping attacks on humans.

29

Marsh Harrier

Circus aeruginosus

Britain's largest harrier — a spectacular bird of prey of reedbeds and marshes, the male has a striking grey wing patch contrasting with russet body and black wingtips; it quartered over British reedbeds for centuries but was driven to extinction by hunting and egg collection, with only one pair breeding by 1971; a successful conservation recovery has produced over 600 pairs today.

30

Marsh Tit

Poecile palustris

A small, glossy-capped tit of ancient woodland — easily confused with the willow tit but distinguished by its glossier black cap, cleaner white cheeks, and distinctive 'pitchoo' call; like all tits, the marsh tit is an intelligent, acrobatic forager; it is a food-hoarder, storing thousands of individual seeds in bark crevices and leaf litter, and has an exceptional spatial memory for relocating them.

31

Nightingale

Luscinia megarhynchos

A small brown European migratory songbird famous for its powerful, varied, and beautifully complex song — featured in countless poems and songs across European literature.

32

Nightjar

Caprimulgus europaeus

A cryptically camouflaged nocturnal bird that rests motionless on the ground or along tree branches during the day, invisible against bark and leaf litter — famous for its churring mechanical song heard across heathlands at dusk.

33

Nuthatch

Sitta europaea

A small, compact woodland bird that walks headfirst down tree trunks — the only bird capable of descending a vertical surface face-down, and a remarkably efficient hoarder of seeds and insects.

34

Oystercatcher

Haematopus ostralegus

A boldly pied coastal wader with a long, bright orange bill used as a hammer and lever to open bivalves — conspicuous, loud, and one of the most recognisable shorebirds of rocky coastlines worldwide.

35

Parrot

Psittacus erithacus

A medium-sized grey parrot widely regarded as the most cognitively gifted bird species, capable of imitating human speech and demonstrating reasoning beyond simple mimicry.

36

Partridge

Perdix perdix

A plump, ground-dwelling game bird of European farmland and hedgerows — the "pear tree" bird of the twelve days of Christmas, now in serious decline across much of its range due to agricultural intensification.

37

Peacock

Pavo cristatus

A large pheasant native to South Asia whose male sports a vivid iridescent train and elaborate fan display, the textbook example of sexual selection in evolution.

38

Pelican

Pelecanus occidentalis (brown); Pelecanus erythrorhynchos (American white)

A large coastal water bird with a distinctive throat pouch — used as a fishing net during plunge-dives and as a holding bag while feeding chicks, common at coastal fishing piers worldwide.

39

Pheasant

Phasianus colchicus (common pheasant)

A large game bird native to Asia — introduced to North America and Europe for hunting, with the iridescent ring-necked males and mottled-camouflage females being among the most familiar farmland birds in their introduced range.

40

Pied Flycatcher

Ficedula hypoleuca

The black-and-white summer visitor of ancient oak woods — the male pied flycatcher is crisply black above and white below with a bold white forehead patch; the female is brown and white; they arrive from West Africa in late April to breed in old oak trees and nest boxes, making sallying flights to catch insects and raising a brood before departing in late summer.

41

Ptarmigan

Lagopus muta

The high Arctic grouse that turns completely white in winter — Britain's only truly alpine bird, confined to the Scottish Highlands above 800 metres; it moults three times a year to match its surroundings (brown in summer, mottled grey in autumn, pure white in winter) and is so well camouflaged that walkers almost step on them before the bird moves.

42

Quail

Callipepla californica

A plump, ground-foraging gamebird with a distinctive teardrop-shaped plume on its head, the official state bird of California and a familiar sight in western U.S. backyards.

43

Raven

Corvus corax

The largest songbird and one of the most intelligent — a massive black corvid celebrated in mythology and Edgar Allan Poe alike, with documented problem-solving rivaling great apes.

44

Razorbill

Alca torda

A cliff-nesting seabird with a distinctive laterally flattened "razor" bill, banded in white — the closest living relative of the extinct great auk; it dives deep for fish by flying underwater with its wings, nests on cliff ledges in large colonies alongside guillemots and puffins, and is an excellent indicator of North Atlantic fish stocks.

45

Redstart

Phoenicurus phoenicurus

A jewel of the oak woodland — the male common redstart has a fiery orange tail (constantly quivered), blue-grey upper parts, and a bold black face; a summer visitor to Britain from Africa, its liquid song is a key sound of ancient oak woods in Wales and the Lake District.

46

Roadrunner

Geococcyx californianus (greater roadrunner)

A long-legged ground cuckoo of southwestern North America that runs fast rather than flies — eats lizards, snakes (including rattlesnakes), and forms the basis for the Looney Tunes character chasing Wile E. Coyote.

47

Sandpiper

Scolopacidae (family)

A diverse family of small to medium shorebirds with long bills probing for invertebrates in mud and sand — many species undertake some of the longest non-stop bird migrations on Earth, sometimes 11,000+ km in a single flight.

48

Seagull

Laridae (family)

A common term for various gull species — adaptable scavenger-omnivores found at coastlines, parking lots, garbage dumps, and inland lakes worldwide, with the herring gull and ring-billed gull being among the most familiar.

49

Skylark

Alauda arvensis

A brown farmland bird famous for its sustained, complex hovering song — the male rises vertically to 300 metres and sings continuously for up to an hour, the quintessential sound of the open countryside in Romantic poetry and folk culture.

50

Sparrow

Passer domesticus (house sparrow); various Passerellidae species

A small, brown, ubiquitous songbird — the house sparrow following human settlements globally, the native New World sparrows often confused with it, all unfussy about food and habitat.

51

Starling

Sturnus vulgaris (European starling)

A glossy black songbird with iridescent purple-green sheen — native to Eurasia but introduced to North America in 1890 by Shakespeare enthusiasts, now one of the most invasive bird species in the Western Hemisphere.

52

Stonechat

Saxicola rubicola

A compact, upright chat of heathland and coastal scrub — the male has a striking black head, white collar, and bright orange breast, and sits prominently on gorse or bramble stems making a harsh "wheet-tsak-tsak" call like two pebbles being knocked together; year-round resident on British heathland, it is one of the first birds to establish territories in January.

53

Swallow

Hirundo rustica (barn swallow); Hirundinidae family

A graceful, fast-flying songbird that catches insects on the wing — the barn swallow nesting in human structures across the Northern Hemisphere, performing transcontinental migrations.

54

Swan

Cygnus olor

A large white waterfowl with an orange bill and an iconic curved neck, fiercely territorial and surprisingly aggressive despite its placid appearance.

55

Toucan

Ramphastos toco

The largest toucan species, a Central and South American fruit-eater with a striking oversized orange bill that serves as a thermal radiator as well as a feeding tool.

56

Umbrellabird

Cephalopterus ornatus

A large black tropical bird of South American rainforests, distinguished by an umbrella-like crest of feathers above its head and a long, retractable, throat-feathered wattle that males inflate during courtship displays.

57

Warbler

Parulidae (New World)

Small, often brightly colored songbirds — the "wood warblers" of the New World contain over 110 dazzling species, while "Old World warblers" comprise different families with different characteristics, both crucial for migration and forest insect control.

58

Waxwing

Bombycilla garrulus

A plump, crested bird with silky pinkish-brown plumage, a waxy red tips on its secondary feathers, and a voracious appetite for berries — irrupts into Western Europe and North America in winter when Scandinavian berry crops fail.

59

Weaver

Ploceidae (family)

Small African songbirds famous for elaborate woven nests — males construct intricate hanging structures, often with multiple chambers and entrances, to attract females and rear young in colonies.

60

Wheatear

Oenanthe oenanthe

A migratory chat with a flash of white rump that arrives on British uplands each spring from sub-Saharan Africa — one of the earliest summer migrants, sometimes appearing in late February; the male has a grey back and black eye mask; it undertakes one of the most remarkable migrations of any small bird, with Greenland birds crossing the entire Atlantic non-stop.

61

Whitethroat

Sylvia communis

A scratchy, energetic warbler of bramble scrub and overgrown hedgerows — the male has a white throat that puffs out during his jerky song-flight display, in which he rises a few metres into the air and parachutes back down singing; a common summer visitor that suffered a catastrophic population crash in 1969 due to Sahel drought.

62

Xantus's Hummingbird

Basilinna xantusii

A small, range-restricted hummingbird of southern Baja California with a brilliant green back and rufous belly — endemic to the peninsula and one of the few "X" birds in field guides.

63

Yellowhammer

Emberiza citrinella

A bright yellow European bunting whose distinctive song is often transcribed as "a little bit of bread and no cheeeese" — a familiar farmland bird in the British Isles, declining with the loss of mixed agriculture.

64

Zebra Finch

Taeniopygia guttata

A small, social, vivid Australian songbird with zebra-striped tail feathers and orange cheek patches — a popular cage bird worldwide and the most-studied songbird in neuroscience laboratories.