Birds that contain G

Below are birds that contain the letter G anywhere in the name. Each of the 31 birds below opens to a full profile.

Table of contents 31 entries

List of Birds That Contain G

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.

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.

Bunting

Emberiza citrinella

A family of small, seed-eating songbirds found across Eurasia and the Americas — males are among the most brilliantly coloured birds of temperate regions, with deep blues, reds, and purples unmatched by larger species.

Corn Bunting

Emberiza calandra

The largest British bunting — a large, streaky, plain-brown bird of arable fields with no distinctive markings but an utterly unmistakable song, often described as jangling keys; the corn bunting has declined severely across Britain as intensive farming reduced the cereal stubble, rough grassland, and insect-rich field margins on which it depends; polygamous males may mate with up to 18 females in a season.

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.

Egret

Egretta and Ardea (genera)

A type of heron — typically all-white and slim — historically devastated by feather hunters for hat decoration in the early 1900s, now a major conservation success story whose protection helped found the modern environmental movement.

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.

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.

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.

Goldcrest

Regulus regulus

Britain's smallest bird — the goldcrest weighs as little as a 10-pence coin, and at 4–7 g is the joint-smallest bird in Europe alongside the firecrest; a tiny olive-green bird with a bright stripe on the crown — yellow in females, orange-red in males, displayed when excited; common in coniferous woodland and one of the most abundant British birds despite suffering severe losses in cold winters.

Goldfinch

Carduelis carduelis

A brilliantly coloured small finch with a crimson face, black and white head, and gleaming yellow wingbars — a specialist seed-eater that uses its narrow bill to extract seeds from thistles and teasels; one of Britain's most beloved garden birds.

Goose

Branta canadensis

A large migratory waterfowl with a black neck and white chinstrap, abundant across North America and increasingly resident in suburban parks where milder winters and grass lawns allow year-round survival.

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.

Grouse

Tetraonidae (subfamily, sometimes treated as family)

A family of plump ground-dwelling birds adapted to cold climates — including iconic species like ruffed grouse, sage grouse, and ptarmigan, with elaborate dramatic mating displays in many species.

Guillemot

Uria aalge

A sea-going auk that nests by the million on vertical sea cliffs, packing shoulder-to-shoulder in dense colonies — it flies underwater using its wings to pursue fish to depths of 180 metres, and its pear-shaped egg rolls in a circle rather than off the cliff edge if knocked.

Hummingbird

Archilochus colubris

The most common hummingbird in eastern North America, weighing less than a U.S. nickel, capable of hovering, flying backward, and migrating across the Gulf of Mexico nonstop.

Kingfisher

Alcedo atthis

A small, jewel-bright Eurasian fishing bird that hovers above water and dives at over 40 km/h to catch small fish, the inspiration for the bullet train's nose cone design.

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.

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.

Mockingbird

Mimus polyglottos (Northern); various other Mimus and Mimidae species

A medium-sized gray songbird famous for mimicking dozens of other species — capable of imitating 200+ songs and sounds across a lifetime, with the northern mockingbird as Harper Lee's literary symbol of innocence.

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.

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.

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.

Penguin

Aptenodytes forsteri

The largest living penguin species and the only animal to breed during the Antarctic winter, enduring the planet's harshest conditions.

Pigeon

Columba livia

A globally ubiquitous urban bird descended from the rock dove of Mediterranean cliffs — domesticated for over 5,000 years for food, communication, racing, and ornamentation, with feral populations in nearly every city worldwide.

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.

Ring Ouzel

Turdus torquatus

The mountain blackbird of Britain's uplands — a stocky thrush resembling a blackbird with a distinctive white crescent bib, breeding on moorland and mountain slopes above 250 metres; a migratory species that arrives from Africa in late March and departs by October, its far-carrying, melancholy song one of the definitive sounds of the wild uplands.

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