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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.
If you've been searching for birds that start with R, you'll find 8 detailed birds below. We're not interested in giving you only a list of names — every entry on this page links to a full profile with the kind of detail you'd actually want to know.
For birds, that means taxonomy, habitat, diet, wingspan, migration pattern, and conservation status.
Table of contents
| Raven | Razorbill | Red Kite | Redstart |
| Ring Ouzel | Roadrunner | Robin | Roller |
List of Birds That Start With R
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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.
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Red Kite
Milvus milvus
Britain's most spectacular conservation success story — a large, elegant, fork-tailed raptor that was reduced to a tiny remnant population of a few dozen birds in Wales by the 1930s and has since been reintroduced across England and Scotland, now numbering thousands; the russet-red body, pale head, and deeply forked tail make it unmistakable in flight.
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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.
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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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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.
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Robin
Turdus migratorius
A large, orange-breasted thrush common across North American lawns and gardens, an early sign of spring and the most numerous land bird on the continent.
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Roller
Coracias garrulus
A brilliant blue and chestnut European and African bird named for its spectacular rolling display flight — one of the most colourful birds of open Mediterranean and African habitats.
About birds starting with R
That's our current list of birds starting with the letter R. We add new entries every week — if you have a favorite bird starting with R that isn't on this page, let us know and we'll write it up.
Looking for more? Try birds that end with R, or contain R anywhere in the name.