Black Vulture
A highly social scavenger whose broad circles and white wing patches are familiar above both cities and wild rivers.
Nayarit, Mexico: places and wildlife
Browse the published Explore collection for Nayarit, Mexico. Open a discovery for its field guide, practical details, and background.
Neotropic Cormorant
A versatile diving bird found from Pacific harbors to Amazon rivers, often drying its wings on the nearest exposed perch.
Great Kiskadee
A loud, adaptable tropical flycatcher whose name echoes its ringing kis-ka-dee call.
Black Rat
The agile roof-climbing rat of ports and warm cities differs sharply from its heavier, burrowing relative.
Cane Toad
A broad-headed Neotropical toad carries large toxin glands behind its eyes—an effective defense that makes a curious dog, not a quiet observer, the urgent concern.
Eastern Bluebird
A sky-blue thrush that hunts from fence posts and readily adopts nest boxes across Missouri’s open countryside.
Great Blue Heron
A long-legged ambush hunter that can look prehistoric at close range and surprisingly compact when folded in flight.
Turkey Vulture
A long-tailed scavenger rides warm air on raised wings, teetering with few flaps while its pale flight feathers flash across the entire trailing edge.
Dickcissel
This grassland bunting broadcasts its own name from Kansas weeds, fences, and bluestem each summer.
Killdeer
A shorebird without a shore runs across Kansas gravel, flashes two breast bands, and sometimes performs an apparently broken wing to move danger away from eggs hidden in plain sight.
Black-capped Vireo
A small migratory songbird depends on a shifting mosaic of low shrubs and openings maintained by disturbance, browsing, and careful land management.
California Gull
Utah’s state bird is an inland gull whose vast Great Salt Lake gatherings connect nesting islands, farm fields, wetlands, and migration routes.
American White Pelican
One of North America’s largest birds nests on remote Great Salt Lake islands and travels astonishing distances to feed in freshwater wetlands.