The world is full of amazing birds! There are so many different types of birds, each with their own unique features, behaviour and habitats. In this section, we’re going to take a look at some birds that begin with the letter G. From Gadwall and Gannets to Grebes and Goldfinches, we have most of them listed here.
Gadwall
The gadwall is a common and widespread grey dabbling duck in the family Anatidae. It’s a little smaller than the mallard, and with an obvious black rear end.
Gallinule, American Purple
The purple gallinule belongs to the family Rallidae because it is a species of rail. Locally, it is also called the yellow-legged gallinule. It belongs to the ‘crane-like’ order Gruiformes, which also includes cranes, rails, and crakes.
Gallinule, Common
The common gallinule is a bird in the family Rallidae. It lives around well-vegetated marshes, ponds, canals, and other wetlands in the Americas.
Gallinule, Spot-flanked
A small marsh bird that can be found in South America’s regions of central Colombia, eastern Brazil, and central Chile. It has dark flanks with white markings, warm brown upperparts, and grey head and breast. Its greenish bill makes it stand out.
Gannet, Australasian
The Sulidae family of gannets and boobies includes the Australasian gannet, sometimes referred to as the Australian gannet or tkapu. Adults are primarily white, with black flying feathers lining the trailing edge of the wing and at the wingtips. Black also covers the centre feathers of the tail.
Gannet, Northern
Gannets are large seabirds that can be found near coasts in the Northern Hemisphere. These birds have long necks and bills, and they are excellent divers.
Gnatcatcher, Blue-gray
The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher is a small, long-tailed bird that inhabits broadleaf woods and scrublands. It can be identified by its persistent, mellow calls and continual movement. While hunting for insects and spiders, it leaps and slithers through the outer, dense foliage.
Gnatcatcher, Tropical
The tropical gnatcatcher is a small insectivorous songbird. It has a long cocked tail, a grey and white body, and a somewhat long, slender bill. quite typical at the canopy and margin of a humid tropical forest. They can be found from eastern Brazil across most of northern South America (east of the Andes, including the Maraón Valley).
Godwit, Bar-tailed
A wading bird with a large mouth and long legs, the bar-tailed godwit spends the winter in the UK. Birds may display their full rich chestnut breeding plumage in the spring, but they are most frequently observed in their grey-brown winter plumage.
Godwit, Marbled
Large shorebird with long legs and a large, slightly cocked bill. A skinny neck is supported by a small, spherical head. In flight, its legs protrude past the tail.
Goldcrest
One of the smallest European birds. Inhabits woodlands and all types of parks and gardens.
Goldeneye, Barrow’s
A small, chunky diving duck with an unusually large, oblong-shaped head. In comparison to a Common Goldeneye, the bill is comparatively tiny and the forehead is relatively steep.
Goldeneye, Common
A medium-sized sea duck belonging to the genus Bucephala, the goldeneye, is known as the common goldeneye or just goldeneye. The Barrow’s goldeneye is its closest relative. The name of the genus comes from the Ancient Greek word boukephalos, which alludes to the bufflehead’s bulbous head.
Goldfinch, American
A small bird of the finch family, the American goldfinch is found in North America. During the breeding season, it travels from central Alberta to North Carolina, and during the winter, it travels from just south of the Canadian-American border to Mexico.
Goldfinch, European
A small colorful finch with unmistakable harlequin plumage. Lives in open woodland, heath, scrub and farmland.
Goldfinch, Lesser
These finches can be found all the way down to the Peruvian Andes, and they mainly eat seeds from plants in the sunflower family.
Goose, Andean
On Andean bogs and lakeshores, this huge, white-and-black geese is frequently seen and noticeable. They can be trusting in regions where they are not persecuted and are typically found in pairs or small groups.
Goose, Ashy-headed
The Ashy-Headed Goose is a large sheldgoose that breeds in mountainous regions of southernmost South America and spends the winters in lowlands just to the north of its breeding habitat. This terrestrial species grazes for food and prefers moist upland woodland clearings.
Goose, Barnacle
The barnacle goose is about the size of a chicken and is friendly. It has a black head, neck, and breast, but its face is white. This is different from the white belly, blue-grey bars, and black tail. It flies in groups and long lines, barking or yapping loudly as it goes.
Canada goose is a large goose, with a striking black head and neck. They have a large white throat patch and were introduced from North America, and has successfully spread to cover most of the UK. They are noisy in flocks and is often regarded as a nuisance in areas where large numbers occur on amenity grassland and parks.
Goose, Egyptian
This pale brown and grey goose is related to the shelduck. When it flies, its dark brown eye patches and white wing patches stand out.
Goose, Greylag
The greylag is the largest and most hefty of the wild geese that live in the UK and Europe. It is the ancestor of most domestic geese.
Goose, Kelp
The Klep Goose can be found along rocky coasts and in areas where the tide meets the land. It rarely goes far from the water. Most of the time in pairs or small groups, and they get along well with other geese.
Goose, Orinoco
A unique South American species that has been thought to be related to both shelducks and sheldgeese. It comes from the north and centre of South America, all the way east to the coast of Brazil.
Goose, Pink-footed
The pink-footed goose lives in eastern Greenland, Iceland, and Svalbard, where it breeds. It is a migratory bird that spends the winter in northwest Europe, especially in Ireland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and western Denmark. In everyday speech, the name is often shortened to “pinkfoot.”
Goose, Ruddy-headed
The ruddy-headed goose is a large sheldgoose that lives in the southernmost part of South America and lays its eggs there. It lives in Tierra del Fuego, Chile, and the Falkland Islands, where it breeds on grassy plains.
Goose, Spur-winged
The spur-winged goose is a large bird in the family Anatidae. It is related to geese and shelducks, but it is different from both of them in a number of ways, so it is in its own subfamily called Plectropterinae. It lives in the wet areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
Goose, Upland
The upland goose or Magellan goose is a sheldgoose of the shelduck-sheldgoose subfamily of the Anatidae, the biological family that includes the ducks and most duck-like waterfowl such as the geese and swans.
The bean goose is a goose that breeds in northern Europe and Eurosiberia. It has two distinct varieties, one inhabiting taiga habitats and one inhabiting tundra.
The bean goose is a goose that breeds in northern Europe and Eurosiberia. It has two distinct varieties, one inhabiting taiga habitats and one inhabiting tundra.
Goshawk, Pale Chanting
Goshawks are medium-sized to large birds of prey that can be found in woodlands around the world. These birds are known for their agile hunting abilities and their distinctive call.
Grackle, Great-tailed
The great-tailed grackle, also called the Mexican grackle, is a social, medium-sized bird that lives in both North and South America. As a member of the family Icteridae, it is one of 10 species of grackles that still exist today. It is related to both the extinct slender-billed grackle and the boat-tailed grackle.
Grebe, Black-necked
The black-necked grebe or eared grebe is a member of the grebe family of water birds.
Grassquit, Blue-black
Quite a common little bird in tropical lowlands and foothills where there are weedy and brushy fields, farmland, and other open grassy areas. Note that it is very small, has brown feathers, a spotted breast, and a pointed, conical bill. Males only wear their blue-black breeding plumage when it’s rainy in the summer. Birds that are moulting and young birds have blue-black and brown spots on their plumage. In song display, the male jumps up from a grass stalk or fence and says a short buzzy phrase over and over again.
Grassquit, Yellow-faced
The only member of the genus Tiaris, the yellow-faced grassquit is a passerine bird in the tanager family (Thraupidae). It comes from the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.
Grebe, Great
The great grebe is the world’s biggest type of grebe. Grebes are diving birds that eat small fish and other aquatic animals.
Grebe, Great Crested
Largest of the Grebes. Neck is white, long and slender. They are widespread around the British Isles and Norway.
Grebe, Little
The little grebe is a type of water bird in the grebe family. It is also called a dabchick.
Grebe, Pied-billed
The pied-billed grebe is a type of water bird in the grebe family. Since the Atitlán grebe has died out, the Pied-Billed Grebe is now the only living member of the Podilymbus genus. The pied-billed grebe lives mostly in ponds in North and South America.
Grebe, Slavonian
The slavonian grebe is one of the rarest birds to nest in the UK. It can be seen on a few lochs in Scotland and at sea the rest of the year. Size-wise, it is about the same as a Moorhen. It can be found sometimes in big lakes and reservoirs.
Grebe, Titicaca
This endangered grebe is mostly found in and around Lake Titicaca in southern Peru and western Bolivia. It is rare on other big lakes in Bolivia’s high Andes.
Grebe, White-tufted
The white-tufted grebe is a type of grebe in the family Podicipedidae. It is also called Rolland’s grebe. It lives in freshwater lakes, ponds, and slow-moving streams in the southern half of South America.
Greenfinch, European
Small finch with a robust beak. Inhabits woodlands, farmland, parks and gardens.
Greenfinch, Oriental
A bright, social finch that can be found in a wide range of woodlands. Its high-pitched twittering call can often be heard as it flies overhead. The adult is easy to spot from a distance because its face is olive-yellow, its wing patches are bright yellow, and its body is brown with a yellow-green tint.
Greenlet, Lesser
The Lesser Greenlet is a small bird in the family of vireos. From the north-east of Mexico to the west of Ecuador, is where it lives and breeds.
Greenshank, Common
Medium sized wader that breeds on damp moorland, marches and undra.
Grenadier, Purple
The purple grenadier is an estrildid finch that is common in eastern Africa. All ages and sexes have black tails, and adults have red bills. It lives in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda in subtropical and tropical (lowland) dry shrubland.
Grosbeak, Blue-black
The Blue-Black Grosbeak is a species of bird in the Cardinalidae family. It can be found in Central and South America.
Grosbeak, Pine
A large member of the family Fringillidae, which includes true finches. The genus Pinicola has only this one species. It lives in coniferous forests in Alaska, the western mountains of the U.S. and Canada, subarctic Fennoscandia, and the Palearctic region all the way to Siberia.
Ground-dove, Black-winged
Fairly common on open grassy and rocky slopes, in bogs, near animal corrals, and in villages in agricultural areas. Often seen in pairs or in flocks.
Ground-dove, Croaking
This is a small, dirt-colored dove that lives in the lowlands of deserts. It is often seen in towns, parks, farms, and other open areas. Feeds on the ground but often sits on wires.
Ground-dove, Picui
The Picui ground dove looks for seeds, like cultivated grains, on the ground. It usually does this in groups of 25 to 30. It is a type of bird in the Columbidae family. It lives in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and the United States.
Ground-dove, Plain-breasted
The plain-breasted ground dove is a type of bird in the Columbidae family. It lacks the scaled appearance to the feathers of the similar and typically more abundant common ground dove.
Ground-dove, Ruddy
The Ruddy Ground Dove is a small New World tropical bird. It lives and breeds in Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, northern Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago, and the southern part of Brazil. People sometimes see these birds in the southwestern United States, from southern Texas to the southernmost part of California, mostly in the winter.
Ground-tyrant, Ochre-naped
This quite large land-dwelling flycatcher likes to breed in the southern Andes, but in the winter it travels to the north. It likes to live near bogs, along streams, and other wet places in open, rocky, and stony areas. However, migrants can be found in lowland fields.
Ground-tyrant, Puna
The top of the Puna Ground-Tyrant is grey, and the bottom is lighter grey to white. It has a crown that is washed brown. It hunts for food in open, wet grasslands and likes to live near water and bogs.
Ground-tyrant, Rufous-naped
The rufous-naped ground tyrant is a type of bird in the Tyrannidae family. Its scientific name is Muscisaxicola rufivertex. It lives in Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia. It lives in high-altitude subtropical or tropical shrubland and high-altitude subtropical or tropical grassland.
Ground-tyrant, Spot-billed
The spot-billed ground tyrant is a type of bird in the family Tyrannidae. It lives in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. It lives in high-altitude subtropical or tropical grasslands and shrublands.
Ground-tyrant, White-browed
The white-browed ground tyrant is a type of bird from the Tyrannidae family. It lives in the Andes in Argentina and Chile, where it breeds between 1,500 and 4,000 m above sea level. It goes to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, which are all in the north. It wanders around the Falkland Islands.
Guan, Spix’s
This is a species of bird in the family Cracidae. Spix’s guan is found in the upper Orinoco River and western Amazon River basins in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
Guillemot, Black
The black guillemot, also called a “tystie,” is a medium-sized seabird that lives along the northern Atlantic and eastern North American coasts. It is a member of the Alcidae family. It lives there year-round in most of its range, but in the winter, large groups from the high arctic move south.
Guillemot, Common
The common murre or guillemot is a big bird called an auk. It lives in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It is found all around the poles. It lives mostly at sea and only comes to land to breed on islands or rocky cliffs.
Guineafowl, Helmeted
The helmeted guineafowl is the most well-known member of the Numididae family of guineafowl birds and the only member of the genus Numida. It comes from Africa, mostly south of the Sahara, and has been brought to the West Indies, North America, Australia, and Europe as a domesticated species.
Gull, Andean
The Andean gull is a type of gull that belongs to the Laridae family. It has traditionally been put in the genus Larus, which is where many gulls belong. It lives in the mountainous parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru that are near the Andes.
Gull, Belcher’s
The Belcher Gull is a bird in the family Laridae that lives along the Pacific coast of South America. It is also called the band-tailed gull.
Gull, Black-headed
Although its called a black-headed gull, the color is more a dark chocolate brown. It is definitely not a “seagull,” and it lives almost everywhere inland. Black-headed gulls are social, noisy, and often fight with each other. They are often seen in small groups or flocks, but they often get together in bigger groups when there is a lot of food or when they are resting.
Gull, Bonaparte’s
The Bonaparte’s gull is a type of gull in the Laridae family. It lives mostly in the north of North America. It is one of the smallest gull species, measuring between 28 and 38 cm in length. Its feathers are mostly white, but the tops are grey. The Bonaparte’s gull gets a slate-grey hood when it’s time to breed.
Gull, Brown-hooded
The Brown Hooded Gull is a type of gull that lives in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Uruguay, and the United States. Its name, maculipennis, means “wings with spots” (macula + penna). It is a white bird with a brown head, red beak, and red feet.
Gull, Common
The common gull, also called the sea mew, is a medium-sized gull that lives in northern Europe and the Palearctic. Sometimes, the closely related short-billed gull is counted as part of this species, which may be called “mew gull” as a whole. During the winter, many common gulls move farther south.
Gull, Dolphin
The dolphin gull is a type of gull that lives in southern Chile, Argentina, and the Falkland Islands. It is sometimes called the red-billed gull, which is not correct. It is a bird of the coast that lives on rocky, muddy, and sandy beaches. It can often be found near seabird colonies.
Gull, European Herring
The European herring gull is a big bird that can grow to be as long as 66 cm. It used to be one of the most common gulls along the coasts of Western Europe. It lives and breeds in Northern Europe, Western Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, the Baltic states, and Central and Western Europe.
Gull, Franklin’s
A smallish gull with a narrow, brief bill and a short neck. The wings are long and the tail is small, just like other gulls. Leucophaeus, the genus name, derives from the Greek words leukos, “white,” and phaios, “dusky.”
Gull, Grey
The gray gull is a medium-sized gull that lives in South America. It is also called the garuma gull. It breeds in the very dry Atacama Desert in northern Chile, but you can see it all along the Pacific coast of South America when it’s not breeding.
Gull, Grey-hooded
A small gull that breeds sporadically in South America and Africa south of the Sahara, also referred to as the grey-hooded gull. Although it is not completely migratory, it is more common in the winter. Rare stray populations of this species have been found in Spain, Italy, and North America.
Gull, Great Black-backed
Typically a coastal gull, adults have very little white in their flight feathers and black wings and backs. The legs have a greenish-yellow colour, and the bill is very muscular and robust.
Gull, Kelp
The Dominican gull, commonly referred to as the kelp gull, breeds on islands and coasts over most of the Southern Hemisphere. Typically a coastal gull, adults have very little white in their flight feathers and black wings and backs. The legs have a greenish-yellow colour, and the bill is very muscular and robust.
Gull, Laughing
A medium-sized gull found in North and South America. It is an opportunistic omnivore and scavenger with a laugh-like call. It breeds in vast colonies mostly along the Caribbean, North American Atlantic coast, and northern South American continent.
Gull, Lesser Black-backed
A large gull that lives on the Atlantic coasts of Europe. It travels from the British Isles south to West Africa to spend the winter. Its number has grown a lot in North America, and it is most common on the east coast. Many birds used to only come during the winter, but now they can be seen all year long.
Gull, Red-billed
The red-billed gull, which is also called “tarpunga”, was once called a mackerel gull. It is a native bird of New Zealand. It lives all over the country and on islands like the Chatham Islands and the subantarctic islands.
Gull, Ring-billed
This small gull is common and widespread across most of North America. It is often seen in flocks. Adults that are not breeding have brown spots on their heads instead of a clear black ring around the bill.
Gull, Swallow-tailed
The Swallow-tailed Gull has a beautiful and unique appearance. Adults that are breeding are mostly pearly grey, with a black head, red eyering, pinkish legs, and a pale-tipped bill with a white spot at the base.
Gull, Yellow-legged
The yellow-legged gull was once thought to be a race of the herring gull. Only recently did scientists realise that it is its own species.
The backs and wings of adults are darker grey than those of herring gulls, but they are lighter than lesser black-backed gulls. They have more black on the tips of their wings than herring gulls do, and their white “mirrors” are smaller.