55 Bird Names That Start With T: Tennessee Warbler to Thrush Nightingale
October 24, 2026
No other letter of the alphabet produces quite as varied a cast of birds as T. It opens the door to backyard regulars like the tufted titmouse, ocean-going auks that nest on bare Arctic cliffs, and a flightless swamphen that was declared extinct for fifty years before turning up alive in a New Zealand mountain valley. Anyone building a personal bird identification guide or just trying to settle a family argument over Scrabble will find the letter stacked with genuine diversity rather than obscure padding.
This list works through 55 bird names that start with T, organized roughly from familiar North American species toward global families and a handful of genuinely rare, range-restricted birds that most birders will never see outside a specialist trip report. If you’ve already worked through a guide to birds beginning with letter A, this collection proves T is every bit as rich an ornithology reference point, covering everything from garden warblers to critically endangered cloud-forest antpittas.
- Familiar backyard and garden species found across the United States
- Waterfowl, shorebirds, and seabirds tied to specific coastlines or wetlands
- Entire bird families and genera whose common names begin with T
- Rare island endemics and high-Andes specialists of serious conservation concern
1. Tennessee Warbler
The Tennessee warbler (Leiothlypis peregrina) is a small, olive-and-white songbird that breeds across the boreal forests of Canada and the northern United States, despite its name coming from a single specimen collected in Tennessee during migration. It has no yellow wing bars and a thin, sharp bill suited to picking caterpillars and spruce budworms off conifer foliage. Its song is a rapid, three-part chatter that speeds up toward the end, and the species winters from southern Mexico down into northern South America.
2. Thick-Billed Longspur
The thick-billed longspur (Rhynchophanes mccownii) is a grassland sparrow relative of the northern Great Plains, named for a stout, conical bill built for cracking seeds. The species carried the name McCown’s longspur for more than a century before the American Ornithological Society renamed it in 2020 because the original honoree, Confederate general John P. McCown, had no real connection to the bird’s biology. Males perform a fluttering, parachuting display flight over shortgrass prairie during the breeding season.
Important Note: The thick-billed longspur’s 2020 renaming was part of a broader push by ornithological bodies to reconsider bird names tied to figures with troubling histories, rather than a change to the bird’s taxonomy or range.
3. Thick-Billed Murre
The thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia) is a stocky seabird in the auk family that nests shoulder-to-shoulder in dense colonies on narrow Arctic and subarctic sea cliffs. Its glossy black head and upperparts contrast sharply with a clean white breast, a pairing that also makes it a natural fit for anyone browsing birds with black heads. Each pair lays a single pear-shaped egg directly on bare rock, a shape that helps keep it from rolling off the ledge.
4. Townsend’s Solitaire
Townsend’s solitaire (Myadestes townsendi) is a slim, gray thrush relative of western mountains, named for naturalist John Kirk Townsend. Outside the breeding season it becomes fiercely territorial over individual juniper trees, defending a winter berry supply against other solitaires for months at a stretch. Its flight call is a single clear, ringing note often heard before the bird itself is spotted perched upright on an exposed branch.
5. Townsend’s Warbler
Townsend’s warbler (Setophaga townsendi) breeds in tall coniferous forests along the Pacific Northwest and winters from California down through Central America. The black throat and cheek patch set against a yellow face and olive back make it one of the more striking warblers to pass through western feeders during migration. It forages high in the canopy, often joining mixed flocks with chickadees and kinglets during the nonbreeding season.
6. Tree Swallow
The tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) is an early-arriving migrant across North America, recognizable by iridescent blue-green upperparts over a bright white underside. It nests readily in cavities and backyard nest boxes placed near open water, which has made it one of the best-studied songbirds in the continent for research on climate-driven shifts in breeding timing. Flocks gather by the thousands over wetlands in late summer before heading south.
7. Tricolored Blackbird
The tricolored blackbird (Agelaius tricolor) looks similar to the familiar red-winged blackbird but shows a white, rather than yellow, border on its red shoulder patch. Nearly the entire population breeds in California’s Central Valley, nesting in enormous, densely packed colonies in marshes and even agricultural fields. Habitat loss and nest destruction during haying operations have driven steep population declines, making it one of the state’s most closely monitored songbirds.
8. Tricolored Heron
The tricolored heron (Egretta tricolor), formerly known as the Louisiana heron, is a slender wading bird of coastal marshes from the southeastern United States through Central America and northern South America. A white belly stands out against dark blue-gray plumage elsewhere on the body, a combination unlike any other heron sharing its range. It feeds with an active, almost frantic style, dashing through shallow water to flush small fish rather than standing motionless like many herons.
9. Tropical Kingbird
The tropical kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus) is one of the most widespread flycatchers in the Western Hemisphere, breeding from southern Arizona and Texas all the way to central Argentina. A gray head, olive back, and lemon-yellow belly make it easy to separate from the similar western kingbird once the bright twittering call is learned. It perches conspicuously on wires and fence lines, sallying out to snatch flying insects before returning to the same spot.
10. Trumpeter Swan
The trumpeter swan (Cygnus buccinator) is North America’s heaviest native bird, with all-white plumage from head to wingtip that puts it squarely among the continent’s classic birds with white wings. Market hunting and feather trade pushed the species to fewer than 100 known individuals in the United States by the 1930s. Decades of reintroduction work across the northern states and western Canada have since restored breeding populations to lakes and wetlands throughout the region.
Key Insight: Trumpeter swans were so scarce by the early twentieth century that conservationists once believed a single remote Yellowstone-area population might be all that remained of the species in the contiguous United States.
11. Tufted Titmouse
The tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) is a gray, crested songbird found year-round across the eastern and central United States, instantly recognizable by its pointed crest and large dark eyes. It readily visits backyard feeders, often grabbing a single sunflower seed and flying off to crack it open on a nearby branch rather than feeding on the spot. Pairs form long-term bonds and frequently stay together on the same territory across multiple breeding seasons.
Pro Tip: Tufted titmice respond quickly to the “pishing” sounds birders use to draw songbirds closer, making them one of the easier backyard species to call in for a close look.
12. Three-Toed Woodpecker
The three-toed woodpecker (Picoides tridactylus) is named for a foot structure shared with only a few other woodpecker species, having lost one of the usual four toes over evolutionary time. It specializes in stripping bark from dead and dying conifers across boreal forests of North America and Eurasia, targeting the bark beetle larvae that live underneath. Outbreaks of beetle-killed trees can draw unusually large concentrations of the species into a single stand for a season or two.
13. Turkey Vulture
The turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) is the most widespread New World vulture, ranging from southern Canada to the tip of South America, identifiable in flight by its slight wing dihedral and wobbling, unsteady glide. Unlike most birds, it has an unusually strong sense of smell, letting it locate carrion hidden under forest canopy that it could never spot visually. Its bare, reddish head helps keep the bird clean while feeding deep inside a carcass.
Pro Tip: Separate a soaring turkey vulture from a hawk or eagle at a distance by watching for the shallow V-shaped wing posture and the rocking, teetering flight style rather than relying on color alone.
14. Takahe
The takahē (Porphyrio hochstetteri) is a large, flightless swamphen and the biggest living member of the rail family, found only in New Zealand. The species was believed extinct after the last confirmed sighting in the 1890s, until physician Geoffrey Orbell rediscovered a surviving population in the remote Murchison Mountains of Fiordland in 1948, as detailed by Wikipedia’s entry on the species. New Zealand’s Department of Conservation reported a population of around 500 birds as of October 2023, sustained through predator control, captive breeding, and translocations to offshore sanctuary islands.
Key Insight: The takahē’s closest relative, the North Island takahē or moho, went extinct in the late 1800s, meaning the South Island bird is the only surviving member of its genus’s flightless lineage in New Zealand.
15. Taliabu Leaf Warbler
The Taliabu leaf warbler (Phylloscopus emilsalimi) is a small Old World warbler formally described only in 2020 and found exclusively on the montane forests of Taliabu Island in Indonesia’s Sula archipelago, according to Avibase’s species record. It was named in honor of Emil Salim, a former Indonesian environment minister. A related, more distantly described songbird on the same island, the Taliabu bush warbler, shares similar habitat and conservation concerns, as Birds of the World notes regarding ongoing logging pressure on the island’s limited montane forest.
16. Tern
Terns make up a graceful group of seabirds in the family Laridae, typified by species like the common tern (Sterna hirundo), known for forked tails and a hovering, plunge-diving hunting style over open water. Roughly forty tern species occur worldwide, ranging from the diminutive least tern to the Arctic tern, famous for completing the longest annual migration of any bird by traveling between polar breeding and wintering grounds each year. Most species nest in dense colonies on beaches, islands, or rocky ledges, making them highly vulnerable to disturbance during the breeding season.
- Arctic Tern – holds the record for the longest known bird migration
- Common Tern – widespread across North America, Europe, and Asia
- Least Tern – one of the smallest tern species, nests on open sandy beaches
- Royal Tern – large, orange-billed tern of warm coastal waters
- Sooty Tern – spends months at sea without touching land
17. Tacarcuna Tapaculo
The Tacarcuna tapaculo (Scytalopus panamensis) is a small, dark, nearly tailless songbird restricted to the cloud forests of Cerro Tacarcuna and Cerro Mali along the Panama-Colombia border. According to Wikipedia’s species overview, the bird carries a bold whitish supercilium that makes it more visually distinctive than most tapaculos in its genus. Birders who have made the demanding trip report the species as relatively confiding for the family, as described in a Canopy Tower trip account of birding Cerro Tacarcuna, though its range covers less than 500 square kilometers in total.
18. Tacarcuna Warbler
The Tacarcuna warbler (Basileuterus tacarcunae) is a New World warbler found only in the same remote border highlands of Panama and Colombia as its tapaculo neighbor, identified by an orange crown stripe and a long pale eyebrow line. For most of the twentieth century it was treated as a subspecies of the three-striped warbler before genetic studies supported splitting it into a full species, per Wikipedia’s taxonomic summary. Visiting researchers have recorded the species foraging in mixed flocks alongside migrant warblers from North America, as noted in the same Cerro Tacarcuna field report.
19. Tawny-Crested Tanager
The tawny-crested tanager (Tachyphonus delatrii) is a small Central and South American tanager found in humid forest undergrowth from Honduras to Ecuador. Males are mostly black with a bright tawny-orange crest that can be raised or flattened depending on mood, while females show duller olive-brown tones overall. The species typically travels in small mixed-species flocks through the forest midstory, foraging for insects and small fruit.
20. Trumpeter Finch
The trumpeter finch (Bucanetes githagineus) is a pale, sandy-colored finch of deserts across North Africa, the Middle East, and parts of southern Spain and the Canary Islands. Its name comes from a nasal, buzzing call that genuinely resembles a toy trumpet more than a typical finch song. The species has a notably thick, waxy-pink bill suited to cracking hard desert seeds, and it often nests directly on bare, rocky ground.
21. Temminck’s Lark
Temminck’s lark (Eremophila bilopha) is a small desert lark of North Africa and the Middle East, closely related to the horned lark but distinguished by shorter black “horns” and a cleaner black-and-white facial pattern. It favors stony, sparsely vegetated desert flats, where cryptic plumage helps it blend into the gravel substrate. The species forms loose flocks outside the breeding season and feeds mainly on seeds and small invertebrates picked from the ground.
22. Tawny Eagle
The tawny eagle (Aquila rapax) is a large, variably colored raptor found across much of Africa and into parts of the Middle East and South Asia, with plumage ranging from pale sandy-brown to dark rufous depending on the individual. It is an opportunistic hunter and scavenger, equally willing to chase down live prey or steal a meal from smaller raptors and even vultures at a carcass. Population declines linked to poisoning and habitat loss have made it a species of growing conservation concern across much of its African range.
23. Tataupa Tinamou
The tataupa tinamou (Crypturellus tataupa) is a ground-dwelling bird of dry woodlands and scrub across Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil. Like other tinamous, it is far more often heard than seen, giving a distinctive whistled call from dense cover while relying on camouflage and short, explosive flights to avoid predators. Its name comes from a Guaraní word that mimics the sound of its call.
24. Turkey
The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is a large, ground-dwelling game bird native to North America and the ancestor of the domesticated turkey raised for food worldwide. Males display by fanning an iridescent tail and dragging their wingtips while gobbling loudly to attract mates each spring. Wild turkeys forage widely on seeds, acorns, insects, and berries, and backyard gardeners should keep in mind that some ornamental plants are toxic to turkeys and other backyard birds, a concern covered in more detail in this guide to plants that are poisonous to birds.
25. Tamaulipas Crow
The Tamaulipas crow (Corvus imparatus) is a small, all-black crow native to northeastern Mexico that occasionally wanders into the extreme southern tip of Texas, particularly around Brownsville. It is noticeably smaller and less adaptable than the more familiar American crow, favoring open agricultural land, garbage dumps, and coastal scrub rather than urban environments. Sightings within the United States have become increasingly rare in recent decades, making it one of the harder native crow species for American birders to add to a life list.
26. Tit
Tit is the common name for dozens of small, acrobatic songbirds in the family Paridae, exemplified by the great tit (Parus major) of Europe, Asia, and North Africa. These birds are agile cavity nesters known for hanging upside down while foraging and for caching seeds to retrieve later in the season. Readers who enjoy this kind of alphabetical bird roundup may also want to work through bird names that start with I for a similarly varied list.
27. Tody
Todies are a family of five tiny, vividly colored species found only on the islands of the Caribbean, represented by birds such as the Puerto Rican tody (Todus mexicanus). Each species carries a long, flattened bill with a reddish base, a trait that lands them comfortably among birds with red beaks. Todies hunt by perching motionless and waiting for insects to pass before darting out to snatch them, then returning to the same lookout spot.
28. Trogon
Trogons are colorful tropical birds related to quetzals, represented in North America by the elegant trogon (Trogon elegans) of southeastern Arizona’s canyon country. They nest in cavities excavated in soft, rotting wood or abandoned woodpecker holes and give soft, repetitive calls that carry well through dense forest. Iridescent green or blue upperparts paired with red or yellow underparts make most trogon species unmistakable once seen in good light.
29. Turaco
Turacos are a family of African fruit-eating birds best represented by the great blue turaco (Corythaeola cristata), a large, crested species of Central African rainforest canopy. Unusual among birds, turacos produce their red and green feather colors from unique pigments called turacin and turacoverdin rather than the structural color tricks most colorful birds rely on. Loud, barking calls often give away a turaco’s presence in the canopy long before it comes into view.
Key Insight: Turacos are the only birds known to produce genuinely pigmented red and green feather colors; nearly every other red or green bird achieves that look through microscopic feather structure rather than actual pigment.
30. Tomtit
The tomtit (Petroica macrocephala) is a small New Zealand native robin, found in forests across both the North and South Islands as well as several outlying islands. Males show bold black, white, and yellow plumage, while females are a more subdued brownish-gray. Tomtits are confident and curious around people in the bush, often approaching hikers closely to investigate disturbed leaf litter for insects.
31. Thrush
Thrush describes a large, worldwide songbird family, Turdidae, that includes familiar species like the wood thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) of eastern North American forests, celebrated for its flute-like, echoing song. Thrushes are typically ground foragers that flip leaf litter in search of insects and earthworms, and many species are prized among birders specifically for their vocal ability. The family includes everything from the common American robin to Eurasian blackbirds and mountain-dwelling solitaires.
32. Tanager
Tanager refers to the family Thraupidae, the largest bird family in the Western Hemisphere with well over 300 species, typified by the brilliant scarlet tanager (Piranga olivacea) of eastern U.S. deciduous forests. Most tanagers are fruit- and insect-eating forest birds found throughout the Neotropics, with plumage ranging across nearly every color combination imaginable. Breeding male scarlet tanagers molt from a vivid red-and-black combination into duller olive tones for the winter.
33. Tattler
Tattlers are shorebirds in the genus Tringa, with the wandering tattler (Tringa incana) breeding on gravelly Alaskan riverbeds and wintering along rocky Pacific coastlines from California to Australia. Unlike many shorebirds that favor sandy beaches, tattlers specialize in foraging on wave-washed rocks, bobbing their bodies constantly as they move. The nearly identical gray-tailed tattler occupies a similar niche across the western Pacific and is best separated from its wandering cousin by subtle voice differences.
34. Teal
Teal is the common name applied to several small, fast-flying dabbling ducks, including the green-winged teal (Anas crecca), one of the smallest and most widespread ducks in North America. These compact waterfowl travel in tight, maneuverable flocks and favor shallow marshes and flooded fields where they can feed on seeds and aquatic invertebrates. North America hosts three common teal species that make a useful comparison for new waterfowl watchers.
| Species | Range | Key Identifying Feature |
|---|---|---|
| Green-winged Teal | Across North America | Green speculum, chestnut head with green eye patch |
| Blue-winged Teal | Central and eastern North America | White facial crescent on drake |
| Cinnamon Teal | Western North America | Deep rust-red body on drake |
35. Thick-Knee
Thick-knees are a family of large-eyed, mostly nocturnal shorebird relatives found across warm regions of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, represented by the Eurasian stone-curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus). The family’s name comes from a swollen tibiotarsal joint that resembles an oversized knee, while the oversized eyes make them a strong fit among birds with big eyes built for low-light foraging. Their eerie, wailing calls are often the first clue to their presence at dusk, well before the bird itself is ever seen.
36. Thornbill
Thornbills are tiny Australasian songbirds, with the yellow-rumped thornbill (Acanthiza chrysorrhoa) ranking among the most familiar across open woodlands and farmland of southern and eastern Australia. These small insectivores forage in constantly moving flocks, picking tiny prey from leaves, bark, and grass close to the ground. Several thornbill species look extremely similar to one another, making subtle differences in rump color and call the most reliable field marks.
37. Thrasher
Thrashers belong to the New World mimid family alongside mockingbirds and catbirds, with the brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum), Georgia’s official state bird, as one of the most recognizable members. Long tails, curved bills, and a habit of noisily thrashing through leaf litter while foraging give the group its common name. Many thrasher species are accomplished mimics, weaving snippets of other birds’ songs into their own extended, repeated phrases.
38. Tinamou
Tinamous are an ancient lineage of ground-dwelling Neotropical birds, distantly related to ostriches and other flightless ratites despite retaining the ability to fly short distances, exemplified by the great tinamou (Tinamus major) of Central and South American rainforests. Their cryptic, mottled plumage and habit of freezing motionless make them extraordinarily difficult to spot despite often being common. Their haunting, mournful whistled calls are a defining soundtrack of tropical forest at dawn and dusk.
39. Toucan
Toucans are large-billed tropical American birds, with the keel-billed toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus) of Central America showing a rainbow-colored bill that looks heavier than it actually is. The bill’s interior is a lightweight, honeycomb-like keratin structure rather than solid material, letting the bird carry an oversized tool without the expected weight penalty. Toucans are primarily fruit eaters that also raid other birds’ nests for eggs and nestlings when the opportunity arises.
40. Toucanet
Toucanets are smaller relatives of true toucans, typified by the emerald toucanet (Aulacorhynchus prasinus) of Central American cloud forests, named for its mostly green plumage that provides excellent camouflage in dense canopy foliage. A dark crown on many individuals makes them another good example for readers exploring birds with black heads across different families. Like their larger relatives, toucanets nest in tree cavities and feed heavily on fruit supplemented with insects and small vertebrates.
41. Towhee
Towhees are large, ground-foraging members of the sparrow family, with the spotted towhee (Pipilo maculatus) of western North America instantly recognizable by its striking red eyes, a feature that also earns it a spot among birds with red eyes. Towhees feed using a distinctive double-scratch technique, kicking both feet backward simultaneously to expose seeds and insects hidden in leaf litter. Their buzzy, harsh call is a familiar sound in chaparral and brushy forest edges throughout their range.
42. Tasmanian Nativehen
The Tasmanian nativehen (Tribonyx mortierii) is a flightless, rail-like bird found only on the Australian island of Tasmania, where it lives in small family groups across open grassland and farmland. Despite being unable to fly, it is an extremely fast runner, capable of outpacing a human over short distances when startled. The unusual combination of a flightless body plan and an odd common name makes it a favorite entry for anyone collecting birds with weird names.
43. Tundra Swan
The tundra swan (Cygnus columbianus), formerly known as the whistling swan, breeds across the high Arctic tundra of North America and winters in large flocks along both coasts and the Chesapeake Bay region. It is noticeably smaller than the trumpeter swan, with a shorter neck and, in most individuals, a small yellow spot near the eye that the trumpeter lacks.
| Feature | Trumpeter Swan | Tundra Swan |
|---|---|---|
| Size | Larger, heavier body | Smaller, lighter body |
| Bill | All-black, no yellow marking | Often a small yellow spot near the eye |
| Breeding Range | Interior Canada and Alaska, northern U.S. | High Arctic tundra |
44. Tanager Finch
The tanager finch (Oreothraupis arremonops) is an uncommon, large-billed songbird of humid montane forest along the border region of Colombia and Ecuador, occupying a taxonomic position that has puzzled ornithologists for decades. Its plumage combines gray, olive, and rufous tones that help it blend into dense, shaded understory vegetation. The species forages low to the ground in pairs or small family groups, often remaining difficult to observe even where it is known to occur.
45. Turquoise Jay
The turquoise jay (Cyanolyca turcosa) is a striking Andean jay found in humid montane forests of Colombia, Ecuador, and northern Peru, named for its deep turquoise-blue plumage set off by a black facial mask. Like most jays, it is highly social, traveling in small cooperative groups that forage together and may assist in raising young from previous broods. Its calls range from harsh scolding notes to softer contact calls used to keep the group together in dense fog-shrouded forest.
46. Twinspot
Twinspots are small African estrildid finches, with the red-throated twinspot (Hypargos niveoguttatus) named for the rows of white spots scattered across its flanks that resemble tiny paired dots. These shy, ground-feeding birds favor dense thickets and forest edges, rarely venturing into open habitat where they would be exposed to predators. Readers curious about alphabetical bird diversity on the opposite end of the alphabet can also browse birds that start with X for a very different kind of list.
47. Toco Toucan
The toco toucan (Ramphastos toco) is the largest toucan species and arguably the most recognizable bird in South America, carrying a massive orange-and-black bill that can stretch nearly a third of the bird’s total body length, making it one of the most dramatic birds with orange beaks anywhere in the world. Researchers have found that the bill also functions as a radiator, with blood flow to the surface increasing to help the bird dump excess body heat in warm weather. Found across open savanna and gallery forest, the toco toucan feeds on fruit, insects, and occasionally small vertebrates or eggs.
Key Insight: Despite its enormous size, a toco toucan’s bill weighs only a small fraction of what its volume suggests, thanks to an internal structure of lightweight keratin struts rather than solid bone.
48. Tawny Owl
The tawny owl (Strix aluco) is one of the most common owls across Europe and parts of western Asia, a reddish-brown woodland species rarely seen but frequently heard after dark. The classic “twit-twoo” call attributed to the species is actually two different calls from two different birds, a sharp “kee-wick” from the female answered by a soft, quavering hoot from the male. Tawny owls are strongly territorial and almost never migrate, with individuals often spending their entire lives within the same patch of woodland.
Important Note: The famous tawny owl “twit-twoo” sound most people associate with owls in general is a male-female duet rather than a single call from one bird.
49. Táchira Antpitta
The Táchira antpitta (Grallaria chthonia) is a critically endangered ground-dwelling bird known only from a tiny area of cloud forest in Táchira state, Venezuela, and documented from just a handful of confirmed records since its description. Like other antpittas, it is a shy, round-bodied bird that walks rather than hops through dense understory, making it exceptionally difficult to find even where it is suspected to persist. Ongoing habitat loss in its extremely limited range has made it one of the rarest and least-documented birds in South America.
Important Note: So few confirmed sightings of the Táchira antpitta exist that some ornithologists have questioned whether the species still survives at all, underscoring how little is known about many range-restricted Andean birds.
50. Taczanowski’s Ground Tyrant
Taczanowski’s ground tyrant is a high-elevation flycatcher in the genus Muscisaxicola, found on open puna grassland across the central Andes of Peru and neighboring countries. Like other ground tyrants, it forages almost entirely on the ground, running and pausing in short bursts while hunting insects across bare, rocky terrain well above treeline. The bird is named after Władysław Taczanowski, a Polish naturalist who described numerous South American species during nineteenth-century collecting expeditions.
51. Taczanowski’s Tinamou
Taczanowski’s tinamou (Nothoprocta taczanowskii) is a ground-dwelling bird of high-elevation grassland and scrub in the Peruvian Andes, another species honoring the prolific naturalist Władysław Taczanowski. Like its lowland relatives, it relies on cryptic plumage and a reluctance to fly rather than speed or camouflage alone to avoid predators. Its range sits at significantly higher elevation than most other tinamou species, reflecting the Andes’ unusual diversity of habitats packed into a relatively small geographic area.
52. Tanimbar Bush Warbler
The Tanimbar bush warbler (Horornis carolinae) is a little-studied songbird endemic to the Tanimbar Islands of eastern Indonesia, favoring dense forest understory where it stays low and skulking rather than venturing into the open. Like many island endemics in the region, detailed information on its population size and breeding behavior remains limited due to the remoteness of its range. Indonesia’s extensive archipelago hosts dozens of similarly isolated island specialists, many of which remain poorly documented compared to mainland Asian songbirds.
53. Turquoise-Browed Motmot
The turquoise-browed motmot (Eumomota superciliosa) serves as the national bird of both El Salvador, where it is called the torogoz, and Nicaragua, where it goes by guardabarranco. Its tail feathers end in distinctive bare-shafted “rackets” that the bird swings side to side like a pendulum, a behavior thought to signal alertness to potential predators or rivals. The species nests in burrows dug into earthen banks along roadsides and ravines across Central America and parts of Mexico.
Pro Tip: Look for the turquoise-browed motmot’s pendulum-like tail swing as the quickest field identification cue, since the behavior is distinctive even when the bird is partially hidden by foliage.
54. Tree Pipit
The tree pipit (Anthus trivialis) is a streaky brown songbird that breeds across open woodland edges and clearings throughout much of Europe and Asia, wintering in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Males perform a parachuting song flight, climbing steeply from a treetop perch before gliding back down on stiffened wings while singing continuously. The species favors semi-open habitat with scattered trees rather than dense, closed-canopy forest.
55. Thrush Nightingale
The thrush nightingale (Luscinia luscinia) is a plain brown songbird of eastern and northern Europe, closely related to the common nightingale and every bit its match for raw vocal power. Males sing an extended, remarkably loud and varied nocturnal song from dense cover, a trait that has made the species a subject of serious study among researchers investigating bird vocal performance. It breeds in scrubby woodland and wetland edges before migrating south to spend the winter in sub-Saharan Africa.
Key Insight: The thrush nightingale’s song is often rated by ornithologists as louder and more complex than that of the common nightingale, despite the bird’s far plainer, unremarkable appearance.
Fifty-five names only scratches the surface of what the letter T has to offer across global bird diversity, from continent-spanning families like thrushes and tanagers down to single-mountain specialists like the Táchira antpitta and the Tacarcuna tapaculo. Anyone building out a broader life list or simply expanding a personal animals that start with T collection will find the T birds alone cover nearly every habitat on Earth, from Arctic sea cliffs to equatorial cloud forest. For a change of pace, the alphabet’s other end offers its own surprises in this guide to bird names that start with Z, or for something in between, this list of birds that start with Q rounds out a well-stocked birder’s reference shelf.