21 Birds That Start With V: From Vultures to Verditer Flycatchers
October 25, 2026
Bird names that start with V cover an unusually wide slice of the avian world, stretching from a six-foot carrion-eater that rides thermals over highways to a two-inch Madagascar songbird most birders will never see in the wild. Some, like the Vulture, are backyard-familiar across the United States. Others, like Van Dam’s Vanga, exist in such a narrow sliver of forest that ornithologists still debate exactly how many remain.
This species-by-species rundown covers 21 birds whose common names begin with V, with identification cues, range notes, and the kind of behavioral detail that separates a confident field ID from a guess. Anyone building a letter-by-letter bird species list with unusual or tongue-twisting names will find plenty of material here.
1. Vulture
In the United States, “vulture” most often means the Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura), the dark, long-winged bird seen teetering on thermals with its wings held in a shallow V-shaped dihedral. Unlike hawks and eagles, Turkey Vultures locate much of their food by smell, an unusual trait among birds that lets them find carrion hidden under forest canopy.
Up close, the adult’s bare red head and ivory-tipped bill look almost reptilian, a bald-skin adaptation that keeps feathers clean while feeding on carcasses. Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus) share much of the same range but fly with flatter wings and quicker, choppier flaps, which is often the fastest way to separate the two species in flight.
2. Veery
The Veery (Catharus fuscescens) is a warm cinnamon-brown thrush of the northern forest understory, best known for a song that spirals downward in flute-like notes. The bird earns its name from the cascade of “veer” notes that make up its ethereal, reedy song, a common sound at dusk and dawn in damp northern woods.
It breeds in early-successional, damp deciduous forests, often near streamside thickets or swamps, generally favoring wetter, younger woodlands than the similar Wood Thrush and Hermit Thrush. According to Cornell Lab’s All About Birds, radio telemetry studies have tracked Veeries flying up to 285 kilometers (160 miles) in a single night at altitudes above 2,000 meters.
That endurance carries the Veery all the way to its wintering grounds, detailed by the Audubon field guide, in the southern Amazon basin of South America. Listen for the song first; this is a bird far easier to hear than to see in its shaded forest habitat.
3. Varied Thrush
The Varied Thrush (Ixoreus naevius) is a Pacific Northwest specialty with burnt-orange underparts, a bold black breast band on males, and slate-gray upperparts. It is often described as a bird of mature, dense, unfragmented, moist coniferous forest, which makes it one of the more reliable indicators of old-growth habitat west of the Cascades.
Its haunting song echoes through dense Pacific Northwest forests as long, minor-key whistles repeated after deliberate pauses, sounds that seem to come from nowhere in particular. While Varied Thrushes feed mostly on insects during the breeding season, they round out their diet with huckleberries, thimbleberries, salmonberries, and acorn mast later in the year.
Because it resembles an American Robin at a glance, a few quick checks help confirm the ID:
- Look for the solid black (or gray, on females) breast band crossing an orange throat — robins lack this band entirely.
- Check the wings for bold orange bars, a pattern robins don’t share.
- Note the behavior: Varied Thrushes are far more elusive than robins, usually foraging on the ground amid dense thickets rather than open lawns.
Per the Audubon field guide, this is a bird of the far west that occasionally surprises birders by straying all the way to the Atlantic Coast in winter. The Seattle Audubon BirdWeb lists it as a common resident in western Washington and fairly common farther east in the state.
Pro Tip: If a thrush-sized bird is hopping on the ground in a shaded conifer stand and its song sounds like a single held note rather than a cascade, it’s more likely a Varied Thrush than a Veery, which prefers deciduous understory and a tumbling, multi-note song.
4. Violet-Backed Starling
The Violet-backed Starling (Cinnyricinclus leucogaster) is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most startling songbirds, at least where males are concerned. The male’s head, back, and wings shine with an iridescent amethyst-violet gloss that shifts with the angle of light, while the underparts stay clean white.
Females look nothing alike, with streaky brown-and-white plumage that gives the species its alternate nickname, the plum-colored starling, for the male’s jewel-toned sheen. Found in woodlands and savanna edges from Senegal to South Africa, this starling often perches high in open canopy, making the male’s color flash easy to spot from a distance.
5. Variable Sunbird
The Variable Sunbird (Cinnyris venustus) lives up to its name across East and Central Africa, where plumage color shifts noticeably between populations and lighting conditions. Males typically show an iridescent green head and throat with a yellow belly, though some races display darker, almost black underparts.
Like other sunbirds, it feeds primarily on nectar using a thin, curved bill suited to probing tubular flowers, supplementing its diet with small insects for protein. Gardeners in its range who grow flowering natives should note that while most nectar sources are safe, a number of ornamental plants are actually toxic to birds and worth avoiding near feeders.
6. Vermilion Flycatcher
Few birds announce themselves as boldly as the male Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus), whose brilliant red head and underparts practically glow against desert scrub and riverside cottonwoods in the American Southwest. Females are far subtler, with soft gray-brown upperparts and a peach-washed belly.
This flycatcher hunts by sallying from a low perch, snapping up flying insects and returning to the same spot, a hunting style typical of the tyrant flycatcher family. It favors open country near water, including desert washes, agricultural edges, and golf courses, across the southwestern United States, Mexico, and much of South America.
Common Mistake: Birders sometimes confuse a distant male Vermilion Flycatcher with a Scarlet Tanager or Summer Tanager. The flycatcher’s flatter head profile, thinner bill, and habit of perching low over open ground are the easiest clues to separate it from the tree-canopy tanagers.
7. Verdin
The Verdin (Auriparus flaviceps) is a tiny gray songbird of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, easily overlooked if not for its bright yellow head and a small rust-red shoulder patch. At roughly four inches long, it ranks among the smallest songbirds in North America, rivaling kinglets in size.
Verdins build conspicuous, thorny ball-shaped nests in desert shrubs, often constructing a second nest purely for roosting during harsh weather. Their thin, insistent call is a common desert soundtrack in Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Texas and Mexico, where the birds forage constantly among spiny vegetation for insects and spiders.
8. Vaux’s Swift
Vaux’s Swift (Chaetura vauxi) is the West Coast’s answer to the Chimney Swift, a small, cigar-shaped bird that spends nearly its entire life airborne except when nesting or roosting. Flocks forage high overhead on fast, fluttery wingbeats, picking insects out of the air over forests and towns from British Columbia south through Central America.
Because true chimneys are less available to them in many regions, Vaux’s Swifts often roost communally inside large hollow trees, old-growth snags, or industrial chimneys, sometimes gathering by the thousands at a single site during migration. Watching one of these mass roost entries at dusk is considered a signature fall birding spectacle in parts of the Pacific Northwest.
9. Verreaux’s Eagle
Verreaux’s Eagle (Aquila verreauxii) is one of Africa’s largest and most powerful raptors, built almost entirely for hunting rock hyraxes, which make up the bulk of its diet across its mountain and cliff habitats. Its glossy black plumage, white back patch, and massive yellow feet give it an unmistakable silhouette against rocky escarpments from South Africa north through East Africa and parts of the Middle East.
Pairs typically hunt as a team, with one eagle flushing hyraxes from rock crevices while its partner strikes from above, a cooperative strategy that boosts hunting success on difficult terrain. Nests are built on inaccessible cliff ledges and reused for decades, sometimes by successive generations of the same pair.
10. Venezuelan Troupial
The Venezuelan Troupial (Icterus icterus) holds the distinction of being Venezuela’s national bird, recognized by its bold orange body, black hood, and bare blue skin patch around the eye. It belongs to the oriole family and shares that group’s loud, clear whistled song, often delivered from an exposed perch in dry forest or scrubland.
Unlike most orioles, troupials frequently take over the nests of other bird species rather than building elaborate woven nests of their own, a behavior that puts them in occasional conflict with the original nest owners. Its range covers Venezuela, Colombia, and the islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, where it has also been introduced to Puerto Rico.
Key Insight: Several V-named birds carry outsized cultural significance in their home countries. The Venezuelan Troupial is a national symbol, while the Victoria Crowned Pigeon, covered further down, is one of Papua New Guinea’s most iconic endemic species.
11. Vireo
Vireo is both a common name and the genus (Vireo) for a group of small, olive-to-gray songbirds found throughout the Americas, often mistaken for warblers or kinglets at a glance. Most species share a stouter, slightly hooked bill than warblers, a trait suited to their habit of methodically searching leaves for insects rather than flitting rapidly.
A few well-known members illustrate the genus’s range:
- Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) — a widespread eastern breeder known for singing persistently through the hottest part of summer days.
- Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus) — plainer plumage but a loose, musical song that carries well through open woodland.
- Bell’s Vireo (Vireo bellii) — a scrubland specialist and a species of conservation concern in parts of its range due to habitat loss.
Birders tracking an alphabetical bird list often group vireos near kinglets and warblers in field guides since all three forage similarly among foliage.
12. Violet-Crowned Hummingbird
The Violet-crowned Hummingbird (Amazilia violiceps) stands out among North American hummingbirds for its clean white underparts and a shimmering violet-blue crown that catches sunlight at close range. Its most distinctive feature, though, may be its bill: a bright coral-red lower mandible tipped in black, visible even without binoculars.
This species reaches the United States only in limited numbers, mainly in riparian canyons of southeastern Arizona and the Big Bend region of Texas, with its core range extending south through Mexico. Nests are often tucked into sycamore trees along desert streams, and the birds return to the same breeding canyons year after year.
13. Virginia’s Warbler
Virginia’s Warbler (Leiothlypis virginiae) is a plain gray warbler of the arid Southwest, identified mainly by a yellow rump, yellow breast patch, and a thin white eye ring rather than any bold pattern. It favors steep, brushy hillsides in piñon-juniper and scrub oak habitat across Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado during the breeding season.
The species was named for Virginia Anderson, wife of the army surgeon who collected the first specimen in New Mexico in the 1860s, a naming convention shared by several other western warblers of that era. It winters in western Mexico, favoring similarly dry, scrubby habitat to its breeding grounds.
14. Velvet Scoter
The Velvet Scoter (Melanitta fusca) is a heavyset sea duck of northern Europe and Asia, almost entirely black except for a crisp white wing patch that flashes clearly in flight. Males also show a small white crescent below the eye and a two-tone orange-and-black bill, details that help separate it from the similar Common Scoter.
These ducks winter in large rafts on coastal waters, diving for mollusks, crustaceans, and other invertebrates in relatively shallow seas along coasts from the British Isles to the Caspian and Black Seas. The species has also been known historically as the velvet duck, a nod to the same dense, dark plumage that gives it its name.
15. Violet-Crested Turaco
The Violet-crested Turaco (Gallirex porphyreolophus) is a forest bird of southeastern Africa known for an improbable mix of colors: a glossy violet crest, green body, and crimson flight feathers that flash brightly whenever the bird opens its wings. Turacos are unusual among birds in producing true red and green pigments, called turacin and turacoverdin, rather than relying on structural color tricks most birds use.
It moves through dense coastal and riverine forest canopy in small groups, bounding along branches more often than flying, and its loud, barking calls carry well through thick vegetation. Its range runs from southern Mozambique through eastern South Africa, where it favors evergreen forest patches.
16. Variable Hawk
The Variable Hawk (Geranoaetus polyosoma) earns its name honestly, showing one of the most inconsistent plumage patterns of any raptor in the Americas, ranging from nearly all-white birds to dark gray-and-rufous morphs. It ranges the length of South America’s Andes and open country from Colombia to Tierra del Fuego, adapting to habitats from coastal desert to high alpine grassland.
This adaptability extends to diet and hunting style, as Variable Hawks take rodents, birds, reptiles, and carrion depending on what’s available in a given region. Because juveniles and adults can look strikingly different from one another, even experienced observers often rely on overall shape and habitat before plumage color when identifying this species.
| Common Name | Typical Habitat | Primary Diet |
|---|---|---|
| Vulture (Turkey Vulture) | Open country, roadsides, farmland | Carrion |
| Verreaux’s Eagle | Cliffs and rocky mountain terrain | Rock hyraxes |
| Variable Hawk | Andean grassland to coastal desert | Rodents, birds, carrion |
17. Violet-Green Swallow
The Violet-green Swallow (Tachycineta thalassina) is a small, fast-flying swallow of the western United States and Canada, named for the iridescent green back and violet rump that show in good light. White patches on the sides of the rump, visible even in flight, help separate it from the similar Tree Swallow where ranges overlap.
It nests in cavities, from natural tree holes to rocky cliff crevices and nest boxes, and often forages in mixed flocks with other swallows and swifts over open water, meadows, and canyon country. Its range stretches from Alaska down through the western U.S. into the highlands of Mexico and Central America.
18. Victoria Crowned Pigeon
The Victoria Crowned Pigeon (Goura victoria) is the largest pigeon species most people will ever see, roughly the size of a wild turkey, with slate-blue plumage, a maroon breast, and a spectacular lace-like crest of blue-gray feathers. Its most striking feature, though, is a pair of piercing red eyes that give it an almost regal stare.
Found only in the lowland rainforests of New Guinea, this pigeon spends most of its time on the forest floor foraging for fallen fruit and seeds, flying up into low branches mainly to roost or escape predators. Its deep, booming call carries surprisingly far through dense forest for a ground-dwelling bird.
Key Insight: At up to 30 inches long, the Victoria Crowned Pigeon is one of the largest living pigeons on Earth, dwarfing the familiar city pigeon by a wide margin.
19. Velvet Asity
The Velvet Asity (Philepitta castanea) is a small, strange-looking songbird found only in the rainforests of eastern Madagascar, part of an ancient family found nowhere else on the planet. Breeding males are glossy black with a fleshy green eye wattle that swells and brightens during courtship, while females are duller olive-green overall.
It feeds mainly on small fruits and berries, foraging quietly in the forest mid-story, and plays a meaningful role in seed dispersal for several native Madagascar plant species. Like many of the island’s endemic birds, its fortunes are closely tied to the health of its shrinking rainforest habitat.
20. Van Dam’s Vanga
Van Dam’s Vanga (Xenopirostris damii) is one of Madagascar’s rarest and most localized birds, restricted to a handful of dry deciduous forest patches in the northwest of the island. It has a bold black head and upperparts contrasting with white underparts, paired with a heavy, slightly hooked bill adapted for prying insects and small prey from bark and branches.
Vangas as a family are famous among ornithologists for extreme bill diversity, with different species evolving shapes ranging from shrike-like hooks to sickle-curved probes, all from a shared ancestor. Van Dam’s Vanga’s range has shrunk alongside Madagascar’s dry forests, making every remaining forest fragment important to its survival.
Important Note: Madagascar’s dry deciduous forests, home to Van Dam’s Vanga and many other endemic species, have faced significant habitat pressure from agriculture and logging. Readers interested in current population figures should consult up-to-date assessments from conservation organizations rather than relying on general estimates.
21. Verditer Flycatcher
The Verditer Flycatcher (Eumyias thalassinus) closes out this list with one of the more memorable colors in the flycatcher world: an overall wash of verdigris blue-green, the copper-patina shade the species is named for. A small black patch at the base of the bill, near the eye, is the main marking that breaks up the otherwise uniform color.
It breeds in forested hill country across the Himalayas and parts of Southeast Asia, often perching conspicuously on an exposed branch while sallying out after flying insects. Many populations move to lower elevations in winter, making it a familiar sight in foothill forests and gardens across its range during the colder months.
From a roadside Turkey Vulture to a rainforest vanga most people will only ever see in a field guide, bird names that start with V span an outsized share of the planet’s bird diversity. Anyone working through the alphabet one letter at a time can keep building out a fuller bird species list or jump to letters like K, Z, or Q for the next stop on an ornithology reference tour.