One of my life goals was to observe 1000 species of birds. In February 2026, I got my 1000th species on a birding trip to Colombia. One of the things I wanted to do to celebrate was to go through my life list and pick out some of my favorite birds. I had previously done that after we left southern Africa in 1986 (when I had seen fewer than 400) and I thought it would be fun to do it again after I had more to choose from. By the time I got around to going through the list, I had actually seen 1388 species following a trip to revisit southern Africa.
I'm including images of many of the species that are taken from the Macaulay Library, the media archive of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (who runs eBird and manages the amazing Merlin app). They are loaded directly from their collection, so it is possible that there may be issues with them loading from the embed codes I used to add them to the blog.
Criteria
Since I'm only doing this for fun, my selection criteria are a bit loose. But they include: being beautiful and colorful, having interesting or unusual features, and having weird or unexpected characteristics. The species gets bonus points if spotting it was particularly exciting or if it happened in an interesting place.
In my 1986 list, it was a "top 10" list, but after seeing over 1300 species, it was way too hard to limit the list to 10. Because nobody wants to read a post that's too long, I will try to limit the list while noting that there are many amazing species that I've seen that I had to leave out for brevity.
For perspective, there are about 10,000 known species of birds, so this list is taken from about 13% of the world's bird species. So there are many other amazing birds that I may see in the future that aren't on this list!
Colorful and beautiful birds
Lilac-breasted Roller
(c) 2026 Carol J. Baskauf
If you gave kids a package of crayons and asked them to color a bird any way they wanted, you might end up with the Lilac-breasted Roller. This southern African bird perches in the open on short trees, making it easy to see. When it flies, its color pattern is equally spectacular.
Painted bunting
The painted bunting has a similar vibe to the Lilac-breasted Roller, but using the RGB color pallet rather than CMYK. We chased them through forests in southwest Louisiana, never getting more than a glance of them flying. Finally we gave up and sat by one of the water "drips" to rest and one flew in and took a bath directly in front of us!
Chestnut-breasted Chlorophonia
The South American version of a bird colored by kid's crayons is the interestingly-named Chestnut-breasted Chlorophonia.
Wood duck
In addition to the amazing color patterns in male Wood Ducks, it is also super-weird to see a Wood Duck standing high in the branch of a tree.
Knysna Turaco
On our first trip into South Africa, seeing the Knysna Loerie (now called the Knysna Turaco) was our dream. It was a magical moment when, on a hike through the rainforest of Tsitsikamma National Park, we spotted one clambering in the trees over our head. The cool crest, amazing "eye makeup", and brilliant flash of red in flight (see the image at the beginning of this post) put this bird near the top of my "favorite bird" list. We were able to repeat the experience this year, when we once again hiked the same trail. Schalow’s Turaco, which we saw along the Chobe River in Botswana this year, has a crazier crest and was formerly considered the same species.
Eastern Rosella/Crimson Rosella/Scarlet Macaw
These are the three most colorful big parrots I've seen.
Surprisingly, these two amazing Rosellas were common birds in urban areas of the Australian Capital Territory and Hobart Tasmania.
I was standing in a parking lot outside of a conference in Costa Rica and suddenly several Scarlet Macaws flew over and landed in the trees at the edge of the parking lot. It was a magical and unexpected moment!
Velvet-purple Coronet
There are so many incredible and beautiful hummingbirds that it is difficult to choose one to single out. But the Velvet-purple Coronet is one of the most spectacular. It has the nickname "thousand-colored" hummingbird because of the many iridescent colors that show up as the lighting angle changes. It is difficult to capture them all in a single photo.
Greater Double-collared Sunbird
In Africa, sunbirds fulfill the ecological pollinator role that hummingbirds play in the western hemisphere. As with hummingbirds, it's hard to choose a favorite from among these beautiful, iridescent birds.
ʻIʻiwi
This beautiful bird is one of the few surviving native Hawaiian honeycreepers. One of our most fun birding adventures was a multi-hour trek on the Pu'u O'o Trail across ʻaʻā lava flows on the slopes of Mauna Loa. The trail lead to old-growth 'ohi'a lehua forests that were in pockets isolated by the lava flows, called kipukas. When we finally reached the distant kipukas, we were rewarded by the sight of the ʻiʻiwis feeding on the beautiful red blooms of the 'ohi'a trees.
White-fronted Bee-eater/Southern Carmine Bee-eater
Bee-eaters are another interesting and colorful group of African birds. We spent an hour in Chobe National Park in Botswana watching a large group of Carmine Bee-Eaters fly from perches out into the headwinds coming off the river to snatch insects out of the air before returning to their perch to eat their prey.
White-fronted Bee-Eater (c) 2026 Jessica K. Baskauf
Prothonotary Warbler/Blackburnian Warbler
There are so many beautiful warblers that it is very difficult to choose one. I chose two of the most brightly colored of my favorites.
It is always a joy to see a Prothonotary Warbler hopping around in a tree next to a pond or wetland, or coming out of a nest hole. They are like little glowing yellow ping-pong balls.
It is sometimes a challenge to spot Blackburnian Warblers in their favorite spot at the top of a tall tree. With luck, we sometimes see one at eye-level, which is a special treat.
Others of my favorite warblers include Cape May, Canada, and Magnolia. They are truly gems of the eastern U.S. forests.
Half-collared Kingfisher/Malachite Kingfisher
Kingfishers are cool group that can have exciting colors as well as interesting behavior. Watching them dive to catch a fish is an unforgettable experience. Two of my favorites are from southern Africa.
Half-collared Kingfisher, Chobe River, Botswana (c) 2026 Jessica K. Baskauf
Red-headed Barbet/Toucan Barbet
All barbets that I've seen are pretty and interesting. Here are my two favorites.
I particularly love the "super hero" vibe of the Red-headed Barbet.
Toucan Barbet, Tatamá National Park, Colombia (c) 2026 Carol J. Baskauf
Colombian tanagers: Beryl-spangled Tanager, Hooded Mountain Tanager, Grass-green Tanager, Crimson-backed Tanager
There are so many amazing and beautiful neotropical tanagers that it is extremely difficult to choose among them. Their glowing colors often seem unreal.
Northern Cardinal
The bright red color, crazy crest, black mask, and huge variety of songs and calls could be under-rated because this species is so common and ubiquitous where we live. But it really is a spectacular bird, a characteristic shared by its other cardinal cousins, such as the Vermillion Cardinal.
Birds with amazing body parts
In my favorites list, bird species get extra points if they have long tails or crazy bills, especially if they are also colorful.
Keel-billed Toucan/Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan
The classic "Fruit Loops" toucan has the craziest bill of any bird I've seen.
Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan, El Paraiso, Colombia (c) 2026 Carol J. Baskauf
The Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan adds amazing feather colors to a colorful toucan bill.
Pin-tailed Whydah
When we lived in Eswatini, we got used to routinely seeing the crazy, long tails of the Pin-tailed Whydah.
Red-collared Widowbird/Long-tailed Widowbird
Another bird we routinely saw sitting on the fence across the road from our house in Eswatini was the Red-collared Widowbird. It is hard to believe that it's even possible for them to fly with such ridiculous tails!
The Long-tailed Widowbird, which we saw in Chrissiesmeer, South Africa, has an even more extremely long tail.
Resplendent Quetzal
All trogons are beautiful and exotic, but the Resplendent Quetzal is over the top with it's incredibly long, green tail feathers. We struggled to see one in the Monteverde cloud forest in Costa Rica, but later one landed on the deck railing of our cabin in the Cerro del Muerte.
Violet-tailed Sylph/Long-tailed Sylph
Combine the iridescent colors of hummingbirds with crazy long tail feathers and you end up with Colombia's amazing sylphs.
Sword-billed Hummingbird
Sword-billed Hummingbird, El Paraiso, Colombia (c) 2026 Carol J. Baskauf
Out of the 45 species of hummingbirds we saw on our birding trip to Colombia, none had a longer bill than the Sword-billed Hummingbird.
Long-billed Curlew
Also falling in the category of birds with unbelievably long bills is the Long-billed Curlew, which we saw poking around for prey in the salt flats of coastal Texas.
Birds with interesting behavior
Several birds made this list because they had some cool behavior that set them apart from other birds.
Torrent Duck
These chic ducks are extremely entertaining to watch as they plunge into a raging river, then clamber out to stand on wet rocks until the next dive.
Southern Masked Weaver
It is incredible that the males of this species can weave such tidy grass nests with their bills. They then hang upside down under the nests flapping their wings to attempt to get females to choose their nest. Unfortunately, they have a tendency to build their nests on small twigs hanging over water, so after windstorms many of the nests fall when the twigs snap.
Three-wattled Bellbird
The white head and strange dangling wattles are enough to distinguish this odd bird. But the real oddity is the strange ear-splitting call that carries for kilometers in the mountain cloud forest of Costa Rica.
Secretarybird
A photo of this bird cannot capture the vibe of this odd-looking bird as it marches across the savannah looking for small animals to eat. Sadly, since we saw it in the 1980's it has become endangered.
Long-tailed Manakin
The bright colors and long tail feathers of the males would be distinctive enough, but the truly amazing aspect of this species is the display that the males do in their lek. The dominant male, assisted by an apprentice junior male leap over each other while making a distinctive buzzing call. Discriminating females select the males with the best display to choose as mates.
Andean Cock-of-the-rock
The Andean Cock-of-the-rock is another bird that would be amazing based solely on appearance. The strange, brilliant red crest makes it hard to figure out the outline of the head. But the males gather in large numbers at lekking sites to do their strange call and bobbing display.
Red-billed Oxpecker
These strange-looking birds with bright red bills and piercing yellow eyes ride around on large mammals eating ticks and other insect parasites. The benefit to the mammals cause them to tolerate the birds, including having them hang form odd positions on their heads!
New Zealand Fantail (pīwakawaka)
This perky and friendly bird is not brightly colored, but it has the fun habit of flipping open its fan-shaped tail at regular intervals. (See this video.)
Blue Jay/Steller’s Jay/White-throated Magpie-Jay
The strikingly patterned, crested jays are clever and intelligent birds that are adept at stealing food from picnicking humans and that can fool birders by mimicking the calls of various hawks.
Cool unusual birds
My last category of favorite birds are ones that are cool because they are atypical in some interesting way. Some are unusually big, or have some interesting morphological characteristic, or both.
Common Loon
Pileated Woodpecker/Crimson-mantled Woodpecker
Whenever I see a huge Pileated Woodpecker hopping up the side of a tree, I don't have trouble believing that they are the dinosaurs that never went extinct. I also love their loud, raucous call and the way the wood chips fly when they hammer away at a dead snag going after insects. The Lineated Woodpecker and Crimson-crested Woodpecker of South America are similar in size and effect.
After birding in Colombia, it's hard not to also recognize the spectacular Crimson-mantled Woodpecker. It's not as large, but the "masked super-hero" vibe gives it extra points.
Roseate Spoonbill
The strange bill and brilliant pink color make this weird wading bird a one-of-a-kind.
Gray Crowned-crane
The large size, striking color pattern, and amazing "crown" are the reason why this may be my favorite bird of all. But there are so many competitors! Sadly, this beautiful bird is now endangered.
Saddle-billed Stork
The Saddle-billed Stork is not quite as high on my list as the Gray Crowned-Crane, but I like it for similar reasons: it's an impressive big bird with a striking color pattern.
Marabou Stork
There is no way that you could call this bird beautiful. But I love it's macabre appearance and habits: it behaves more like a vulture than a stork. Super interesting bird!
Common Ostrich/Emu
What is there to say? The ostrich is the world's largest bird species. Although not as big, the emu has a similar feel.
African Penguin
One of our bucket list items was to see penguins. When we lived in southern Africa in 1983, we were too cheap to pay for a boat trip to the offshore islands where we could have seen African Penguins. We have regretted that ever since. In 2026 we finally saw them on a beach south of Cape Town!
In 2023 I also had an opportunity in Tasmania to see Little Penguins coming in from the ocean to their burrows at dusk. They are incredibly cute!
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