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List of birds of Delaware facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

This list tells you about all the different kinds of birds that have been officially seen and recorded in Delaware, a state in the United States. As of August 2021, there were 427 bird species on this official list!

Some birds are marked with special tags:

  • (A) Accidental: These birds don't usually live in Delaware. They show up only sometimes and unexpectedly. When they do, people need to provide proof for their sighting to be added to the official list.
  • (I) Introduced: These are birds that were brought to North America by humans, either directly or indirectly, and have now started living and reproducing on their own in the wild.

This list follows the order used by the American Ornithological Society (AOS), which is a group that studies birds. The names of the bird families come from the Clements taxonomy, another way of classifying living things.

Only wild birds are included here. Birds that might have escaped from someone's pet collection are not on this list.

Contents

Ducks, Geese, and Waterfowl

Order: Anseriformes   Family: Anatidae

About Ducks, Geese, and Waterfowl

This family includes ducks, geese, and swans. These birds are built for life in the water. They have webbed feet to help them swim and special oils on their feathers to keep them dry. Their bills are usually flat, which helps them find food in the water.

New World Quail

Order: Galliformes   Family: Odontophoridae

About New World Quail

New World quails are small, round birds that live on the ground. They look similar to Old World quails but are not closely related.

Pheasants, Grouse, and Allies

Order: Galliformes   Family: Phasianidae

About Pheasants, Grouse, and Allies

This family includes pheasants and similar birds. They live on land and vary in size. They are often plump with wide, short wings. Many of these birds are hunted for sport or raised for food.

Grebes

Order: Podicipediformes   Family: Podicipedidae

About Grebes

Grebes are diving birds that live on fresh water. They have special lobed toes that make them excellent swimmers and divers. However, their feet are set far back on their bodies, making them clumsy on land.

Pigeons and Doves

Order: Columbiformes   Family: Columbidae

About Pigeons and Doves

Pigeons and doves are birds with sturdy bodies, short necks, and thin bills. They have a soft, fleshy area at the base of their bill called a cere.

Cuckoos

Order: Cuculiformes   Family: Cuculidae

About Cuckoos

The cuckoo family includes cuckoos, roadrunners, and anis. These birds come in different sizes. They usually have slender bodies, long tails, and strong legs.

Nightjars and Allies

Order: Caprimulgiformes   Family: Caprimulgidae

About Nightjars and Allies

Nightjars are medium-sized birds that are active at night. They usually build their nests on the ground. They have long wings, short legs, and very small bills. Their soft feathers are colored to help them blend in with tree bark or leaves.

Swifts

Order: Apodiformes   Family: Apodidae

About Swifts

Swifts are small birds that spend most of their lives flying. They have very short legs and almost never land on the ground. Instead, they perch on vertical surfaces. Many swifts have long, swept-back wings that look like a crescent moon.

Hummingbirds

Order: Apodiformes   Family: Trochilidae

About Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds are tiny birds famous for hovering in the air. They flap their wings incredibly fast. They are the only birds that can fly backward!

Rails, Gallinules, and Coots

Order: Gruiformes   Family: Rallidae

About Rails, Gallinules, and Coots

This large family includes rails, crakes, coots, and gallinules. Most of these birds live in thick plants near lakes, swamps, or rivers. They are often shy and hard to spot. They have strong legs and long toes, which help them walk on soft, uneven ground. They tend to have short, rounded wings and are not strong fliers.

Cranes

Order: Gruiformes   Family: Gruidae

About Cranes

Cranes are large birds with long legs and long necks. Unlike herons, which look similar, cranes fly with their necks stretched out. Many cranes have special, noisy dances they perform when looking for a mate.

Stilts and Avocets

Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Recurvirostridae

About Stilts and Avocets

This family includes avocets and stilts, which are large wading birds. Avocets have long legs and bills that curve upwards. Stilts have extremely long legs and long, thin, straight bills.

Oystercatchers

Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Haematopodidae

About Oystercatchers

Oystercatchers are large, noticeable, and noisy birds that look a bit like plovers. They have strong bills that they use to break open or pry apart shellfish.

Lapwings and Plovers

Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Charadriidae

About Lapwings and Plovers

This family includes plovers, dotterels, and lapwings. They are small to medium-sized birds with compact bodies, short thick necks, and long, pointed wings. They live in open areas all over the world, often near water.

Sandpipers and Allies

Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Scolopacidae

About Sandpipers and Allies

This is a large and varied family of small to medium-sized shorebirds. It includes sandpipers, curlews, godwits, and snipes. Most of these birds eat small insects and other tiny creatures they find in mud or soil. Different bill and leg lengths allow many species to feed in the same areas, especially along the coast, without competing for food.

Skuas and Jaegers

Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Stercorariidae

About Skuas and Jaegers

Skuas and jaegers are medium to large birds. They usually have gray or brown feathers, sometimes with white on their wings. They have longish bills with hooked tips and webbed feet with sharp claws. They look like large, dark gulls but have a fleshy area above their upper bill. They are strong and agile fliers.

Auks, Murres, and Puffins

Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Alcidae

About Auks, Murres, and Puffins

Alcids look a bit like penguins with their black and white colors and upright posture. However, they are not closely related to penguins and can fly. Auks live on the open sea and only come to land to nest.

Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers

Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Laridae

About Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers

This family includes gulls, terns, and skimmers. Gulls are usually gray or white, often with black on their heads or wings. They have strong, longish bills and webbed feet. Terns are generally medium to large seabirds, often gray or white with black on their heads. Most terns dive for fish, but some pick insects off the water's surface. Terns can live for a long time, with some species living over 30 years. Skimmers are a small family of tropical birds that look like terns. They have a longer lower bill, which they use to fly low over the water and scoop up small fish.

Tropicbirds

Order: Phaethontiformes   Family: Phaethontidae

About Tropicbirds

Tropicbirds are thin, white birds found in tropical oceans. They have very long central tail feathers. Their long wings and heads have black markings.

Loons

Order: Gaviiformes   Family: Gaviidae

About Loons

Loons are water birds about the size of a large duck, though they are not related. They are mostly gray or black and have spear-shaped bills. Loons swim well and fly decently, but they are very awkward on land because their legs are placed far back on their bodies.

Southern Storm-Petrels

Order: Procellariiformes   Family: Oceanitidae

About Southern Storm-Petrels

Storm-petrels are the smallest seabirds. They are related to petrels and eat tiny ocean creatures and small fish from the water's surface, often while hovering. Their flight is fluttery, sometimes like a bat.

Northern Storm-Petrels

Order: Procellariiformes   Family: Hydrobatidae

About Northern Storm-Petrels

These storm-petrels look and act much like the southern storm-petrels. However, they have enough genetic differences to be placed in their own separate family.

Shearwaters and Petrels

Order: Procellariiformes   Family: Procellariidae

About Shearwaters and Petrels

This group includes the main types of medium-sized "true petrels." They have nostrils that are joined together and a long, working outer primary feather on their wings.

Storks

Order: Ciconiiformes   Family: Threskiornithidae

About Storks

Storks are large, heavy wading birds with long legs, long necks, and strong bills. They have wide wings. Unlike other wading birds like herons, storks don't have special "powder down" feathers to clean off fish slime. Storks also cannot make sounds with a voice box.

Frigatebirds

Order: Suliformes   Family: Fregatidae

About Frigatebirds

Frigatebirds are large seabirds found in tropical oceans. They are black, or black and white, with long wings and deeply forked tails. Male frigatebirds have colorful throat pouches that they can inflate. They cannot swim or walk well, and they can't take off from a flat surface. They have the largest wingspan compared to their weight of any bird, allowing them to stay in the air for over a week!

Boobies and Gannets

Order: Suliformes   Family: Sulidae

About Boobies and Gannets

This family includes gannets and boobies. Both are medium-large coastal seabirds that dive headfirst into the water to catch fish.

  • Brown booby, Sula leucogaster (A)
  • Northern gannet, Morus bassanus

Anhingas

Order: Suliformes   Family: Anhingidae

About Anhingas

Anhingas are water birds that look like cormorants. They have very long necks and long, straight beaks. They eat fish and often swim with only their neck above the water.

Cormorants and Shags

Order: Suliformes   Family: Phalacrocoracidae

About Cormorants and Shags

Cormorants are medium to large water birds. They usually have mostly dark feathers and colored skin on their faces. Their bill is long, thin, and sharply hooked. They have four webbed toes on each foot.

Pelicans

Order: Pelecaniformes   Family: Pelecanidae

About Pelicans

Pelicans are very large water birds with a special pouch under their beak. Like other birds in their group, they have four webbed toes.

Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns

Order: Pelecaniformes   Family: Ardeidae

About Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns

This family includes herons, egrets, and bitterns. Herons and egrets are medium to large wading birds with long necks and legs. Bitterns tend to have shorter necks and are more secretive. Birds in this family fly with their necks pulled back, unlike storks or ibises.

Ibises and Spoonbills

Order: Pelecaniformes   Family: Threskiornithidae

About Ibises and Spoonbills

This family includes ibises and spoonbills. They have long, wide wings and long bodies, necks, and legs. Their bills are also long; ibises have bills that curve downward, while spoonbills have straight bills that are flattened at the end.

New World Vultures

Order: Cathartiformes   Family: Cathartidae

About New World Vultures

New World vultures are not closely related to Old World vultures, but they look similar because they evolved in similar ways. Like Old World vultures, they eat dead animals. However, some New World vultures can smell dead animals, while Old World vultures find them by sight.

Osprey

Order: Accipitriformes   Family: Pandionidae

About Osprey

This family has only one type of bird: the osprey. Ospreys are birds of prey that eat fish. They have a very large, strong, hooked beak, powerful legs, sharp talons, and excellent eyesight.

Hawks, Eagles, and Kites

Order: Accipitriformes   Family: Accipitridae

About Hawks, Eagles, and Kites

This family includes hawks, eagles, kites, and harriers. These birds of prey have very large, strong, hooked beaks to tear meat from their prey. They also have strong legs, powerful talons, and sharp eyesight.

Barn-Owls

Order: Strigiformes   Family: Tytonidae

About Barn-Owls

Barn-owls are medium to large owls with big heads and unique heart-shaped faces. They have long, strong legs with powerful talons.

Owls

Order: Strigiformes   Family: Strigidae

About Owls

Typical owls are solitary birds of prey that are active at night. They have large eyes that face forward and good hearing. They have a hawk-like beak and a clear circle of feathers around each eye, called a facial disk.

Kingfishers

Order: Coraciiformes   Family: Alcedinidae

About Kingfishers

Kingfishers are medium-sized birds with large heads, long pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails.

Woodpeckers

Order: Piciformes   Family: Picidae

About Woodpeckers

Woodpeckers are small to medium-sized birds with chisel-like beaks. They have short legs, stiff tails, and long tongues that help them catch insects. Some have two toes pointing forward and two backward, while others have only three toes. Many woodpeckers tap loudly on tree trunks with their beaks.

Falcons and Caracaras

Order: Falconiformes   Family: Falconidae

About Falcons and Caracaras

This family includes falcons and caracaras, which are birds of prey active during the day. They are different from hawks and eagles because they kill their prey with their beaks, not their talons.

New World and African Parrots

Order: Psittaciformes   Family: Psittacidae

About New World and African Parrots

Parrots have strong, curved bills, stand upright, and have strong legs with clawed feet that can grasp things. Many parrots are brightly colored. They range in size from about 3 inches (8 cm) to 3 feet (1 meter) long. Most of the more than 150 species in this family live in the New World (Americas).

Tyrant Flycatchers

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Tyrannidae

About Tyrant Flycatchers

Tyrant flycatchers are songbirds found across North and South America. They look a bit like Old World flycatchers but are stronger and have more powerful bills. They don't have the complex songs of other songbirds. Most are quite plain in color. As their name suggests, most eat insects.

Vireos, Shrike-Babblers, and Erpornis

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Vireonidae

About Vireos

Vireos are small to medium-sized songbirds. They are usually greenish and look like wood warblers, but they have stronger bills.

Shrikes

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Laniidae

About Shrikes

Shrikes are songbirds known for catching other birds and small animals. They often impale their uneaten prey on thorns. A shrike's beak is hooked, similar to a bird of prey.

Crows, Jays, and Magpies

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Corvidae

About Crows, Jays, and Magpies

This family includes crows, ravens, and jays. Corvids are larger than most songbirds, and some of the bigger species are very intelligent.

Tits, Chickadees, and Titmice

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Paridae

About Tits, Chickadees, and Titmice

The Paridae family mostly consists of small, stocky woodland birds with short, strong bills. Some have crests on their heads. They are adaptable birds that eat a mix of seeds and insects.

Larks

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Alaudidae

About Larks

Larks are small ground birds known for their often fancy songs and display flights. Most larks look quite plain. They eat insects and seeds.

Swallows

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Hirundinidae

About Swallows

The swallow family is built for catching food while flying. They have slender, streamlined bodies, long pointed wings, and short bills with wide mouths. Their feet are better for perching than walking, and their front toes are partly joined at the base.

Kinglets

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Regulidae

About Kinglets

Kinglets are a small family of birds that look like titmice. They are very tiny birds that eat insects. Adult kinglets have colored crowns on their heads, which is how they got their name.

Waxwings

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Bombycillidae

About Waxwings

Waxwings are songbirds with soft, silky feathers. They have unique red tips on some of their wing feathers. These tips look like sealing wax, which gives the group its name. These birds live in northern forests. They eat insects in the summer and berries in the winter.

Nuthatches

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Sittidae

About Nuthatches

Nuthatches are small woodland birds. They have a special ability to climb down trees headfirst, unlike most other birds that only climb upwards. Nuthatches have large heads, short tails, and strong bills and feet.

Treecreepers

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Certhiidae

About Treecreepers

Treecreepers are small woodland birds that are brown on top and white underneath. They have thin, pointed, downward-curved bills. They use their bills to pull insects out of tree bark. Like woodpeckers, they have stiff tail feathers that help them support themselves on vertical tree trunks.

Gnatcatchers

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Polioptilidae

About Gnatcatchers

These delicate birds look and act like Old World warblers. They move quickly through leaves, looking for insects. Gnatcatchers are mostly soft bluish-gray. They have the long, sharp bill typical of insect-eating birds. Many species have distinct black patterns on their heads (especially males) and long, often upright, black-and-white tails.

Wrens

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Troglodytidae

About Wrens

Wrens are small and often hard-to-see birds, but they have very loud songs. They have short wings and thin, downward-curved bills. Several species often hold their tails straight up. All wrens eat insects.

Mockingbirds and Thrashers

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Mimidae

About Mockingbirds and Thrashers

This family of songbirds includes thrashers, mockingbirds, and New World catbirds. These birds are famous for their amazing songs. They can copy many different bird calls and other sounds they hear outdoors. These species usually have dull gray and brown feathers.

Starlings

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Sturnidae

About Starlings

Starlings are small to medium-sized songbirds from the Old World. They have strong feet. They fly strongly and directly, and most live in large groups. They prefer open areas and eat insects and fruit. Many species have dark feathers with a shiny, metallic look.

Thrushes and Allies

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Turdidae

About Thrushes and Allies

Thrushes are a group of songbirds found mostly in the Old World. They are plump, soft-feathered birds, small to medium in size. They eat insects or sometimes a mix of foods, often finding food on the ground. Many thrushes have beautiful songs.

Old World Flycatchers

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Muscicapidae

About Old World Flycatchers

The Old World flycatchers are a large family of small songbirds. These are mostly small birds that live in trees and eat insects. Many of them catch their prey while flying.

Old World Sparrows

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Passeridae

About Old World Sparrows

Old World sparrows are small songbirds. Generally, sparrows are small, plump birds that are brownish or grayish. They have short tails and short, strong beaks. Sparrows eat seeds, but they also eat small insects.

Wagtails and Pipits

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Motacillidae

About Wagtails and Pipits

This family includes wagtails, longclaws, and pipits. They are slender songbirds with medium to long tails. They find insects on the ground in open areas.

Finches, Euphonias, and Allies

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Fringillidae

About Finches

Finches are songbirds that eat seeds. They are small to medium-sized and have strong, usually cone-shaped beaks. All finches have twelve tail feathers and nine primary wing feathers. These birds have a bouncy flight, flapping their wings and then gliding with them closed. Most finches sing well.

Longspurs and Snow Buntings

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Calcariidae

About Longspurs and Snow Buntings

This group of songbirds was once thought to be part of the New World sparrows. However, they are different in several ways and are usually found in open, grassy areas.

New World Sparrows

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Passerellidae

About New World Sparrows

Until 2017, these birds were grouped with another family. Most of them are called sparrows, but they are not closely related to the Old World sparrows. Many of these birds have unique patterns on their heads.

Yellow-breasted Chat

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Icteriidae

About the Yellow-breasted Chat

This bird was once thought to be a wood-warbler, but experts weren't sure. In 2017, it was placed in its very own family!

Troupials and Allies

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Icteridae

About Troupials and Allies

The icterids are a group of small to medium-sized, often colorful songbirds found only in the New World. They include grackles, New World blackbirds, and New World orioles. Most species have black as their main feather color, often brightened with yellow, orange, or red.

New World Warblers

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Parulidae

About New World Warblers

The wood-warblers are a group of small, often colorful songbirds found only in the New World. Most live in trees, but some spend more time on the ground. Most birds in this family eat insects.

Cardinals and Allies

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Cardinalidae

About Cardinals and Allies

Cardinals are a family of strong, seed-eating birds with powerful bills. They usually live in open woodlands. Males and females often have different feather colors.

See also

  • List of birds
  • Lists of birds by region
  • List of North American birds
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List of birds of Delaware Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.