Potoos are a small New World family of solitary and nocturnal birds. Most are so poorly known they seem more fiction than substance, their gruff or wailing cries ghostly delusions of the dim nocturnal world they inhabit.

Egyptian vultures not only feed on dead animals, but are opportunists who will also eat small or injured animals, and will even steal eggs of other birds and crack them open. The vultures are listed as endangered by the IUCN. In Asia, they have lost about a third of their population each year since the turn of the century. Hunting and accidental poisoning (ingesting insects that have been treated with a pesticide) are two of the main causes for their decline.

This might change your perspective on owls

A seagull on a glass roof looking really cute.

Seagulls are able to drink seawater to survive thanks to salt glands just above their eyes. These glands eliminate excess salt from the seawater and flush it out of the birds' nostrils in liquid form, an action that's often mistaken for a sneeze.

The Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi), also known as the monkey-eating eagle, is found exclusively in the forests of the Philippines. It has brown- and white-coloured plumage, and a shaggy crest, and generally measures 86 to 102 cm (2.82 to 3.35 ft) in length, weighs 4.7 to 8.0 kg (10.4 to 17.6 lb), and has a 2 meter wingspan. It is considered the largest of the extant eagles in the world in terms of length and wing surface.

Among the rarest and most powerful birds in the world, it has been declared the Philippine national bird. Unfortunately, however, it is critically endangered, mainly due to massive loss of habitat resulting from deforestation in most of its range. Killing a Philippine eagle is punishable under Philippine law by 1 ...

The frogmouths are a group of nocturnal birds found from across India and southern Asia to Australia. They are named for their large flattened hooked bills and huge frog-like gape, which they use to take insects. The one's shown above are tawny frogmouths, and they exhibits one of the best examples of cryptic plumage and mimicry, which perch low on tree branches during the day camouflaged as part of the tree.

Their silvery-grey plumage patterned with white, black, and brown streaks and spots allows them to freeze into the form of a broken tree branch and become practically invisible in broad daylight. The tawny frogmouth often chooses a broken part of a tree branch and perches upon it with its head thrust upwards at an acute angle using it ...