
The Sketch

The Shoebill: Or, the Most Terrifying Bird in the World
Are you ready for this thing? I don't think you're ready for this thing.

The Cattle Egret
This long-stemmed and long-sighted wader gets all the good stuff: sex, real estate, and plenty of insects.

The Loggerhead Shrike
This sweet-looking bird has a serious dark side.

The House Finch
Thanks to an undercover Audubon sting, this bird is more of a backyard staple than a celebrity.

The Chuck-will's-widow and Eastern Whip-poor-will
Nightjars, goatsuckers, whatever you want to call them—these freaky birds are heard but rarely seen.

The Barred Owl
This intimidating giant has a question for you.

The House Wren
This Little Brown Bird has a tendency to get bird lovers all riled up.

The American Coot
This cranky marsh bird takes tough-love parenting to a whole new level.

The Southern Giant Petrel
When this seabird isn't projectile-vomiting on its enemies, it's probably burying its head in rotting seal guts.

The Northern Harrier
Encounters with these "gray ghosts" may leave you feeling a little uneasy.

The Hoatzin
This South American misfit tries hard to fit in, but just can't help being weird.

The Kakapo
This New Zealander is often down, but never out.

The Oilbird
This bird's what you might get if you combined a bat, a dolphin, and a mouse, added just a soupçon of frat boy, and put a beak on it.

Wilson's Phalarope
This freethinking sandpiper has no use for your bourgeois conventions.

The American Dipper
This pudgy little bird may not look like anything special, but beneath its underwhelming exterior beats the heart of a champion.

The Bar-Tailed Godwit
While you struggle to get your 10,000 steps a day, this wading bird covers thousands of miles without stopping once.

The Lammergeier
This bone eater may seem sinister, but you just need some time to get to know it.

The Galapagos Penguin
These little guys are all about fun in the sun.

Wilson's Storm-Petrel
If a bird walks on water and no one is there to see it, does it make a splash?

The Black Skimmer
This seabird is the Venus flytrap of the avian world—but way weirder.

The Superb Lyrebird
An artist with commercial appeal.

The Monk Parakeet
These South American birds made it north by escaping from a broken shipping crate… Maybe.

The House Sparrow
Social climbers beware—in this flock, everyone knows their place in line.

The Hoopoe
An emissary of kings and inspirer of poets, once it’s home, this bird is all kinds of nasty.