What are the most famous birds in the world?

Well-known examples include the Indian peafowl, the bald eagle, the ostrich, the emperor penguin, the Arctic tern, hummingbirds and the kiwi. Some are national symbols, such as the peafowl of India and the bald eagle of the United States. Others hold records for size, speed, diving or migration, which makes them favourites in books and exams.

What is the national bird of India?

The Indian peafowl is India's national bird. The male, called a peacock, is famous for its long, shining train of eye-spotted feathers, which it raises like a fan during courtship. In February 2026 a peacock conservation exhibition in New Delhi, backed by the environment ministry, linked the national bird with Mission LiFE.

Which is the largest bird in the world?

The common ostrich of Africa is the tallest and heaviest bird alive, says the Smithsonian's National Zoo. Adults weigh about 90 to 136 kg, and a full-grown bird can stand up to 9 feet tall, counting its neck. It cannot fly, but it is the fastest two-legged animal on Earth.

Which bird has the longest migration?

The Arctic tern. The US National Park Service says it makes a winding trip of about 49,000 miles each year, from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back. Over a 30-year life, one bird may cover almost 1.5 million miles. It also enjoys two summers every year.

Why is the bald eagle famous?

The bald eagle has been the national symbol of the United States since 1782. It is also a famous conservation success. DDT poisoning and habitat loss pushed it close to extinction: by 1963 only 417 nesting pairs were known to exist, says USFWS. After the DDT ban and legal protection, it recovered and left the list in 2007.

No. The kiwi is a flightless, nocturnal bird found only in New Zealand. It finds food by smell, using nostrils placed near the tip of its long bill, which is unique among birds. The female lays one huge egg that averages about 15 percent of her body weight.

Famous Bird Species Around the World

The famous species of birds include national symbols like India’s peafowl and America’s bald eagle, giants like the ostrich, and record-breakers like the Arctic tern. Each is known for something special: colour, size, speed, a long journey or a strange way of life. This list explains where each bird lives and why it stands out.

Birds play many roles in nature, from pollinating flowers to clearing away carcasses. Our main guide to animals of the ecosystem and their roles explains those jobs. This page focuses on eleven individual birds that students and nature lovers should know by name. If you need the basic body plan of a bird first, read the characteristics of birds.

Which are the most famous birds in the world?

The table below lists every bird in this article. Use it for quick revision, then read the entry for each bird.

Bird	Where it is found	Key fact
Indian peafowl	Indian subcontinent	National bird of India
Bald eagle	North America	US national symbol since 1782
Ostrich	Grasslands and savannas of Africa	Tallest and heaviest living bird
Emperor penguin	Antarctica and the Southern Ocean	Largest of the 18 penguin species
Arctic tern	Breeds in the Arctic, winters off Antarctica	Longest migration of any bird
Hummingbirds	The Americas	Can hover and fly backwards
Kiwi	New Zealand only	Nostrils near the tip of its bill
Andean condor	Andes mountains of South America	One of the largest flying birds
Snowy owl	Arctic tundra	White owl that hunts on open ground
Great hornbill	Forests of India and South-East Asia	Huge casque on top of its bill
Great Indian Bustard	Dry grasslands of western India	Heavy, rare grassland bird

Which birds are national symbols?

Many countries choose a bird as a national emblem. A national bird is usually common, striking or closely tied to the country’s culture. Three famous examples follow.

1. Indian peafowl

The Indian peafowl is India’s national bird. The male is called a peacock and the female a peahen. The peacock carries a long train of green and bronze feathers marked with shining “eye” spots. During courtship he lifts this train into a shimmering fan and shakes it to impress the peahen. The peahen is duller brown, which helps her hide while nesting.

Peafowl live in open forests, scrub and farmland across the Indian subcontinent. They feed on the ground on seeds, insects and other small creatures. Their loud, wailing calls carry far, especially in the rainy season.

The bird also features in present-day conservation outreach. In February 2026, according to PIB, an exhibition called “The Peacock’s Call” ran in New Delhi from 3 to 5 February. It was organised with support from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change under Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment). The event focused on the ecological and cultural importance of the national bird.

2. Bald eagle

The bald eagle is a large bird of prey of North America. Its “bald” look comes from its white head, which stands out against a dark brown body. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), America adopted it as the national symbol in 1782. Young eagles under 5 years old do not yet have the fully white head and tail.

Fish form the main part of its diet, but it also eats waterfowl, small animals and carrion (dead animals). USFWS notes that bald eagles are also notorious food thieves. They often steal prey caught by other eagles and birds of prey. Females are larger than males, with a wingspan of up to 8 feet; males reach about 6 feet.

Eagle nests are famous for their size. They are usually 4 to 5 feet wide. The largest recorded nest, in St. Petersburg, Florida, measured 9.5 feet across and 20 feet deep. It weighed almost 6,000 pounds. A pair usually lays one to three eggs a year, which hatch after about 35 days.

The bald eagle is best known today as a comeback story. The pesticide DDT washed into rivers and built up in fish. Eagles that ate those fish laid eggs with very thin shells, which often broke. USFWS records that by 1963, with only 417 nesting pairs of bald eagles known to exist, the species was in danger of extinction. The US Environmental Protection Agency banned DDT in 1972. In 1978 USFWS listed the bird as endangered throughout the lower 48 states, except in Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin, where it was listed as threatened. It was not listed in Alaska, where eagle numbers had stayed robust. The bald eagle was removed from the list in 2007. As of 2018-2019 data, USFWS estimates the lower 48 population at about 316,700 birds, including 71,467 breeding pairs.

3. Kiwi

The kiwi is a small, flightless bird found only in New Zealand. The Smithsonian’s National Zoo calls it the cherished national emblem of that country. New Zealanders are even nicknamed “Kiwis” after it.

The kiwi is active at night. Its long, curved bill has the nostrils near the tip, a feature found in no other bird. It pushes the bill into leaf litter and sniffs out earthworms, beetles, snails, insects and fruit. Shaggy brown feathers make it look furry rather than feathered.

Its egg is astonishing. The Smithsonian says the kiwi has the second largest egg for body size of any bird. On average it equals 15 percent of the female’s body weight, while an ostrich egg is only 2 percent.

Kiwi have had full legal protection since 1896. Even so, predators brought to New Zealand by people remain a serious danger. Adult kiwi can usually defend themselves, but rats, weasels, cats, dogs and pigs prey on their eggs and newly hatched young.

Which are the biggest and heaviest birds?

Size makes a bird famous quickly. The giants below include one runner, one swimmer and one glider.

4. Ostrich

The common ostrich is the world’s tallest and heaviest bird, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. It lives in the grasslands, savannas and shrublands of southern and eastern Africa. It can also survive in deserts and open woodland.

An adult weighs about 90 to 136 kg. Counting the neck, a grown bird may stand up to 9 feet (about 2.7 m) tall. Males are black with white tails, while females are mainly brown.

The ostrich cannot fly, but it is the fastest two-legged animal on Earth. It can keep up speeds of 48 to 59 km per hour and sprint at up to 69 km per hour. While running, it holds its wings out and uses them like a rudder to turn sharply. Each foot has just two toes.

Other ostrich records:

Its eyes are about 5 cm across, the largest of any bird.
An egg is about 15 cm long and can weigh up to 1.4 kg.
Chicks hatch after about 45 days of incubation.

There is also a famous myth. People say ostriches bury their heads in sand when scared. They do not. The Smithsonian explains that they lower their heads to the ground to turn their eggs in the nest. From a distance, the head seems to vanish.

5. Emperor penguin

The emperor penguin is the largest of the 18 penguin species, according to the Australian Antarctic Division. Adults can weigh up to 40 kg at the start of the breeding season. Like all penguins, it cannot fly, but it is a superb swimmer and diver.

Emperors are the only animals that breed during the Antarctic winter. Only the males incubate the eggs. To survive the bitter cold, they huddle together, with up to 10 birds in every square metre. Huddling can cut heat loss by as much as half. The inside of a huddle can reach +24 °C.

Their diving is just as impressive. Most feeding dives reach 150 to 250 metres below the surface. The deepest dive on record went down to 565 metres, and the longest lasted 22 minutes. They eat fish, especially the Antarctic silverfish, along with krill and squid.

The Australian Antarctic Division warns that emperor numbers are expected to fall moderately fast over the next three generations. The main reason is projected climate change, which threatens the sea ice they breed on.

6. Andean condor

The Andean condor lives high in the Andes mountains of western South America. It is one of the largest flying birds in the world. It barely flaps its huge wings. Instead it rides rising currents of warm air and wind along cliffs, gliding for long periods.

The condor is a vulture, so it is a scavenger that feeds mainly on dead animals. In this way it helps keep mountain slopes clean. Its close relative in North America nearly died out last century. Read the story of the California condor’s habitat and recovery to see how captive breeding helped.

Which famous birds are record-breaking fliers?

Some birds are famous not for size but for what they can do in the air.

7. Arctic tern

The Arctic tern is a small, pale seabird with a black cap and a red bill. The US National Park Service (NPS) says it has the longest migration of any bird. Migration is a regular seasonal journey between breeding and non-breeding areas.

Each year, the tern makes a winding trip of about 49,000 miles from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back. Over its 30-year lifespan, one bird can fly almost 1.5 million miles. NPS compares this to three trips to the Moon and back. The tern does not stop to eat. It plunge-dives to the sea surface for fish and crustaceans while travelling.

Why fly so far? The tern spends summer in the north and then summer again in the far south. As a result it enjoys two full summers, and plenty of food, every year. In the United States it breeds across Alaska and south as far as Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Learn how other birds make seasonal journeys in our guide to migratory birds and why they migrate.

8. Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds are tiny, brightly coloured birds of the Americas. They are named after the humming sound of their fast-beating wings. NPS explains that they can hover in one spot and fly backwards, sideways and straight up.

Most birds flap their wings up and down. A hummingbird instead moves its wings forward and backward in a figure-of-eight pattern. This creates lift on both the forward and the backward stroke. Hovering lets it sip nectar from tiny flowers that could not hold its weight. As it feeds, it carries pollen from flower to flower, so it is an important pollinator.

Which famous birds live in forests, grasslands and the far north?

The last three birds are tied closely to one kind of habitat. Two of them live in India.

9. Snowy owl

The snowy owl is a large white owl of the Arctic tundra. Males are almost pure white, while females and young birds have dark bars. The white plumage hides the owl against snow. Unlike most owls, it often hunts in daylight, which is natural in the long Arctic summer. Lemmings and other small mammals form much of its diet.

Like other owls, it can fly almost without a sound. NPS explains that comb-like edges on the main wing feathers and soft fringes break up the air. Prey hear nothing as the owl swoops in. NPS also notes that owls live on every continent except Antarctica. Discover other cold-climate survivors in Arctic animals and their adaptations.

10. Great hornbill

The great hornbill is a large forest bird of India’s Western Ghats and north-east, and of South-East Asia. On top of its massive yellow bill sits a hollow, helmet-like structure called a casque. Its wingbeats are so loud they can be heard from far away.

Its nesting habit is famous. The female enters a hole in a tall tree and seals the entrance with mud and droppings. She leaves only a narrow slit. Through this slit the male feeds her and, later, the chicks. Hornbills swallow many fruits, especially figs, and drop the seeds far away. This makes them important seed dispersers that help forests regrow.

11. Great Indian Bustard

The Great Indian Bustard is a tall, heavy bird of India’s dry, open grasslands. It is one of the heaviest birds that can still fly. It walks slowly through grass, eating insects, seeds and small animals.

This bustard is now one of India’s rarest birds. Loss of grassland and collisions with power lines have cut its numbers sharply. Read about its sanctuaries and protection in the Great Indian Bustard and why it is critically endangered.

Why do famous birds matter for ecosystems?

Fame is useful for conservation. When people care about a well-known bird, they also protect its habitat. That habitat shelters thousands of less famous plants and animals.

The birds on this list also do real ecological work:

Pollinators: hummingbirds carry pollen as they feed on nectar.
Seed dispersers: great hornbills plant fruit trees across the forest.
Scavengers: Andean condors and bald eagles eat carrion and help clear carcasses.
Predators: snowy owls keep lemming and other rodent numbers in check.
Indicators: the bald eagle’s collapse revealed the danger of DDT to the whole food chain.

The bald eagle story shows a key lesson. A chemical sprayed on insects moved through water and fish into a top predator. The eagle’s thin eggshells warned scientists that the whole ecosystem was polluted. Banning DDT helped the eagle and many other species too.