24 Extraordinarily Beautiful Birds You Might Not Have Heard About

Beautiful birds can be seen across the globe, but which ones are the most beautiful? And what’s the rarest bird from around the world? Check out our list of the 25 top beautiful birds to discover more. You’ll learn what makes each of these beautiful birds unique, where they live, what they eat, and what they look like.

Striated Heron (Butorides striata): Butorides is a genus of small herons. It contains three similar species, the Green Heron or Green-backed Heron, Butorides virescens, the Dwarf Bittern (Butorides sturmii), and the Striated Heron, Butorides striatus. A fossil species, Butorides validipes, is known from the Early Pleistocene of Florida. Adults of both extant species are about 44 cm long, and have a blue-black back and wings, a black cap and short yellow legs. Juveniles are browner above and streaked below, and have greenish-yellow legs. The species have different underpart colours, chestnut with a white line down the front in Green Heron, and white or grey in Striated. Both breed in small wetlands on a platform of sticks often in shrubs or trees, sometimes on the ground. Butorides herons stand still at the water's edge and wait to ambush prey. They mainly eat small fish, frogs and aquatic insects. They sometimes drop food on the water's surface to attract fish. Photo credit: ZW Young.