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.

Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops): Hoopoes are colourful birds found across Africa, Asia, and Europe, notable for their distinctive "crown" of feathers. Three living and one extinct species are recognised, though for many years all of the extant species were lumped as a single species—Upupa epops. In fact, some taxonomists still consider all three species conspecific. Some authorities also keep the African and Eurasian hoopoe together, but split the Madagascar hoopoe. Photo credit: Katherine Nicola