Are you looking for a more rewarding way to explore the avian world but can’t seem to remember any birds with long names? Then you can try learning about birds with 4-letters.
It is a fantastic gateway for the ones who are just starting to enjoy their bird-watching experience and are eager to learn more every minute.
4-letter birds are like the healthy “fast food” of bird watching as they are quick to jot down while spotting them on a field trip or your solo bird-watching journey.
Moreover, short names have a certain mnemonic magical ability, so you can easily and efficiently remember their name.
It makes the whole bird exploring experience fun and manageable as it focuses on a particular group of birds.
So, hopefully, this article will help you in your endeavor, and happy birding!
Contents
Unveiling The Beauty Of 4-Letter Birds: 20 Beautiful Species
Most of the birds in this list are whole species and have their own subspecies with distinctive appearances and behavior.
Let’s get you introduced to the species so that you can learn more about their subspecies if you find them interesting.
Myna
Source: @chrispiw93
The Mynas are a group of mid-sized passerines that belong to the starling family, Sturnidae.
This group of birds is native to southern Asia, especially India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Some of them can also be found in North America, Australia, South Africa, Fiji and New Zealand,
The average lifespan of the Mynas is about four years in the wilderness and possibly more than 12 years.
The mynas are not rare except for the White Mayna and the Bali Mynah, which are considered critically endangered.
Most of these species have shades of dark black to brown plumage, occasionally with yellow head ornaments.
Gull
Source: @bob_inmusiccity
The Gulls are usually medium to small size species of the family Laridae. They are close relatives to the Terns and Skimmers and distant relatives of the Auks.
This species breeds in almost all the continents, even in the high Arctic and Antarctic. However, they are less common in the tropical islands.
They usually have shades of grey and white on their body with black spots on their head or wings.
The Gulls create large, noisy colonies and nests together. They are resourceful and intelligent as a species and easily create a highly developed social structure while exhibiting complex communication skills.
Rook
Source: @especes_histoire_naturelle
The Rook (Corvus frugilegus) is a moderately large passerine species that belongs to the Corvidae family.
This gregarious, black-feathered species is endemic to the Palearctic, and its range extends from Scandinavia and Western Europe to Eastern Siberia.
This species typically exhibits black feathers all over its body, often with a blue or bluish-purple shimmer under the sunlight.
Their bodies usually have a similar shade all over, apart from their bill and iris. Their bills are grey-black, and the irises are dark brown.
Rooks are regarded as a highly intelligent species that can solve complex puzzles by employing proper objects and teamwork.
Hawk
Source: @zachlucas14
The Hawks are a group of birds of prey with almost 270 species that belong to the Accipitridae family.
The Hawks are considered one of the most intelligent birds that act with cleverness toward other Hawk species and humans.
Except for Antarctica, these species are native to almost all the continents of the world.
This species is popular for its distinctive mating season and method, which is unique to most other bird species.
The male and female perform an extraordinary display of courtship and eventually breed in their nests.
Both mating partners take part in creating the nests before the beginning of the breeding season.
Rhea
Source: @langtontaxidermy
The Rheas, a large, flightless species, belongs to the Rheidae family. This species is regarded as a distant relative of the African Ostriches and Australian Emu.
The Rheas are popular for their distinctive long neck and legs. It is one of the flightless birds that have unusually long wings. Moreover, unlike most large-sized birds, these species only have three toes.
These species are immensely sociable, and some of their species can create up to flocks with one hundred members.
The Rheas tend to build their nests after their mating. The males are a polygamous species who court up to twelve females.
Swan
Source: @the_swan_diaries
The swans belong to the Anatidae family and have almost six living species. The closest relatives of this species are geese and ducks.
This four-letter bird prefers living in temperate environments and rarely in the tropics.
They have a wide range of habitats except for tropical Asia, Central America, northern South America, and the entirety of Africa.
They typically mate for life, and each monogamous pair will bond as early as 20 months.
However, interestingly, there are signs of divorce due to nesting failure. The eggs range from three to eight in each clutch.
They are one of the largest flying species with almost zero sexual dimorphisms.
Coot
Source: @birdsofbaja
Coots are members of the Rallidae family that have a wide distribution, especially in South America.
This socially gregarious species is usually medium-sized and have frontal shields or other forms of decoration on their foreheads.
Unlike most railbirds, this species has black plumage, making them easier to spot in the open water.
One of the sad aspects about the coots is their nature of attacking their own nestlings.
The chicks often die out of starvation, and when they beg for food from their parents, they get attacked, especially the weak nestlings.
The weaker ones tend to die after begging for food for a long time. As a consequence, only two to three out of nine hatchlings survive.
Duck
Source: @ecologykatie
Numerous species of the family Anatidae are commonly known as Ducks. The distribution of this species extends across almost all the continents except Antarctica.
As an aquatic species, it swims in both freshwater and seawater.
The body shapes of duck species can vary. However, they are mostly round-shaped, mainly the diving Ducks.
Most species of these bird families have strong wings that help them to fly.
However, some of them are almost flightless, and the rest only lose their flight abilities during moulting.
Their mating partnership lasts only one year, with one partner at a time. They choose favorable conditions and breed only once a year.
Crow
Source: @kathydenbydale
Crows belong to the larger Corvus genus of the Corvidae family. They are known as highly inquisitive, intelligent, and mischievous species.
As a highly intelligent species, they can use other items to solve their problems and exhibit high IQ. They are also popular for being masters of mimicry.
They are like social mammals who live in large, densely packed families. They hunt and forage in flocks, but they do not nest in colonies.
The roosting flock of some species can even occasionally contain hundreds of thousands of members.
Crows mate for life and lay five to six greenish-olive eggs, unlike their dark appearance. Their bodies usually have jet-black to dark grey-shaded plumage.
Wren
Source: @michael.fogleman
Wrens are a brown passerine species that belong to the Troglodytidae of the New World family. Most Wrens remain visually inconspicuous because of their size, shape, and body color.
The dominating colors in their plumage are usually shades of dull grey, brown, black, and white.
They have short wings with intense striped patterns on most species. Moreover, they often tend to hold their tails straight and upright.
So, if you want to spot one and see it from a close distance, then you should find them based on their distinctive, loud, and complex songs.
Sometimes, they perform duet songs in pairs. Their melodic, harmonious tunes earned them nicknames like song wren, musician wren, flutist wren, and southern nightingale-wren.
Tern
Source: @yuichi_kojima
The Terns, a member of the Laridae family, are a slender, lightly-built species with a worldwide distribution.
As a seabird, this species swims around seas, rivers, and almost all kinds of wetlands.
They have relatively narrow wings and short legs with long, forked tails. Most species have a dark to pale grey plumage all over their body with a deep black cap on their head.
Terns don’t have sexual dimorphism, and you can easily tell apart between the younglings and the adults.
Most Terns are monogamous and breed annually. However, some species exhibit trios or female-female pairings. They reach sexual maturity at the age of three.
Lark
Source: @marianablue_divediv
The family Alaudidae has members named Larks, which are a group of passerine birds.
Most of these species reside only in Africa, except for two of them that are endemic to North America and Australia.
They are small to mid-sized species that have long hind claws that help them stand with stability.
Most species have brown bodies with black or white markings that help them camouflage.
Larks are the only passerine species that lose all their feathers during their first moult due to the poor quality of feathers as a chick.
Most Larks build their nest in the usual cup shape. But some of them create dome-shaped, complicated-looking nests.
Skua
Source: @raja_clicks
The Skuas are medium to large-sized predator seabird species that are a member of the family Stercoraiidae.
Usually, this species contains grey or brown plumage with occasional white spots on the wings.
They have hooked almost long bills and webbed feet with sharp claws. The Skuas are strong and aggressive defenders of their territories.
When they see their incoming predators in their nests, the parents will attack them on the intruder’s heads without hesitation. This attack is also known as “dive bombing.”
Skuas prefer nesting on the ground of their wide-ranged habitat. Some species are even discovered at the South Pole.
Dove
Source: @santoshbhatgd
The Columbidae family has two types of species- Doves and Pigeons. The differences between these species are not easily discernible because of their inconsistency in appearance.
However, the Doves are a relatively smaller species than that of pigeons. Even in the Dove species, the size range can vary from small to large.
Due to the help of their large wings, they can fly with ease and agility, which helps them get away from their predators quickly.
They inhabit almost all the regions of the world except for the drier parts, such as the Sahara Desert, Antarctica, and the high Arctic.
The Doves can adapt to a diverse variety of regions, from arboreal spaces to the barren sands and grovel of atolls.
Ibis
Source: @sussumuey
The Ibis are a group of wading bird species that belong to the family Threskiornithidae.
This group of birds is popular for their long legs and curved, slender bills. They are highly gregarious as a species and will live, travel, and even breed in flocks.
Most birds are monogamous and nest in trees of wetlands, forests, and plains along their natural habitat.
Almost all extent of this species can fly with agility except for kiwi-like Apteribis and the peculiar Xenicibis.
They form a diagonal line or V-formation while flying in groups to decrease the wind resistance for trailing birds.
Kite
Source: @vinitsz
The birds of prey in the Accipitridae family are known as Kites. There are three types of subfamilies for the Kites- Elaninae, Milvinae, and Perninae.
The ones that are named according to their sizes are known as large kites and small kites.
Moreover, the ones that are categorized based on their flying skills are hovering kites and soaring kites.
The Elaninae subfamily consists of hovering kite members, whereas the Milvinae subfamily consists of the soaring ones.
They are a lightly built, small-headed species with a partly featherless face. They have a worldwide distribution in the warm regions.
Teal
Source: @iowa_waterfowlers
The Teals belong to the Anatidae family of the dabbling duck group. They prefer inhabiting northern moors and mires.
If you want to look at Teals up close, then you should search for them in the winter on wetlands of both coastal and inland of their distribution.
The male Teals have chestnut brown colored heads with grassy green eye patches. Their chests are usually spotted with dark marks, and their wings are grey. Their tails are yellow with prominent jet-black edges.
Females, on the other hand, have mottled brown bodies. Both sexes possess green wing patches that are visible during flight.
Sora
Source: @hodos_photos
The Sora is a small waterbird species that is a mid-sized member of the Rallidae family. Sometimes, in North America, they are referred to as Sora Rail or Sora Crake.
Adult Soras have heavily marked brown upperparts with bluish-grey faces and underparts. They have prominent black and white streaks all over their wings.
The Soras’ preferred breeding habitat is in North America, while their migrating habitat is in the Southern United States and Northern South America.
They are more inclined to choose marshes as their breeding habitat and well-concealed vegetation as their nesting habitat.
The females lay 10 to 12 eggs, and both parents take turns incubating and feeding the chicks.
Loon
Source: @christiane_forget
The Loons are a group of aquatic birds that belong to the Gaviidae family. This species is mostly common in North America and Northern Eurasia.
This group of birds appears similar to a large-sized duck or a small geese while swimming. Their webbed feet and distinctive calls are what make them special.
They don’t exhibit any sexual dimorphism. As a result, both males and females have similar plumage that is mostly black and white-patterned. In some species, the neck and head areas are grey.
The only identifiable difference between the males and females is in their sizes. The males tend to be relatively larger, which can only be detected when they appear together.
Kiwi
Source: @bk.moments
The Kiwis are a flightless bird with five extant species that belong to the family Apterygidae. Some state that the Māori gave this bird species the name ‘kiwi,’ while others state that its shrill call is behind its naming.
Unlike other bird species, they have fur-like loose feathers that moult throughout the year.
One of the other fascinating aspects of this species is that they are the only bird species in the world that have nostrils at the end of their beaks.
Their eyes are relatively small compared to their whole body size. As a result, they mostly depend on their other senses rather than their visual sense as a nocturnal species.
FAQ
We have answered a few frequently asked questions about 4-letter birds that might add some extra fun to your bird-watching adventure.
Let’s look through them.
Q: What small birds have 4-letters in them?
Ans: Several small-sized birds have 4-letters. Among them, the most popular ones are- Wren and Tody.
Q: What large birds have 4-letters?
Ans: The number of large birds with 4-letters is not a few. Some of them are- crows, ducks, hawks, larks, quails, swans, etc.
Q: What is a 4-letter bird that starts with the letter I?
Ans: The 4-letter bird that starts with the letter I is Ibis. Ibises are popular and commonly found on almost six continents, especially in tropical and subtropical regions.
Thoughts
Whether you are on your journey to bird exploration for its simplicity, the challenges, or the sense of community, 4-letter birds will offer you a unique experience and a way to strengthen your connection to nature and the avian world.
It’s like your own special code to unlock the world of bird-watching experiences. Moreover, learning about 4-letter birds can turn into a family activity or make you part of a bird community as they are easy to remember.
They are a great conversation starter with adult bird enthusiasts as well as the young ones because their names are not overwhelming to remember, and the 4-letter species bring bite-sized knowledge with big-sized fun.
It’s not always about how many letters a bird has in its name. It’s all about exploring the diversity in the bird world and making our experience in this world richer.
