Can I generate a printable set without repeats?

Yes. Open Make a no-repeat card set, choose 1–12 cards, and press Draw card set. Every animal in that set is different. Choose Print / Save PDF after the photos load. A new set may contain earlier animals, and reloading the page clears your set.

How many bird species exist?

Roughly eleven thousand, though the number shifts as genetic work splits and merges species. Birds are the most species-rich group of land vertebrates after fish.

Does this include extinct birds like the dodo?

The bird pool is living species. Extinct animals live on the dinosaur page instead — which is less of a leap than it sounds, since birds are the surviving branch of the dinosaur family tree.

Random Bird Generator

Pick a bird with photos and facts, or make a no-repeat card set for drawing or class.

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Make a no-repeat bird card set

Choose 1–12 different animals for drawing prompts or a classroom activity. Print the photo cards or choose Save as PDF in your browser’s print dialog.

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Common

Photo: Lip Kee from Singapore, Republic of Singapore · CC BY-SA 2.0

Birdomnivore

Common ostrich

Struthio camelus

The common ostrich is a big, flightless bird that lives in parts of Africa. It holds the title of the world's largest living bird species. Unlike most birds, it can't fly, but its powerful legs make it a strong runner.

Belongs to a small bird group called ratites, along with just one other ostrich species.
Shares its genus with only one other living relative, the Somali ostrich.
Was once considered to have subspecies until the Somali ostrich was recognized as separate.

SavannaGrasslandDesertAfrica

View Common ostrich profile Read more on Wikipedia

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About this bird generator

This random bird generator pulls from a few hundred bird species and gives you a photograph, the scientific name, the conservation status and three things worth knowing about how the bird lives.

Birds are the best-documented group of animals on Earth — there are around eleven thousand species and an enormous amateur community photographing them — so the pool here is deliberately limited to species that are widely recorded. That keeps results recognisable instead of handing you the fourth subspecies of an obscure warbler.

Use one bird as a drawing prompt, or open the card-set controls to draw 1–12 different birds. Print keeps each photo, scientific name, one fact and its image credit together. New sets can repeat birds from earlier sets; this is not a field-identification guide.

What people use it for

Rated 5 out of 5
I put this on the board every Monday and the class has to write six sentences about whatever animal comes up. The photo does most of the work — they argue about it before I have finished reading the name out.
Maya Ellison
Year 4 teacher
Rated 5 out of 5
I use the ocean filter to stock a coastline in about thirty seconds. Getting the conservation status and the habitat alongside the name means I can describe the thing properly instead of inventing details.
Daniel Weiss
Tabletop game master
Rated 5 out of 5
Daily drawing prompts. Most animal randomisers just give you a word, which is useless when you need reference — here I get a photograph I can actually work from, and it keeps handing me species I would never have picked.
Priya Raman
Illustrator
Rated 5 out of 5
The bird generator is my flashcard deck now. I cover the name, look at the photo and try to call it before scrolling. Two hundred-odd species is enough that it stays hard.
Tomas Lindqvist
Birder
Rated 5 out of 5
My six-year-old asks for "one more animal" about forty times a night. The facts are short enough that she remembers them and repeats them at dinner, which was not something I expected from a random button.
Elise Moreau
Parent

Random Bird Generator

Common ostrich

About this bird generator

Some of the birds you can get

What people use it for

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