26 Birds That Start With K (Facts, Habitats & Photos)

Birds that start with K include a bird whose beak reshaped high-speed rail, the world’s only alpine parrot, and a flightless nocturnal parrot down to a few hundred individuals. Kingfishers, kestrels, kites, kiwis, kookaburras and kea are all here.

This guide covers 26 birds beginning with K, with scientific names, range, diet and what makes each one distinctive.

Birds Starting With K: Complete List

Kingfishers and Hunters

Kingfisher

The kingfisher’s beak solved an engineering problem it was never meant to. When Japan’s Shinkansen exited tunnels at speed it produced a loud sonic boom; an engineer and birdwatcher redesigned the train’s nose after the kingfisher’s bill, which enters water with almost no splash. The result was quieter, faster and used less power. Kingfishers also have a transparent third eyelid that shields the eye on impact with the water.

Kookaburra

A giant kingfisher that mostly does not fish — it takes reptiles, insects and small mammals from dry woodland, killing snakes by battering them against a branch. Its famous laughing chorus is territorial, performed by family groups at dawn and dusk. Kookaburras are cooperative breeders, with older siblings helping raise the next brood.

Kestrel

Hunts by hovering with its head held almost perfectly still while the body adjusts to the wind, which is how it keeps a fixed view of the ground. It can also see ultraviolet light, and vole urine trails reflect UV — so a kestrel scanning a field is effectively reading a map of where the voles have been travelling.

Kite

Superb soarers with long forked tails used constantly for steering. The red kite is a notable conservation case: reduced to a handful of pairs in mid-Wales, it has been reintroduced across Britain and is now common enough over some towns to be unremarkable. Kites are largely scavengers, which is why they historically thrived around medieval cities.

Kingbird

A tyrant flycatcher that will attack hawks, crows and even much larger raptors that enter its territory, pursuing and striking them in mid-air. The scientific name Tyrannus reflects that behaviour. Males have a concealed crown patch of red or orange, visible only during display.

New Zealand Endemics

Kiwi

The only birds with nostrils at the tip of the bill rather than the base, which lets a kiwi smell invertebrates underground and probe for them — it hunts largely by scent, unusual among birds. It lays an egg proportionally larger than almost any other bird, up to about a quarter of the female’s body weight. Kiwi have no keel on the sternum, marrow-filled heavy bones, and body temperature closer to a mammal’s than a typical bird’s.

Kea

The world’s only alpine parrot, living in the mountains of New Zealand’s South Island, and among the most cognitively capable birds studied. Kea solve multi-step puzzles, use tools, and work cooperatively on tasks requiring two individuals to act simultaneously. They are also notoriously destructive out of curiosity — stripping rubber from car windscreens is well documented. They were persecuted for decades over sheep predation and are now protected and endangered.

Kakapo

A flightless, nocturnal, ground-dwelling parrot and the heaviest parrot in the world. Males gather at display arenas and produce a deep booming call that can carry several kilometres, inflating a thoracic air sac to do it. It breeds only in years when certain trees mast, which makes recovery slow. The population fell to a few dozen and is now managed bird by bird on predator-free islands, with every individual named and tracked — one of the most intensive conservation programmes ever run for a single species.

Kakariki

New Zealand parakeets, red- or yellow-crowned, which suffered heavily from introduced predators on the mainland and survive best on offshore islands. The name simply means “small green” in Māori. Unusually for parrots they feed a great deal on the ground, which is precisely what made them vulnerable to rats and stoats.

Waders, Seabirds and Waterfowl

Killdeer

Performs one of the most convincing distraction displays of any bird — dragging a wing as though broken, calling loudly, and leading a predator steadily away from the nest before flying off strongly once far enough. It nests on bare gravel, including car parks and flat roofs, and the eggs are almost invisible against the stones.

Knot

Undertakes one of the longest migrations of any wader, from high Arctic breeding grounds to the southern hemisphere. Before departure it shrinks its digestive organs and enlarges the flight muscles, then reverses the process on arrival. The rufa subspecies depends critically on horseshoe crab eggs at Delaware Bay to refuel, which ties its survival to an unrelated species’ spawning.

Kittiwake

A gull that nests on the narrowest cliff ledges available, often barely wider than the bird, which keeps eggs beyond the reach of ground predators. Chicks instinctively stay still and face the rock rather than backing away — behaviour that would be pointless on flat ground and is essential on a ledge. Unlike most gulls it feeds at sea rather than scavenging.

King Eider

An Arctic sea duck in which the male carries a bright orange frontal shield above the bill, giving the species its name. Eiders dive for molluscs in cold water, and eider down — collected from nests after the birds leave — remains among the best natural insulators known.

Kori Bustard

Among the heaviest birds capable of flight, with large males approaching 20 kg, which is close to the practical upper limit for powered flight. It spends most of its time walking and takes off reluctantly. Males perform an inflated-throat display in which the neck balloons to several times normal width.

Rare, Restricted and Extinct Species

Kagu

A flightless grey bird found only in New Caledonia, and the sole surviving member of its family. It has nasal corns — small flaps covering the nostrils, found in no other bird — thought to keep soil out while it probes the forest floor. It is endangered, primarily through predation by introduced dogs.

Kirtland’s Warbler

Breeds almost exclusively in young jack pine stands of a specific age, which historically regenerated after wildfire — so fire suppression nearly eliminated its habitat. Recovery required deliberately managed cutting and replanting to recreate the conditions, alongside brood-parasite control. It is one of the clearest cases of a species dependent on active disturbance rather than protection alone.

Kaempfer’s Woodpecker

Known from a single specimen collected in 1926 and then not recorded again for eighty years, until it was rediscovered in 2006 in Brazilian bamboo habitat. Its dependence on stands of a particular bamboo explains both its rarity and why it went unrecorded for so long.

Kaua’i ‘Akialoa

An extinct Hawaiian honeycreeper with a downcurved bill roughly a third of its total body length, used to probe deep flowers and bark. Hawaii’s honeycreepers underwent an extraordinary adaptive radiation and then suffered one of the highest extinction rates of any bird group, largely through introduced mosquitoes carrying avian malaria.

Kashmir Flycatcher

Breeds in a very small area of the north-western Himalaya and winters mainly in the hills of Sri Lanka and southern India — a narrow route between two restricted areas, which makes it vulnerable at both ends. It is classed as vulnerable.

Kerguelen Tern

Restricted to a handful of remote subantarctic islands, with a total population thought to number only a few thousand. Its isolation means it has been comparatively little studied, and introduced cats and rats on some islands are the main threat.

Karoo Lark

Shows one of the clearer examples of local plumage matching in birds: populations across the South African Karoo differ in colour according to the soil they live on, from reddish to grey, so that each closely matches its own background.

Other Species in This Group

Kaempfer’s Tody-Tyrant

Hemitriccus kaempferi is its scientific name. This bird is a resident of Southeast Brazil. The fact that this bird was only known from two specimens up until the 1990s is what makes it so unusual. After it was initially noticed in the 1990s, this altered. It is protected by law in its native Brazil and is recognized as an endangered species in the United States. It typically grows to a length of around four inches and is recognized for its olive-green hue. A fun tidbit about the Kaemfer tody tyrants: The two specimens of this bird were initially discovered in 1991 after being collected in 1929 and 1950.

Karoo Korhaan

Named after a plant: Eupodotis vigorsii It is a resident of southern Africa. The bustard family of birds includes the Karoo korhaan species of bird. The bustard is one of the smaller ones, measuring only 24 inches. Males weigh 56 ounces, but females weigh 48 ounces, making males somewhat larger than females. The sole physical difference between the male and females is that the females have less black pigment on the throat region. Karoo korhaans are omnivorous, although plants make up the majority of their food, which is an interesting fact about them.

Karoo Thrush

Turdus smithi is its scientific name. Dwells in Africa The Northern Cape, Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Little Namaqualand, and the Free State are among the South African provinces where the Karoo thrush is most frequently observed. With a length of 24 cm, it is of medium size. Smith’s thrush is another name for this bird. Interesting Karoo thrush fact: Karoo thrushes lay tiny, light mint-green eggs with various-sized brown speckles.

Kaua’I Akialoa

Chasiempis sclateri is its scientific name. Resides on Kauai, a Hawaiian island They are distinguished by their reddish hue. Although this species’ numbers were estimated to be at 40 000 in 1970 and decreased by almost half in the 1990s, a 13% increase in its population over the last few years suggests that it has achieved a recovery. Fun fact about Kauai elepaios: They were formerly thought to be a subspecies of Hawaii elepaios, but in 2010 their status was changed to that of a different species.

Kentucky Warbler

Geothlypis formosa is its scientific name. Resides in Kentucky, America. The olive tint that runs down their backs and the vivid yellow that extends from their throats to their stomachs make them clearly recognizable. Wherever there is enough greenery, they build their nests on the ground near plants. Three to six cream eggs with brown specks will be laid by females. The chicks often leave the nest 10 days after hatching, which is an interesting fact about Kentucky warblers.

King Quail

Synoicus chinensis is the scientific name Southeast Asia, China, and Southeast Australia are where they reside. The color of this bird is without a doubt its most striking characteristic. Males can be any shade of blue, brown, maroon, dark brown, or an almost-black hue. Short, orange feet designed for life on the ground are on this game bird. The female is a close color match to the male but lacks the blue tint. King quails are interesting because males compete with one another to mate with females. The winner takes it all, literally.

Frequently Asked Questions

What birds start with the letter K?

Twenty-six are covered here, including kingfisher, kestrel, kite, kiwi, kookaburra, kea, kakapo, kakariki, killdeer, knot, kittiwake, kingbird, king eider, kori bustard, kagu, Kirtland’s warbler, Kentucky warbler, Kashmir flycatcher, Kerguelen tern, king quail, Karoo lark, Karoo thrush, Karoo korhaan, Kaempfer’s woodpecker and Kaempfer’s tody-tyrant.

Did a kingfisher really inspire the bullet train?

Yes. Japan’s Shinkansen produced a loud boom leaving tunnels, and an engineer who was also a birdwatcher redesigned the nose after the kingfisher’s bill, which enters water with minimal splash. The redesigned train was quieter, faster and more efficient.

Why do kiwis have nostrils at the tip of their beak?

So they can smell invertebrates underground. Kiwi hunt largely by scent, which is unusual among birds, and nostrils at the bill tip let them detect prey while probing soil and leaf litter.

How intelligent is the kea?

Among the most capable birds tested. Kea solve multi-step puzzles, use tools, and can coordinate on tasks that require two birds to act at the same moment. They are also destructively curious — stripping rubber and trim from parked cars is well documented.

How rare is the kakapo?

Extremely. The population fell to a few dozen birds and is now managed individually on predator-free islands, with every bird named and monitored. It breeds only in years when certain trees produce a heavy seed crop, which limits how quickly numbers can grow.

Which K bird is the heaviest that can fly?

The kori bustard is among them, with large males approaching 20 kg — close to the practical limit for powered flight, which is why it walks far more than it flies.

Sources

Classifications, ranges and conservation statuses follow current ornithological and IUCN references. Shinkansen nose design and kingfisher biomimicry: engineering design history. Kea cognition and cooperative problem-solving: peer-reviewed comparative cognition research. Kakapo recovery programme: New Zealand Department of Conservation.

This article is for general information. Do not disturb nesting birds — many species are legally protected during the breeding season.

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