Birds come in a wide range of hues and dimensions, and their names begin with each letter of the alphabet. It’s always challenging to come up with more than a few words that begin with the letter Z when it comes to the alphabet, and it becomes even more challenging once you pass the zebra to think of Z-ending animals.
Birds That Start with Z – List of Birds Begins with the Letter ‘Z’
In this article, we’ve done research to locate images and information about 15 different bird species that begin with the letter Z. Let’s check them out.
Zone-tailed hawk
Scientific name: Buteo albonotatus
Resides in: Central America, Mexico, sections of the southwest of the United States, and areas of central and eastern South America.
All over their body, these medium-sized raptors have a dark grayish-brown color. Their outer flight feathers are barred with deep-colored spots when viewed from below when they are in flight. Their tails will likewise be barred when they are still adolescents, but when they are adults, they will be fully dark with two white bands. In slopes, canyons, and mesas, zone-tailed hawks prefer to hunt for their prey small birds, animals, reptiles, and amphibians.
Zone-tailed hawks have a fun fact: Their appearance, when seen from the ground, is quite similar to that of a turkey vulture. To deceive its prey into thinking it is just a harmless vulture soaring overhead rather than a predator, some researchers think this may be done on purpose.
Zenaida Dove
Scientific name: Zenaida aurita
Found in: the Caribbean and Yucatan Peninsula
Although they are generally a darker shade of color, Zenaida doves closely resemble North American mourning doves. The vivid white stripe on the inner portion of the wing is one of this dove’s most distinguishing characteristics. Typically, when the dove is in flight, this is simpler to see. Zenaida doves eat mostly seeds and grains while foraging on the ground, like the majority of doves. In their range, they can be found in a variety of environments and frequently forage near water.
Fun fact about Zenaida doves: The residents of the Caribbean island of Anguilla refer to them as “turtle doves” because they are the national bird of that location.
Zino’s Petrel
Scientific name: Pterodroma madeira
Found in: Madeira
It exclusively breeds on the island of Madeira, making the Zino’s petrel a very rare bird. Portugal owns the island of Madeira in the Atlantic. Only on well-vegetated ledges in the island’s central mountains does this petrel build its nest. They spend the daytime at sea and are only active in the breeding locations at night. They can avoid being eaten by gulls that are active throughout the day by doing this. After the breeding season, the birds migrate to the sea. Little is known about where they go, other than the fact that they are occasionally spotted in other locations along the Atlantic, like Great Britain.
The fun thing about Zino’s Petrels is: They build their own burrows or use abandoned rabbit tunnels they discover to establish their nests.
Zeledon’s Antbird
Scientific name: Hafferia zeledoni
Found in: Panama, Columbia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador
The Zeledon’s antbird’s females are all brown, while the males are all black. Around their eyes, both sexes have an unfeathered blue patch. They occupy lower levels of the canopy in humid woods. As their name implies, they frequently accompany ant swarms, but the ants stir and flush out insects from the forest floor in order to collect them.
Zapata Wren
Scientific name: Ferminia cerverai
Found in: Zapata Peninsula of Cuba
Only found on Cuba’s Zapata peninsula, this little wren is a critically endangered species. Except for their plain, brighter throat and chest, Zapata wrens have a grayish-brown color with fine barring all over. They feed mostly on snails, insects, spiders, little lizards, berries, and other small animals while living among the dense plants of the Zapata Swamp. Fires, wetland draining, habitat loss to agriculture, and predation by mammals like rats and mongooses are the major threats in this tiny area.
Zapata Wrens are little brown birds that have a loud, melodious voice.
Zapata Sparrow
Scientific name: Torreornis inexpectata
Lives in: Cuba
These sparrows are primarily found in Cuba’s Zapata Peninsula, like our #5 bird, the Zapata wren. They have a rusty crown and are primarily grayish-brown with a yellow hue to their chest. These sparrows inhabit grasslands and their diets may fluctuate with the seasons. They concentrate on eating seeds, insects, flowers, and snails during the dry season, whereas during the wet season, they have been reported to consume more tiny lizards. It is thought that their existing population is “neat threatened”. They are similarly threatened by animal and habitat degradation from tourists and agriculture to Zapata wrens.
Fun fact about Zapata Sparrows: Although these sparrows were once exclusive to the Zapata region, they are now common across Cuba. This is why they are often called Cuban sparrows.
Zimmer’s Tapaculo
Scientific name: Scytalopus zimmeri
Found in: southern Bolivia and northwest Argentina
These tiny tapaculos have a gray mid-body, a white throat, and a white stripe across the forehead in addition to a brown tail and rump with bars. They are a little more “bold” than other tapaculos and can be spotted more frequently out in the open, perched on rocks or low foliage. Despite the fact that little is known about their diet, they prefer to feed on the ground among ferns and roots. They frequently inhabit rough ravines and slopes as they live along the Andes Mountain range.
Despite only being present in a limited portion of the planet, Zimmer’s Tapaculos are not officially listed as threatened or endangered. The main reason for this is that, at their preferred heights of 5,600–10,500 feet, habitat degradation is unlikely.
Zimmer’s Woodcreeper
Scientific name: Dendroplex kienerii
Found in: Amazon basin of Brazil, southeast Colombia, northeast Peru.
Warm chestnut brown with white streaks on the head and upper back describes these lovely woodcreepers. Their bill is large and light, almost white-looking. With their tails pressed up against the trunk of the tree to support their weight, woodcreepers often maintain an erect position while they cling to trees and plants.
Zimmer’s Woodcreeper fun fact: Floating forests are this woodcreeper’s preferred habitat. These are forested areas near rivers and freshwater lakes that are prone to flooding during periods of intense precipitation. Varzea are unique freshwater swamps and flooded woodlands found in the Amazon Basin.
Zimmer’s Tody-Tyrant
Scientific name: Hemitriccus minimus
Found in: Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru
The family of birds known as flycatchers, and more specifically the tyrant flycatchers, include Zimmer’s Tody-Tyrant. These birds are renowned for being skilled flycatchers and are capable of catching flying insects in midair. The Zimmer’s Tody-Tyrant is a tiny flycatcher with two yellow wing bars and an olive-gray body. They can frequently be found in woods with poor soil, sand, or dry shrubland.
Fun fact about Tody-Tyrant in Zimmer’s play: Some of the other birds on this list may have caught your eye since their names begin with “Zimmer’s”. This is in honor of American naturalist John Todd Zimmer, who traveled to numerous locations in the early to mid-20th century on birding trips, including Africa and Peru.
Zitting Cisticola
Scientific name: Cisticola juncidis
Found in: southern Europe, Africa, northern Australia, southern Asia
These little birds have a short tail with a white tip and a rounded tail end. They have buffy sides, a light chest and throat, and a brown-mottled back. Zitting cisticolas are insect-eating birds that dwell near bodies of water in grassland settings. Males start the cup-shaped nest’s construction deep in the grass before inviting females to take a look. The female will complete nest construction once she selects a location.
