Welcome to "Birds of Europe"

This project enables you to identify birds by their appearance and voice, i.e. song or call. Further, the program provides information on the distribution in Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor of the 447 included species, their habitat, song structure, and eggs.

The program includes all bird species which breed within Europe as well as migrants or winter visitors. Two kinds of distribution maps are included; the maps given with the species description comprise continental Europe (up to 30 degrees East), the Mediterranean islands, British Islands, Ireland, and Iceland; the interactive maps included under Maps cover Europe up to 45 degrees east, Madeira, the Canary Islands, North Africa and Asia Minor (see Distribution).

To help you identify birds, this website displays colour illustrations and distribution maps, plays the song or call of the bird, and gives a description of the main field characteristics of each species.

The program also gives you the opportunity to identify the eggs of a large number of European birds.

Furthermore, the introductory sections provide some general information on birds, and a glossary explains numerous technical terms.

The information and illustrations for this program generally are newly-made and are based on the most recent standard works, excepting the egg pictures which were taken from Bädeker (1863).