Animals That Start With U

7 animals Animals and nature Checked 9 Oct 2026

Here are 7 animals that start with U, each with a one-line description so you can tell what it is. They are listed below with what each one is.

U is a tricky letter for animal names, with just seven entries. The umbrella bird, uakari, umbrette, unicornfish, upland sandpiper, urial and unai make up the list.

None of these are everyday names, so this page is useful for quiz fans and for anyone stuck in an alphabet game. The uakari is a monkey of the Amazon rainforest with a bright red face, and the urial is a wild sheep. The unicornfish gets its name from a horn-like bump on its head.

Animals starting with U: 7
Best known: umbrella bird, uakari
Longest name: upland sandpiper
Most are: mammals

All animals that start with U

#	Name	What it is	Type
1	uakari	Amazon monkey with a bald red face	mammal
2	umbrella bird	black tropical American bird having a large overhanging crest and long feathered wattle	bird
3	umbrette	brown African wading bird that builds huge nests	other
4	unai	a sloth of Central America that has two long claws on each forefoot and three long claws on each hindfoot	mammal
5	unicornfish	reef fish with a horn-like bump on its forehead	other
6	upland sandpiper	North American shorebird that lives in grasslands	bird
7	urial	wild sheep of central and south Asia	mammal

Mammals that start with U

uakari
urial
unai

Birds that start with U

umbrella bird
upland sandpiper

Other animals that start with U

umbrette
unicornfish

Questions people ask

How many animals start with U?

This list has 7 animals starting with U, from well-known ones like umbrella bird, uakari, umbrette to rarer kinds.

What animals start with U?

Well-known examples are umbrella bird, uakari, umbrette, unicornfish, upland sandpiper, urial.

What mammals start with U?

uakari, urial, unai.

What birds start with U?

umbrella bird, upland sandpiper.

Source: Princeton WordNet, a public dictionary database, reviewed by our editors to keep only clear, real members of the list. Meanings are short dictionary glosses.

See every letter on one page: animals A to Z