Birds That Start With T

21 birds Animals and nature Checked 9 Oct 2026

Here are 21 birds that start with T, each with a one-line description so you can tell what it is. The best-known ones come first, then the full list in A to Z order.

T offers 21 birds, led by the turkey, the thrush, the tern and the toucan. The toucan, with its huge bright bill, is often the favorite with children, while the turkey is the farm bird everyone recognizes.

Trees give this letter a pattern: tree swift, tree swallow, tree sparrow and tree creeper. The thrasher can mimic other birdsongs, and the tody is a tiny West Indian bird with red and green feathers. Look out for the tumbler pigeon, which does backward somersaults in flight, and the tundra swan of the far north.

Birds starting with T: 21
Best known: turkey, thrush
Longest name: thrush nightingale

Best-known birds that start with T

The ones most people will recognise, good for school lists, quizzes and games.

turkey
thrush
tern
toucan

All birds that start with T

#	Name	What it is
1	tanager	any of numerous New World woodland birds having brightly colored males
2	tattler	any of several long-legged shorebirds having a loud whistling cry
3	teal	any of various small short-necked dabbling river ducks of Europe and America
4	tern	small slender gull having narrow wings and a forked tail
5	thick-knee	large-headed large-eyed crepuscular or nocturnal shorebird of the Old World and tropical America having a thickened...
6	thrasher	thrush-like American songbird able to mimic other birdsongs
7	thrush	songbirds characteristically having brownish upper plumage with a spotted breast
8	thrush nightingale	large nightingale of eastern Europe
9	titmouse	small insectivorous birds
10	tody	tiny insectivorous West Indian bird having red-and-green plumage and a long straight bill
11	toucan	brilliantly colored arboreal fruit-eating bird of tropical America having a very large thin-walled beak
12	tree creeper	any of numerous South American and Central American birds with a curved bill and stiffened tail feathers that climb and...
13	tree sparrow	finch common in winter in the northern U.S.
14	tree swallow	bluish-green-and-white North American swallow; nests in tree cavities
15	tree swift	birds of southeast Asia and East Indies differing from true swifts in having upright crests and nesting in trees
16	tropic bird	mostly white web-footed tropical seabird often found far from land
17	tumbler pigeon	pigeon that executes backward somersaults in flight or on the ground
18	tundra swan	swan that nests in tundra regions of the New and Old Worlds
19	turkey	large gallinaceous bird with fan-shaped tail; widely domesticated for food
20	turkey vulture	a New World vulture that is common in South America and Central America and the southern United States
21	turtledove	small Australian dove

Short birds with T

tern
teal
tody

Questions people ask

How many birds start with T?

This list has 21 birds starting with T, from well-known ones like turkey, thrush, tern to rarer kinds.

What birds start with T?

Well-known examples are turkey, thrush, tern, toucan.

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: birds A to Z