Solitary

Cryolophosaurus

Antarctica's crested Jurassic hunter

Xiongguanlong

A "before-the-tyrants" tyrannosauroid

Earless Monitor Lizard

Borneo's "hidden-ear" river guardian

Golden Eagle

Gold-naped master of open skies

Swallow

Masters of the open air

Swainson's Hawk

The grasshopper hawk that goes global

Short-Eared Owl

Twilight hunter of the open plains

Osprey

Nature's plunge-diving fish hawk

King Quail

Small quail, big color.

Egret

Wetland hunters in white

Eastern Turkey (Wild Turkey)

Big woods. Big gobble.

Jabiru

Big bill. Big bird. Big wetlands.

Egyptian Vulture

Small vulture, big cleanup crew

Gray Catbird

Mew, mimic, and melt into the thicket

Elf Owl

Tiny owl, big desert night hunter

Yellowhammer

Hedgerow gold with a looping chorus

Xiaosaurus

Small bones, big uncertainty

Opabinia

Five eyes, one weird proboscis

Xiaotingia

A near-bird from Jurassic Liaoning

Xenotarsosaurus

Patagonia's "strange-ankled" hunter

Meganeura

Carboniferous skies, colossal wings.

Ichthyostega

Half fish, half pioneer tetrapod

Seymouria

A near-amniote on Permian shores

Deinosuchus

Armor-plated giant of Cretaceous waterways