Time for a quiz!
Name at least 5 bird species found on every continent except Antarctica. Hint: One of them is my favorite bird.
Leave a comment with your answer. (My answer will be in the comments, too.)
(map from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the image to see the original)
How about:
osprey
mallard duck
European starling
house sparrow
barn owl
Cool. You came up with 2 species I didn’t think of, Bob.
Peregrine Falcon has to be on the list! Maybe the Arctic Tern? Barn owl Osprey and Starling I can believe as well.
I would add Rock Pigeon (introduced all over the world) and Great Egret (found naturally).
owl
duck
gull
sparrow
crow
Glenda, you’re correct in a very general sense but not specific enough (i.e. the list is not at the species level). For instance, a worldwide duck species is the Mallard duck while the Ruddy duck is only on 2 continents. Can you name a gull species that occurs worldwide?
Crow
Peregrine Falcon
Osprey
Canada Geese
Barn Owl
European Starling
House sparrow
Osprey
Peregrine Falcon
Leach’s Petrel
Common Tern
Barn Owl
Great Egret
Great Cormorant
I am sure there are more.
Barn swallow
Peregrine falcon
Short-eared owl
Barn swallow
Mallard Duck
Cattle egret
Arctic tern (all continents including Antartica)
No barn swallows in Australia, except occasional vagrant.
The common crow and seagulls are\ my only strong answers
Guessing the rest:
Owl
Starling
egret
falcon
I’m gonna’ say
peregrine falcon
common crow
barn owl
house sparrow
mallard
No crows in South America
Some type of Sparrows!
THE ANSWER SO FAR (as of 12/14/2016) … REVISED 1/19/2025
Common Tern
Wilson’s storm-petrel (all 7 continents, including Antarctica!)
Cattle egretsplit prior to 12/2016 but not listed that way in US at the timeGreat Egret
Osprey
Glossy Ibis ***
Peregrine Falcon
Barn swallow
Barn owlsplit in 2022Introduced around the world
Mallard
Rock Pigeon
European starling
House sparrow
* also added by Tony Bledsoe ***
Sooty Shearwater
Whimbrel
Ruddy Turnstone
Red Knot
Sanderling
Red-necked Phalarope
Parasitic Jaeger
Pomarine Jaeger
Long-tailed Jaeger
Species that do NOT occur on every continent except Antarctica:
Canada Geese: Native to North America. Introduced in Europe, New Zealand, Argentine, Chile and Falkland Islands.
Arctic Tern: This bird travels the world & spends time in Antarctica but doesn’t visit Australia.
Leach’s Petrel: This bird also travels the world and Antarctica but doesn’t go to Australia. However Wilson’s storm-petrel visits all 7 continents, perhaps the only bird that does.
Great Cormorant: Surprisingly, this bird doesn’t go to South America
Short-eared owl: Not in Australia
Crow: There are about 45 species of crows+ravens but none of them occur on all 6 of the 7 continents. In Europe “crow” means carrion crow or hooded crow (refers to 2 species). In North America “crow” means American crow, fish crow, or northwestern crow (refers to 3 species). So, no single crow species occurs worldwide.
Canada geese are present in Europe too
Trisha, Thanks for the update. I saw Canada geese when I went to London in 2017 but I forgot to correct the list. Correction made now.
Nobarn swallows in Australia, except for occasional vagrants. Only circus’s in sough America are jays.
Thanks for compiling this list. I was curious about it after showing my friends my photos from my birding trip to Australia. I have one correction to your list. Great Egrets are widespread in Australia.
Thank you, Garrett Lau. I’ve made the correction.
Hi. There used to be crows in puerto rico. Of course a native one. But was hunted extinct. Wonder if this happened too in south america
A few more:
Glossy Ibis
Sooty Shearwater
Whimbrel
Ruddy Turnstone
… and there are a few more yet, but not very many. It’s surprising, in a way, that only a handful of the roughly 10,000 species of birds on Earth today occur worldwide.
— and more 12/14/16 —
Red Knot
Sanderling
Red-necked Phalarope
Parasitic Jaeger
Pomarine Jaeger
Long-tailed Jaeger
this was fascinating! thanks for posting the answers!
If you go to http://www.iucnredlist.org/search and type in the name of a bird species, then click on the little map icon you can see a distribution map of any bird species.
Plugging in the species mentioned so far, it looks like osprey and peregrine falcon are the winners. I have not plugged them all in. (I am not counting the feral rock pigeon which infests many cities as they are descendants of escaped domestic pigeons.)
Kate, you mention that Wilson’s storm-petrel might be the only bird that visits all 7 continents. According to ebird, Pomarine jaeger also occurs in all 7 continents 🙂
Mathias
Barn Owl and Cattle Egret no longer count as they have been split into multiple species, none of which are found on all 6 continents (excluding Antarctica).
Excluding seabirds and introduced species, these are the 5 species found on the 6 continents:
• Peregrine Falcon, Falco peregrinus
• Osprey, Pandion haliaetus
• Glossy Ibis, Plegadis falcinellus
• Barn Swallow, Hirundo rustica
• Great Egret, Ardea alba
Thank you for reminding me to update this list. My original answer was posted before the barn owl split in 2022 and before cattle egrets were acknowledged as split in the U.S. I have included the three introduced species.