Posted by Steve Boyes of National Geographic Expeditions on April 17, 2014

Tawny frogmouths have been around for about 56 million years and are found throughout the Australian mainland, Tasmania and southern New Guinea. Photographed here in Byron Bay (New South Wales, Australia). (Deborah Pearse)

“Down you go…” Brown-headed gulls breed in the high plateaus of central Asia from Tajikistan to Inner Mongolia, wintering on the coasts and large inland lakes of tropical S Asia. (Akshay Jadhav)

“Purple gem” Purple sunbirds prefer sparse woodlands, suburban gardens, and even urban areas from W Asia through to the Indian Subcontinent and into SE Asia. (Mahesh Lakshminarayana)

“Forest special” Striped kingfisher are distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa with the exception of the dense tropical forests of the Congo Basin, the extreme NE, and most of Namibia and NE South Africa. (Andrew Keys)

“Botswana’s yellow foot” Little egrets breed in the wetlands of warmer temperate to tropical parts of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. N populations (e.g. Europe) migrate S to Africa and S Asia for winter. (Ashish Inamdar)

“Green hawking” Green bee-eaters are widely distributed across sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal and the Gambia to Ethiopia, the Nile valley, W Arabia and Asia through India to Vietnam. (Deepansh Mishra)

“Sunset flyer” Green bee-eaters prefer opemn, scruby landscapes and are most common in the Himalayas. (Ankur Patel)

“Best of the forest” Green-backed kingfishers are endemic to Indonesia and are threatened by habitat loss in subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. ( Jonathan Rossouw)

“Flying banana” Southern yellow-billed hornbills are a relatively common sighting in the savanna bushveld of S Africa in South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. (Paul Parsonage)

“Unique American” Rufous-tailed jacamars breed in the tropical New World in S Mexico, Central America and South America all the way down to S Brazil and Ecuador. (Owen Deutsch)

“Leaf litter specialist” Orange-headed thrushes are relatively common in well-wooded areas of the Indian Subcontinent and SE Asia. Photographed here in Bangalore (India). (Shishir Saksena)

“Little inspector” Mountain wren-babblers prefer the subtropical or tropical moist lowland and montane forests of Indonesia and Malaysia. Photographed here in W Java (Indonesia). (Arun Samak)

“Daytime camouflage” Mottled wood owls are found in gardens and deciduous forests near dry thorn forests or farmlands in India. Photographed here in Pune (Maharashtra, India). (Kedar Potnis)

“Wringling prize” Lilac-breasted rollers are a cavity-nesting insectivore that prefers open woodlands and are widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa and the S Arabian Peninsula. (Saravanan Sundaram)

“Flash of color” Knysna turacos are resident breeders in evergreen hardwood forests of S and E South Africa, as well as Swaziland. Photographed here in Plettenberg Bay (South Africa). (Claire Hamilton)

“Horned night watchmen” Indian eagle owls are found in open wooded areas near rocky outcrops on the Indian Subcontinent S of the Himalayas at lower altitudes. (Pritam Pashte)

“Obsessed fisherman” Ospreys are one of the most widely distributed raptors in the world and have been demonstrated to breed successfully at the age of 28. (Raghu Narayan)

“Fuzzed up” Yellow-browed bulbuls are found mainly below the forest canopy of hill forests and plantations in the W Ghats and Sri Lanka. (Rahul Deshpande)

“Little brown job” Brown-breasted flycatchers breeds in NE India, central and S China and N Burma and Thailand, and migrates to S India and Sri Lanka. (Rahul Deshpande)

“Red cheeks” Red-whiskered bulbuls are distributed across tropical Asia, but have established feral populations in Australia, Los Angeles, Hawaii and Florida in the United States, and Mauritius. (Pratik Humnabadkar)

“At home in the hole” Spotted owlets are a well-known little owl that prefers open habitats like farmlands and cities often using human habitation across tropical Asia from India all the way to SE Asia. (Santhosh Kumar)

“Flashy feathers” Scarlet minivets are found in forests and well-wooded habitats in tropical S Asia from the Indian subcontinent E to S China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Photographed here in Siliguri (India). (Debapratim Saha)

“Delicate butterfly landing” Blue-tailed bee-eaters sit on open perches to hawk for insects like bees, wasps, hornets and butterflies. (Solomon Sampath Kumar)

“Heated discussion” Blue-tailed bee-eater are a distinctive near-passerine resident across much of SE Asia with several populations migrating to the Indian Subcontinent to breed. (Solomon Sampath Kumar)

“Sough-after color bomb” Tickell’s blue flycatchers have a wide distributional range stretching from India all he way to Indonesia. Photographed here in Bangalore (India). (Shishir Saksena)