A new animal every day

Today · Saturday 31 October 2026

A mottled grey-brown poorwill with a large dark eye sits pressed flat against bare earth among small green shoots.
Photo: Ken-ichi Ueda · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist

Picked by voters

Common poorwill

It was the first bird known to hibernate. In cool weather it can lie still for days or even weeks, with its heartbeat and breathing slowed right down.

Lives in
DesertDry scrub, deserts and rocky hills of western North America
More about the common poorwillScientific name, size and Red List status
Scientific name
Phalaenoptilus nuttallii
Size
19–22 cm long
IUCN Red List
Least concern

Not threatened at the moment, according to the IUCN Red List. See the assessment

Fact source: Audubon

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This week

Every animal so far
  1. Mon 26Upside-down jellyfish
  2. Tue 27Boxer crab
  3. Wed 28Axolotl
  4. Thu 29Four-eyed fish
  5. Fri 30Diving bell spider
  6. Sat 31Common poorwillToday
  7. Sun 1Tomorrow’s animalin 21 h 31 min

Why Animall

People can’t care about animals they have never heard of.

Scientists still discover thousands of new animal species every year, while many others are disappearing because of habitat loss and climate change. Some die out before anyone has described them.

10,000+

new animal species are described every year.

University of Arizona, 2025

86%

of species on Earth, and 91% in the ocean, have not been described yet.

Mora et al., 2011

73%

average drop in monitored wildlife populations between 1970 and 2020.

WWF Living Planet Report, 2024