Northern Territory is a territory in Australia, with 448 species of bird recorded.
 This list is based on the 1996 classification by Sibley and Monroe (though there has been a recent (2008) extensive revision of Australian birds by Christidis and Boles), which has resulted in some lumping and splitting. Their system has been developed over nearly two decades and has strong local support, but deviates in important ways from more generally accepted schemes. Supplemental updates follow The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World, 2022 edition.
 The following tags have been used to highlight several categories. The commonly occurring native species do not fall into any of these categories.
  Order: Casuariiformes   Family: Casuariidae
 This family of flightless ratite birds is represented by two living species in Australia. Another two species are found in New Guinea. The extinct, geographically isolated King and Kangaroo Island emus were historically considered to be separate species to mainland emus. However, genetic evidence from 2011 suggests that all three are conspecific.
 Order: Anseriformes   Family: Anseranatidae
 The family contains a single species, the magpie goose. It was an early and distinctive offshoot of the anseriform family tree, diverging after the screamers and before all other ducks, geese and swans, sometime in the late Cretaceous. The single species is found across Australia.
 Order: Anseriformes   Family: Anatidae
 The family Anatidae includes the ducks and most duck-like waterfowl, such as geese and swans. These are adapted for an aquatic existence, with webbed feet, bills that are flattened to a greater or lesser extent, and feathers that are excellent at shedding water due to special oils.
 Order: Galliformes   Family: Megapodiidae
 Megapodiidae are represented by various species in the Australasian region. They are commonly referred to as "mound-builders" due to their habit of constructing large mounds to incubate their eggs.
 Order: Galliformes   Family: Phasianidae
 Phasianidae consists of the pheasants and their allies. These are terrestrial species, variable in size but generally plump, with broad, relatively short wings. Many species are gamebirds or have been domesticated as a food source for humans.
 Order: Podicipediformes   Family: Podicipedidae
 Grebes are small to medium-large freshwater diving birds. They have lobed toes and are excellent swimmers and divers. However, they have their feet placed far back on the body, making them quite ungainly on land.
 Order: Columbiformes   Family: Columbidae
 Pigeons and doves are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills with a fleshy cere.
 Order: Otidiformes   Family: Otididae
 Bustards are large terrestrial birds mainly associated with dry open country and steppes in the Old World. They are omnivorous and nest on the ground. They walk steadily on strong legs and big toes, pecking for food as they go. They have long broad wings with "fingered" wingtips and striking patterns in flight. Many have interesting mating displays.
 Order: Cuculiformes   Family: Cuculidae
 The family Cuculidae includes cuckoos, roadrunners and anis. These birds are of variable size with slender bodies, long tails and strong legs. The Old World cuckoos are brood parasites.
 Order: Caprimulgiformes   Family: Podargidae
 The frogmouths are a distinctive group of small nocturnal birds related to swifts found from India across southern Asia to Australia.
 Order: Caprimulgiformes   Family: Caprimulgidae
 Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal birds that usually nest on the ground. They have long wings, short legs and very short bills. Most have small feet, of little use for walking, and long pointed wings. Their soft plumage is camouflaged to resemble bark or leaves.
 Order: Caprimulgiformes   Family: Aegothelidae
 The owlet-nightjars are a distinctive group of small nocturnal birds related to swifts found from the Maluku Islands and New Guinea to Australia and New Caledonia.
 Order: Caprimulgiformes   Family: Apodidae
 Swifts are small birds which spend the majority of their lives flying. These birds have very short legs and never settle voluntarily on the ground, perching instead only on vertical surfaces. Many swifts have long swept-back wings which resemble a crescent or boomerang.
 Order: Gruiformes   Family: Rallidae
 Rallidae is a large family of small to medium-sized birds which includes the rails, crakes, coots and gallinules. Typically they inhabit dense vegetation in damp environments near lakes, swamps or rivers. In general they are shy and secretive birds, making them difficult to observe. Most species have strong legs and long toes which are well adapted to soft uneven surfaces. They tend to have short, rounded wings and to be weak fliers.
 Order: Gruiformes   Family: Gruidae
 Cranes are large, long-legged and long-necked birds. Unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back. Most have elaborate and noisy courting displays or "dances".
 Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Burhinidae
 The thick-knees are a group of largely tropical waders in the family Burhinidae. They are found worldwide within the tropical zone, with some species also breeding in temperate Europe and Australia. They are medium to large waders with strong black or yellow-black bills, large yellow eyes and cryptic plumage. Despite being classed as waders, most species have a preference for arid or semi-arid habitats.
 Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Recurvirostridae
 Recurvirostridae is a family of large wading birds, which includes the avocets and stilts. The avocets have long legs and long up-curved bills. The stilts have extremely long legs and long, thin straight bills.
 Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Haematopodidae
 The oystercatchers are large and noisy plover-like birds, with strong bills used for smashing or prising open molluscs.
 Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Charadriidae
 The family Charadriidae includes the plovers, dotterels and lapwings. They are small to medium-sized birds with compact bodies, short, thick necks and long, usually pointed, wings. They are found in open country worldwide, mostly in habitats near water.
 Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Rostratulidae
 Painted-snipes are short-legged, long-billed birds similar in shape to the true snipes, but more brightly coloured.
 Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Jacanidae
 The jacanas are a group of waders found throughout the tropics. They are identifiable by their huge feet and claws which enable them to walk on floating vegetation in the shallow lakes that are their preferred habitat.
 Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Scolopacidae
 Scolopacidae is a large diverse family of small to medium-sized shorebirds including the sandpipers, curlews, godwits, shanks, tattlers, woodcocks, snipes, dowitchers, and phalaropes. The majority of these species eat small invertebrates picked out of the mud or soil. Variation in length of legs and bills enables multiple species to feed in the same habitat, particularly on the coast, without direct competition for food.
 Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Turnicidae
 The buttonquails are small, drab, running birds which resemble the true quails. The female is the brighter of the sexes and initiates courtship. The male incubates the eggs and tends the young.
 Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Glareolidae
 Glareolidae is a family of wading birds comprising the pratincoles, which have short legs, long pointed wings, and long forked tails, and the coursers, which have long legs, short wings, and long, pointed bills which curve downwards.
 Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Stercorariidae
 The family Stercorariidae are, in general, medium to large birds, typically with grey or brown plumage, often with white markings on the wings. They nest on the ground in temperate and arctic regions and are long-distance migrants.
 Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Laridae
 Laridae is a family of medium to large seabirds, the gulls, terns, and skimmers. Gulls are typically grey or white, often with black markings on the head or wings. They have stout, longish bills and webbed feet. Terns are a group of generally medium to large seabirds typically with grey or white plumage, often with black markings on the head. Most terns hunt fish by diving but some pick insects off the surface of fresh water. Terns are generally long-lived birds, with several species known to live in excess of 30 years. Skimmers are a small family of tropical tern-like birds. They have an elongated lower mandible which they use to feed by flying low over the water surface and skimming the water for small fish.
 Order: Phaethontiformes   Family: Phaethontidae
 Tropicbirds are slender white birds of tropical oceans, with exceptionally long central tail feathers. Their long wings have black markings, as does the head.
 Order: Procellariiformes   Family: Oceanitidae
 The southern storm-petrels are the smallest seabirds, relatives of the petrels, feeding on planktonic crustaceans and small fish picked from the surface, typically while hovering. Their flight is fluttering and sometimes bat-like.
 Order: Procellariiformes   Family: Hydrobatidae
 Though the members of this family are similar in many respects to the southern storm-petrels, including their general appearance and habits, there are enough genetic differences to warrant their placement in a separate family.
 Order: Procellariiformes   Family: Procellariidae
 The procellariids are the main group of medium-sized "true petrels", characterised by united nostrils with medium nasal septum, and a long outer functional primary flight feather.
 Order: Ciconiiformes   Family: Ciconiidae
 Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked, wading birds with long, stout bills. Storks are mute, but bill-clattering is an important mode of communication at the nest. Their nests can be large and may be reused for many years.
 Order: Suliformes   Family: Fregatidae
 Frigatebirds are large seabirds usually found over tropical oceans. They are large, black, or black-and-white, with long wings and deeply forked tails. The males have coloured inflatable throat pouches. They do not swim or walk and cannot take off from a flat surface. Having the largest wingspan-to-body-weight ratio of any bird, they are essentially aerial, able to stay aloft for more than a week.
 Order: Suliformes   Family: Sulidae
 The sulids comprise the gannets and boobies. Both groups are medium-large coastal seabirds that plunge-dive for fish.
 Order: Suliformes   Family: Anhingidae
 Anhingas or darters are cormorant-like water birds with long necks and long, straight bills. They are fish eaters which often swim with only their neck above the water.
 Order: Suliformes   Family: Phalacrocoracidae
 Cormorants are medium-to-large aquatic birds, usually with mainly dark plumage and areas of coloured skin on the face. The bill is long, thin and sharply hooked. Their feet are four-toed and webbed, a distinguishing feature among the order Pelecaniformes.
 Order: Pelecaniformes   Family: Pelecanidae
 Pelicans are large water birds with distinctive pouches under their bills. Like other birds in the order Pelecaniformes, they have four webbed toes.
 Order: Pelecaniformes   Family: Ardeidae
 The family Ardeidae contains the bitterns, herons, and egrets. Herons and egrets are medium to large wading birds with long necks and legs. Bitterns tend to be shorter necked and more wary. Members of Ardeidae fly with their necks retracted, unlike other long-necked birds such as storks, ibises, and spoonbills.
 Order: Pelecaniformes   Family: Threskiornithidae
 Threskiornithidae is a family of large terrestrial and wading birds which includes the ibises and spoonbills. They have long, broad wings with 11 primary and about 20 secondary feathers. They are strong fliers and despite their size and weight, very capable soarers.
 Order: Accipitriformes   Family: Pandionidae
 The family Pandionidae contains only one species, the osprey. The osprey is a medium-large raptor which is a specialist fish-eater with a worldwide distribution.
 Order: Accipitriformes   Family: Accipitridae
 Accipitridae is a family of birds of prey, which includes hawks, eagles, kites, harriers and Old World vultures. These birds have powerful hooked beaks for tearing flesh from their prey, strong legs, powerful talons and keen eyesight.
 Order: Strigiformes   Family: Tytonidae
 Barn-owls are medium to large owls with large heads and characteristic heart-shaped faces. They have long strong legs with powerful talons.
 Order: Strigiformes   Family: Strigidae
 The typical owls are small to large solitary nocturnal birds of prey. They have large forward-facing eyes and ears, a hawk-like beak, and a conspicuous circle of feathers around each eye called a facial disk.
 Southern boobook, Ninox boobook
 Order: Bucerotiformes   Family: Upupidae
 Hoopoes have black, white, and orangey-pink colouring with a large erectile crest on their head.
 Order: Coraciiformes   Family: Alcedinidae
 Kingfishers are medium-sized birds with large heads, long pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails.
 Order: Coraciiformes   Family: Meropidae
 The bee-eaters are a group of near passerine birds in the family Meropidae. Most species are found in Africa but others occur in southern Europe, Madagascar, Australia, and New Guinea. They are characterised by richly coloured plumage, slender bodies, and usually elongated central tail feathers. All are colourful and have long downturned bills and pointed wings, which give them a swallow-like appearance when seen from afar.
 Order: Coraciiformes   Family: Coraciidae
 Rollers resemble crows in size and build, but are more closely related to the kingfishers and bee-eaters. They share the colourful appearance of those groups with blues and browns predominating. The two inner front toes are connected, but the outer toe is not.
 Order: Falconiformes   Family: Falconidae
 Falconidae is a family of diurnal birds of prey. They differ from hawks, eagles, and kites in that they kill with their beaks instead of their talons.
 Order: Psittaciformes   Family: Cacatuidae
 The cockatoos share many features with other parrots including the characteristic curved beak shape and a zygodactyl foot, with two forward toes and two backwards toes. They differ, however in a number of characteristics, including the often spectacular movable headcrest.
 Order: Psittaciformes   Family: Psittaculidae
 Characteristic features of parrots include a strong curved bill, an upright stance, strong legs, and clawed zygodactyl feet. Many parrots are vividly coloured, and some are multi-coloured. In size they range from 8 cm (3.1 in) to 1 m (3.3 ft) in length. Old World parrots are found from Africa east across south and southeast Asia and Oceania to Australia and New Zealand.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Pittidae
 Pittas are medium-sized by passerine standards and are stocky, with fairly long, strong legs, short tails, and stout bills. Many are brightly coloured. They spend the majority of their time on wet forest floors, eating snails, insects, and similar invertebrates.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Ptilonorhynchidae
 The bowerbirds are small to medium-sized passerine birds. The males notably build a bower to attract a mate. Depending on the species, the bower ranges from a circle of cleared earth with a small pile of twigs in the center to a complex and highly decorated structure of sticks and leaves.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Climacteridae
 The Climacteridae are medium-small, mostly brown-coloured birds with patterning on their underparts.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Maluridae
 Maluridae is a family of small, insectivorous passerine birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea. They are socially monogamous and sexually promiscuous, meaning that although they form pairs between one male and one female, each partner will mate with other individuals and even assist in raising the young from such pairings.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Meliphagidae
 The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family of small to medium-sized birds most common in Australia and New Guinea. They are nectar feeders and closely resemble other nectar-feeding passerines.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Pardalotidae
 Pardalotes spend most of their time high in the outer foliage of trees, feeding on insects, spiders, and above all lerps (a type of sap-sucking insect).
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Acanthizidae
 Thornbills are small passerine birds, similar in habits to the tits.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Pomatostomidae
 The pseudo-babblers are small to medium-sized birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea. They are ground-feeding omnivores and highly social.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Cinclosomatidae
 The Cinclosomatidae is a family containing jewel-babblers and quail-thrushes.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Campephagidae
 The cuckooshrikes are small to medium-sized passerine birds. They are predominantly greyish with white and black, although some species are brightly coloured.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Neosittidae
 The sittellas are a family of small passerine birds found only in Australasia. They resemble treecreepers, but have soft tails.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Psophodidae
 The Psophodidae is a family containing whipbirds and wedgebills.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Oreoicidae
 The three species contained in the family have been moved around between different families for fifty years. A series of studies of the DNA of Australian birds between 2006 and 2001 found strong support for treating the three genera as a new family, which was formally named in 2016.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Falcunculidae
 The shrike-tits have a parrot-like bill, used for distinctive bark-stripping behaviour, which gains it access to invertebrates
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Pachycephalidae
 The family Pachycephalidae includes the whistlers, shrikethrushes, and some of the pitohuis.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Oriolidae
 The Old World orioles are colourful passerine birds. They are not related to the New World orioles.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Artamidae
 The woodswallows are soft-plumaged, somber-coloured passerine birds. They are smooth, agile flyers with moderately large, semi-triangular wings. The cracticids: currawongs, bellmagpies and butcherbirds, are similar to the other corvids. They have large, straight bills and mostly black, white or grey plumage. All are omnivorous to some degree.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Rhipiduridae
 The fantails are small insectivorous birds which are specialist aerial feeders.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Dicruridae
 The drongos are mostly black or dark grey in colour, sometimes with metallic tints. They have long forked tails, and some Asian species have elaborate tail decorations. They have short legs and sit very upright when perched, like a shrike. They flycatch or take prey from the ground.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Monarchidae
 The monarch flycatchers are small to medium-sized insectivorous passerines which hunt by flycatching.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Corcoracidae
 They are found in open habitat in eastern Australia, mostly open eucalypt woodlands and some forest that lacks a closed canopy. They are highly social, spend much of their time foraging through leaf litter with a very distinctive gait, calling to one another almost constantly
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Corvidae
 The family Corvidae includes crows, ravens, jays, choughs, magpies, treepies, nutcrackers and ground jays. Corvids are above average in size among the Passeriformes, and some of the larger species show high levels of intelligence.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Petroicidae
 Most species of Petroicidae have a stocky build with a large rounded head, a short straight bill and rounded wingtips. They occupy a wide range of wooded habitats, from subalpine to tropical rainforest, and mangrove swamp to semi-arid scrubland. All are primarily insectivores, although a few supplement their diet with seeds.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Alaudidae
 Larks are small terrestrial birds with often extravagant songs and display flights. Most larks are fairly dull in appearance. Their food is insects and seeds.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Cisticolidae
 The Cisticolidae are warblers found mainly in warmer southern regions of the Old World. They are generally very small birds of drab brown or grey appearance found in open country such as grassland or scrub.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Acrocephalidae
 The members of this family are usually rather large for "warblers". Most are rather plain olivaceous brown above with much yellow to beige below. They are usually found in open woodland, reedbeds, or tall grass. The family occurs mostly in southern to western Eurasia and surroundings, but it also ranges far into the Pacific, with some species in Africa.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Locustellidae
 Locustellidae are a family of small insectivorous songbirds found mainly in Eurasia, Africa, and the Australian region. They are smallish birds with tails that are usually long and pointed, and tend to be drab brownish or buffy all over.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Hirundinidae
 The family Hirundinidae is adapted to aerial feeding. They have a slender streamlined body, long pointed wings, and a short bill with a wide gape. The feet are adapted to perching rather than walking, and the front toes are partially joined at the base.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Zosteropidae
 The white-eyes are small birds of rather drab appearance, the plumage above being typically greenish-olive, but some species have a white or bright yellow throat, breast, or lower parts, and several have buff flanks. As the name suggests, many species have a white ring around each eye.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Sturnidae
 Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds. Their flight is strong and direct and they are very gregarious. Their preferred habitat is fairly open country. They eat insects and fruit. Plumage is typically dark with a metallic sheen.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Dicaeidae
 The flowerpeckers are very small, stout, often brightly coloured birds, with short tails, short thick curved bills, and tubular tongues.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Nectariniidae
 The sunbirds and spiderhunters are very small passerine birds which feed largely on nectar, although they will also take insects, especially when feeding young. Their flight is fast and direct on short wings. Most species can take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird, but usually perch to feed.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Estrildidae
 The estrildid finches are small passerine birds of the Old World tropics and Australasia. They are gregarious and often colonial seed eaters with short thick but pointed bills. They are all similar in structure and habits, but have wide variation in plumage colours and patterns.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Passeridae
 Old World sparrows are small passerine birds, typically small, plump, brown or grey with short tails and short powerful beaks. They are seed-eaters, but also consume small insects.
 Order: Passeriformes   Family: Motacillidae
 Motacillidae is a family of small passerine birds with medium to long tails and comprises the wagtails, longclaws, and pipits. These are slender ground-feeding insectivores of open country.