What is the name of the nine-headed bird in Chinese mythology?

The nine-headed bird in Chinese mythology is Jiutouniao.

Jiutouniao (九头鸟) is a legendary bird associated with ancient Chu culture in what is now Hubei Province. It is also called Jiufeng, or the “Nine Phoenix,” and is regarded as an early form of the fenghuang in some accounts. The bird’s nine heads symbolize its extraordinary and ominous nature.

The creature later appears in legends as a frightening supernatural bird. A related figure in the classic novel Journey to the West is the Nine-Headed Beast, whose one head is bitten off by Erlang Shen’s celestial hound. That beast is not always identical to the earlier Jiutouniao tradition, so the names should not automatically be treated as interchangeable.

Jiutouniao is also a modern cultural reference: “nine-headed bird” became a derogatory expression for people from Hubei. The answer is therefore distinct from Zhenniao, a poisonous bird, and Peng, the enormous legendary bird associated with transformation and vast journeys.