Here’s a whirlwind tour of the Wind Instruments, or Woodwinds (even though many of them are no longer made of any wood). Unlike the strings, which as a section have a continuous and uniform sound across their ranges, wind instruments have individual personalities and characteristic sounds that are so distinctive that there are often only two or three oboe players in an orchestra, balancing a few dozen violins.
This isn’t by any means an exhaustive list – a number of additional instruments extend the ranges of each example, but these are some of the most frequently found in an orchestra, and the wind instrument players will frequently be asked to “double” on other instruments, so a piccolo part will be played by a member of the flute section, English horn by an oboist, etc.
There’s a wonderful series of videos by members of the Philharmonia Orchestra introducing their instruments:
