Feather & Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify feathers by species — with feather type, plumage, colours, size, habitat, and how to tell them apart in the field.
Spot-winged Grosbeak
A large Himalayan finch identified by rows of neat white spots across otherwise black wings, paired with a black head and yellow body.
songbird
Snowy-browed Owl
This tiny Asian pygmy owl is known for its compact, heavily spotted brown plumage and a pair of dark false eye-spots on the nape that help confuse predators.
owl
Spot-breasted Oriole
A boldly patterned oriole native to Central America, marked by distinctive black spots along the sides of its orange breast, with a small introduced population established in urban South Florida.
songbird
Snail Kite
A marsh-dwelling raptor with a thin, deeply curved bill for extracting apple snails, and feathers ranging from slaty gray in males to warm streaked brown in females and young birds.
raptor
Splendid Fairywren
The Splendid Fairywren is a tiny songbird whose breeding males are almost entirely brilliant blue and violet, among the most vividly coloured birds in Australia.
songbird
Smoky-brown Woodpecker
An unusually plain Neotropical woodpecker, lacking the bold barring or spotting typical of most relatives and instead showing an even smoky rufous-brown plumage.
woodpecker
Sooty Tern
A highly pelagic tropical seabird that spends years continuously at sea outside the breeding season, recognized by its blackish upperparts, crisp white underparts, and deeply forked tail.
seabird
Namaqua Dove
The Namaqua Dove is a small, long-tailed dove of arid Africa, with males showing a bold black face and throat patch and a slender, pointed tail.
dove pigeon
Sooty Shearwater
A dark, uniformly sooty-brown shearwater whose silvery-white underwing linings provide a striking flash of contrast during its long, powerful ocean flights.
seabird
Silver Gull
A common and adaptable Australian gull with white plumage, pale grey wings, and black wingtips marked with white spots.
seabird
Red-naped Sapsucker
A western counterpart to the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, distinguished by a red patch on the nape in addition to the red forehead.
woodpecker
Shoebill
An unmistakable, prehistoric-looking African swamp bird named for its massive, shoe-shaped bill, with an overall slate blue-grey plumage and a shaggy crest at the back of the head.
wading bird
Pectoral Sandpiper
A medium-sized sandpiper with a sharply demarcated brown, streaked breast band ending abruptly against a clean white belly.
shorebird
Shining Sunbeam
A warm cinnamon-toned Andean hummingbird whose wings and back flash with a distinctive coppery-bronze iridescence in flight or sunlight.
hummingbird
Northern Cardinal
The Northern Cardinal is a stocky, crested songbird whose males shed brilliant all-red feathers while females drop more subdued brown feathers tinged with red on the wings, tail and crest.
songbird
Seaside Sparrow
A dark, long-billed sparrow tightly restricted to coastal salt marshes, with a small yellow spot in front of the eye.
songbird
Red-lored Amazon
The Red-lored Amazon is a widespread Central American parrot identified by the band of red across its forehead and lores, bordered by blue on the crown.
parrot
Scottish Crossbill
A crossbill endemic to Scotland's native pinewoods, intermediate in bill size between the Common and Parrot Crossbills it closely resembles.
songbird
Red-legged Honeycreeper
A small tropical songbird whose breeding males flash violet-blue plumage against solid black wings and tail, while females and non-breeding males wear soft green. It ranges from Mexico through much of South America, favoring forest edges and gardens where it sips nectar and gleans fruit.
songbird
Scarlet Macaw
A vividly colored large macaw with a scarlet-red body, bold yellow-and-blue wing patches, and a long red tail tipped in blue, ranging across lowland tropical forest from Mexico to South America.
parrot
Scarlet Ibis
A brilliantly colored South American and Caribbean ibis, entirely vivid scarlet-red apart from black wingtips, closely related to the American White Ibis but far more vividly pigmented.
wading bird
Red-headed Woodpecker
One of the most strikingly patterned North American woodpeckers, with an entirely crimson-red head set against bold black-and-white body plumage.
woodpecker
Scarlet Tanager
A jewel of the eastern deciduous forest canopy, the breeding male Scarlet Tanager combines brilliant scarlet body plumage with jet-black wings and tail.
songbird
Red-headed Bullfinch
A striking Himalayan bullfinch with a glowing orange-red crown and nape that sets it apart from all its relatives.
songbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
An unmistakable flycatcher with an extremely long, deeply forked black-and-white tail and soft salmon-pink flanks against pale gray plumage.
songbird
Red-footed Booby
The smallest and most variably plumaged booby, occurring in white, brown, and intermediate color morphs, all sharing distinctive red feet.
seabird
Sharp-shinned Hawk
The Sharp-shinned Hawk is North America's smallest accipiter, with short rounded wings, a long square-tipped banded tail, and adult plumage of slate-grey upperparts with fine rufous barring below, built for darting through dense cover.
raptor
Red-fronted Macaw
A medium-sized olive-green macaw with a bright red forehead band and red patch around the eye, restricted to dry canyon country in Bolivia.
parrot
Senegal Parrot
The Senegal Parrot is a small, stocky West African parrot with a grey head, green back, and a bright yellow-orange belly marking shaped like a V.
parrot
Red-faced Warbler
A gray-backed, high-mountain warbler with a strikingly bright red face and throat set off by a black crown and nape, unlike any other North American warbler.
songbird
Short-toed Treecreeper
The Short-toed Treecreeper is a small, bark-colored woodland bird that spirals up tree trunks probing for insects, its mottled brown plumage providing near-perfect camouflage against bark.
songbird
Short-toed Snake Eagle
The Short-toed Snake Eagle is a pale-bellied Eurasian eagle with brown upperparts, a mottled brown breast, finely barred flight and tail feathers, and a large owl-like head adapted for scanning the ground for reptile prey.
raptor
Red Collared-Dove
A small Asian dove with pronounced sexual dimorphism, the male showing a rich wine-red body while the female is a much duller grayish-brown.
dove pigeon
Say's Phoebe
A pale, sandy-toned flycatcher of dry open country, distinguished by its cinnamon-buff belly and habit of hovering while foraging.
songbird
Red-breasted Sapsucker
A Pacific coast sapsucker whose entire head and breast are washed red, lacking the striped face pattern of its inland relatives.
woodpecker
Savannah Sparrow
A common, finely streaked grassland sparrow with a short notched tail and a hint of yellow over the eye, blending easily into open fields.
songbird
Red-breasted Nuthatch
The Red-breasted Nuthatch is a small conifer-forest nuthatch whose rusty-orange underside feathers and bold black eye-stripe set it apart from its white-breasted relative.
songbird
Satin Bowerbird
The Satin Bowerbird is famous for the male's glossy blue-black plumage and violet eyes, and for its habit of building and decorating an elaborate bower with blue objects to attract mates.
songbird
Red-breasted Merganser
The Red-breasted Merganser is a slim, crested fish-eating duck with a shaggy double crest and a streaked rusty breast that sets it apart from its Common Merganser relative.
waterfowl
Rufous Woodpecker
An unusually uniform rufous-brown woodpecker of South and Southeast Asia, best known for nesting inside the arboreal nests of tree ants.
woodpecker
Red-billed Quelea
A small African weaver famous for forming the largest flocks of any wild bird, with breeding males sporting a bold black or white facial mask and a bright red bill.
songbird
Sage Thrasher
The smallest and most compact North American thrasher, a streaky gray-brown bird of sagebrush country with a shorter, straighter bill than its relatives.
songbird
Red-billed Hornbill
A small African hornbill with a long red bill, spotted grey-brown upperparts, and white underparts, common in savanna and open woodland.
other
Sandwich Tern
A slender, crested tern of sandy coastlines, easily recognized by its shaggy black crest and long, slim black bill with a distinctive yellow tip.
seabird
Red-billed Chough
An all-black cliff-dwelling corvid with a long curved red bill and red legs, known for its acrobatic flight over coastal and mountain terrain.
corvid
Sacred Ibis
A large white wading bird with a bare black head and curved black bill, historically significant in ancient Egyptian culture and common across African wetlands today.
wading bird
Red-bellied Woodpecker
A common eastern woodpecker with a finely barred, ladder-like back pattern unique among familiar woodpeckers, and a red cap or nape depending on sex.
woodpecker
Rufous Owl
The Rufous Owl is a large, richly colored hawk-owl of northern Australia and New Guinea, its warm rufous-brown feathers finely barred throughout and its head rounded without ear tufts.
owl