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.
Lesser Rhea
A smaller relative of the Greater Rhea found in Patagonia and the high Andes, with soft mottled brown plumage flecked with pale feather tips that give it a speckled appearance.
other
Purple Martin
The largest North American swallow, with males showing an all-over glossy blue-black sheen and females a duller gray-brown, pale-bellied pattern.
songbird
Ring-necked Dove
One of the most familiar doves across sub-Saharan Africa, soft grayish-brown overall with a neat black half-collar and a gentle, rhythmic call.
dove pigeon
Common Murre
A slender, upright seabird resembling a small penguin in posture, with chocolate-brown upperparts and clean white underparts, breeding in dense colonies on narrow sea cliffs.
seabird
Harris's Hawk
A dark chestnut-brown desert hawk notable for its social, cooperative hunting behavior, with a bold black-and-white tail pattern and chestnut shoulder patches.
raptor
Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker
A small, widespread Asian woodpecker with a grey-brown crown and crisply barred back, closely resembling other pygmy woodpeckers across its broad range.
woodpecker
Green-cheeked Conure
A small, compact South American conure with green cheeks, a grey-brown crown, and a distinctive maroon-red tail contrasting with its mostly green body.
parrot
Chimney Swift
A cigar-shaped aerial bird with uniformly sooty gray-brown plumage and stiff, spine-tipped tail feathers used to brace against vertical surfaces.
other
California Thrasher
The largest North American thrasher, a dark chocolate-brown bird of California chaparral with a long, strongly curved bill adapted for digging through leaf litter.
songbird
Winter Wren
A tiny, rounded, rufous-brown wren of dense eastern forest understory, told from its close relatives mainly by voice and range, given its very similar plumage.
songbird
Scarlet-chested Sunbird
A dark African sunbird whose males show a striking scarlet breast patch bordered above by an iridescent green throat and crown, set against otherwise blackish-brown plumage.
songbird
Saker Falcon
The Saker Falcon is a large, powerfully built falcon of the Eurasian steppes, prized historically in falconry, with pale sandy-brown plumage and long tapered wings suited to open-country pursuit.
raptor
Mourning Dove
A common, slender dove whose long, pointed, white-edged tail feathers and soft muted tan-brown coloring make it a familiar sight and sound across open country.
dove pigeon
Eyebrowed Thrush
The Eyebrowed Thrush is an olive-brown Asian thrush marked by a bold white eyebrow stripe and an orange-buff wash across the breast, breeding in Siberian taiga and wintering in tropical Asia.
songbird
Great Skua
A powerfully built, gull-sized seabird cloaked in dark brown plumage flecked with rufous and buff, best known for its bold white wing-flash and aggressive, piratical habits.
seabird
Australian Wood Duck
The Australian Wood Duck is a distinctive grazing duck, the male showing a dark chocolate-brown head with a low mane, often seen on pasture and grassland rather than open water.
waterfowl
Red-breasted Meadowlark
A grassland songbird of South America, with males showing a striking bright red throat and breast against an otherwise black body, while females are cryptically streaked brown.
songbird
Northern Flicker
A large, brown-barred woodpecker best identified by the bright yellow or salmon-red shafts of its flight feathers, along with a black chest crescent and spotted underside.
woodpecker
Spot-winged Falconet
A small, distinctive South American falcon of arid scrub and Chaco woodland, showing white-spotted wings against brown-grey upperparts and streaked buffy underparts.
raptor
Spanish Imperial Eagle
A rare Iberian eagle marked by a bold, creamy-white leading-edge patch on the upperwing that stands out sharply against otherwise blackish-brown body plumage.
raptor
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
European Robin
An iconic garden songbird with a vivid orange-red face and breast set against olive-brown upperparts, one of the most recognizable feather patterns in European gardens.
songbird
Eurasian Curlew
Europe and Asia's largest curlew, with a long downcurved bill and streaky grayish-brown plumage, best known for its evocative bubbling call across moorlands and mudflats.
shorebird
Eurasian Blackbird
A familiar thrush of European gardens and woodland, with males entirely glossy black offset by a bright yellow-orange bill, while females are a more subdued dark brown.
songbird