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.
Willet
A large, plain-looking shorebird that transforms in flight, revealing a bold black-and-white wing pattern unlike any other North American sandpiper.
shorebird
Tricolored Heron
A slender dark heron of the Americas, easily told from other dark herons by the crisp white line running down its foreneck and belly.
wading bird
Speckled Wood Pigeon
The Speckled Wood Pigeon is a richly colored Himalayan pigeon with a deep maroon body and a patch of fine white speckling across the back of its neck.
dove pigeon
Speckled Pigeon
A large African pigeon with striking reddish-brown wings covered in bold white spots and a patch of bare red skin around each eye.
dove pigeon
Silvereye
The Silvereye is a tiny olive-green songbird with a bold white eye-ring, common in gardens, scrub, and forest edges across Australia and New Zealand.
songbird
Ring Ouzel
A blackbird relative of upland Europe, told from the Eurasian Blackbird by its bold white crescent across the breast and pale-scaled wing feathers.
songbird
Pine Bunting
The Pine Bunting is a Siberian relative of the Yellowhammer, with breeding males showing a striking white head pattern and chestnut breast band instead of yellow tones.
songbird
Hooded Merganser
The Hooded Merganser is a small, richly patterned fish-eating duck whose male displays a spectacular fan-shaped white crest bordered in black.
waterfowl
Mountain Chickadee
The Mountain Chickadee is a western conifer-forest specialist whose black cap is broken by a bold white eyebrow stripe not seen in other common chickadees.
songbird
Mistle Thrush
The largest and boldest-marked of the common European thrushes, with large, rounded blackish spots on cream underparts and white corners visible on the outer tail feathers.
songbird
Masked Booby
The largest booby species, with a clean white body set off by black flight feathers, a black tail, and a dark facial mask around the bill.
seabird
Egyptian Vulture
The smallest and most lightly built Old World vulture, with creamy-white body feathers, black flight feathers, and a distinctive wedge-shaped tail.
raptor
Eclectus Parrot
A parrot with extreme visual differences between the sexes: males are bright emerald green, while females are bright red with a blue-purple breast and belly.
parrot
Crimson-crested Woodpecker
A striking South American woodpecker whose entirely crimson head and crest stand out sharply against its black-and-white barred body.
woodpecker
Capped Heron
A softly colored South American heron with creamy buff-white plumage, a glossy black cap, and long pale plumes trailing from the crown.
wading bird
Canyon Wren
A rufous-brown, cliff-dwelling wren with a striking bright white throat, best known for its cascading, silvery song that echoes through canyons.
songbird
Brown-fronted Woodpecker
A small Himalayan woodpecker with a brown forehead patch and finely barred black-and-white back, sharing similarities with related pied woodpeckers at lower elevations.
woodpecker
Barbary Partridge
A North African partridge distinguished from its close relatives by a chestnut necklace speckled with white spots rather than a solid black gorget.
gamebird
Limpkin
A brown, white-spotted wading bird related to both rails and cranes, known for its loud, wailing calls and long, slightly downcurved bill.
wading bird
Common Crane
A widespread Eurasian crane with slate-grey plumage, a black-and-white striped head and neck, and drooping tertial plumes that form a bustle over the tail.
wading bird
Wonga Pigeon
The Wonga Pigeon is a plump, ground-dwelling Australian pigeon known for the bold black chevron markings across its white lower breast and belly.
dove pigeon
Smith's Longspur
Smith's Longspur is an Arctic-breeding songbird notable for its warm buff-orange underparts and bold black-and-white head pattern in breeding plumage.
songbird
Western Kingbird
A pale gray-headed flycatcher with a yellow belly, often seen perched on wires in open country, told by white edges on its blackish tail.
songbird
Wandering Albatross
The largest of all flying birds by wingspan, an immense white seabird of the Southern Ocean whose plumage whitens progressively with age over many years.
seabird