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.
Picui Ground Dove
A small, pale ground dove of open southern South American country, marked by neat blackish spots on its wing coverts and flashes of blue-grey in flight.
dove pigeon
Pacific Black Duck
The Pacific Black Duck is a mottled dark brown dabbling duck with a distinctive pale face crossed by dark eye stripes, common on wetlands across Australia and the Pacific.
waterfowl
Painted Stork
A large South Asian stork with a white-and-black body, a bold black breast band, and delicate pink-tinged wing plumes, identified further by its long, decurved yellow bill and bare orange face.
wading bird
Ovenbird
A ground-dwelling warbler that looks more like a small thrush, with heavily streaked underparts and a bold orange crown stripe bordered in black.
songbird
Painted Francolin
A ground-dwelling gamebird of central and southern India with dark brown plumage densely marked with white spots and a chestnut nape patch.
gamebird
Osprey
The Osprey is a fish-eating raptor with dark brown upperparts, a white head marked by a bold dark eye-stripe, white underparts, and long, angled wings showing a distinctive dark carpal patch and barred flight feathers.
raptor
Piapiac
A slender, glossy black African corvid with a long tail, often seen following cattle or large game to catch flushed insects.
corvid
Painted Redstart
A boldly patterned black warbler with a bright red breast patch and large white patches on the wings and outer tail, constantly fanning its tail while foraging.
songbird
Philadelphia Vireo
The Philadelphia Vireo is a small, plain-plumaged vireo of northern woodlands, often confused with the Warbling Vireo and Tennessee Warbler due to its subtle coloring.
songbird
Painted Bunting
Often called the most colorful songbird in North America, the male Painted Bunting shows a blue head, red underparts, and green back all on the same bird, while females are a uniform bright green.
songbird
Parasitic Jaeger
A sleek, agile seabird intermediate in size between the two other jaegers, identified in breeding adults by narrow, pointed central tail feathers and a swift, falcon-like flight.
seabird
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
A yellowish-toned Empidonax flycatcher of western forests, showing a somewhat teardrop-shaped eye-ring and warm buffy wing bars.
songbird
Pallid Harrier
A slender, long-distance migrant harrier of the Eurasian steppe, the palest of the gray harriers, with males showing a narrow black wedge at the wingtip and females a streaky brown 'ringtail' pattern.
raptor
Pacific Wren
A tiny, dark rufous-brown wren of western old-growth forest understory, nearly identical to the Winter Wren but distinguished mainly by range and its distinctly different song.
songbird
Philippine Eagle
The Philippine Eagle is a huge, critically endangered forest eagle with brown upperparts, creamy-white underparts, and a shaggy crest of long brown-and-cream feathers that it raises when alert.
raptor
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
Pharaoh Eagle-Owl
A pale, sandy-toned eagle-owl of North African and Middle Eastern deserts, its feathers finely streaked and vermiculated to blend with rock and sand.
owl
Kaka
A large forest parrot of New Zealand, the Kaka has olive-brown plumage that conceals a flash of bright crimson under the wings and across the rump, revealed in flight.
parrot
Passerini's Tanager
A Central American forest-edge tanager, the male Passerini's Tanager is glossy black overall except for a vivid scarlet-red patch on the rump.
songbird
Jungle Myna
A slate-gray South Asian myna distinguished by a small tuft of feathers at the base of the bill, along with the bold white wing patch shared with related mynas.
songbird
Parrot Crossbill
A heavy-billed northern finch specialized on pine cones, the largest of the crossbills with a correspondingly massive, deep bill.
songbird
Kalij Pheasant
A forest pheasant of the Himalayan foothills and South Asia, with males showing overall glossy blue-black plumage and red facial skin, and considerable variation in pale scaling among subspecies.
gamebird
Paradise Shelduck
A large New Zealand duck with striking sex-based color difference, males dark and glossy while females show a bright white head and chestnut body.
waterfowl
Kakariki
A slender, bright green New Zealand parakeet with a distinctive red crown and a long, tapering tail.
parrot
Oriental Magpie-Robin
A familiar garden songbird of South and Southeast Asia, glossy black and white with a long tail it habitually holds cocked upward, known for its rich, musical song.
songbird
Jardine's Parrot
Jardine's Parrot is a stocky African forest parrot whose green feathers are neatly edged in black, giving a scaled texture, accented by orange-red patches on the head and shoulders.
parrot
Pacific Reef Heron
A stocky coastal heron of the Indo-Pacific found in two color forms, an all slate-grey dark morph and a pure white light morph, both hunting the wave-washed edges of reefs and rocky shores.
wading bird
Jenday Conure
A brightly colored Brazilian conure with a golden-yellow head and breast, an orange belly, and green back and wings tipped in blue.
parrot
Orange-winged Amazon
The Orange-winged Amazon is a mid-sized, widespread South American parrot named for the bright orange patch revealed in its flight feathers.
parrot
Jambu Fruit Dove
A small Southeast Asian fruit dove with a face flushed rosy-crimson, set against green upperparts, clean white underparts, and a chestnut patch beneath the tail.
dove pigeon
Orange-breasted Bunting
A vividly colored Mexican bunting, the male Orange-breasted Bunting combines a green head and back with yellow underparts and a bold orange breast band.
songbird
Jamaican Owl
The Jamaican Owl is an island-endemic owl found only in Jamaica's forests and woodlands, with rich brown, finely mottled plumage and short ear tufts.
owl
Olive Woodpecker
A southern and eastern African woodpecker with an olive-green back and grey head, familiar in forest, fynbos margins, and well-wooded gardens.
woodpecker
Jamaican Crow
An endemic Jamaican crow of forested habitats, known for an unusually varied and almost comical vocal repertoire.
corvid
Oriental Turtle-Dove
A large Asian turtle-dove with a distinctive scaled, rufous-and-black back pattern and a bold striped neck patch.
dove pigeon
Japanese Quail
A close relative of the Common Quail from East Asia, cloaked in the same streaky brown camouflage but with a warmer rufous wash to the breast.
gamebird
Oriental Scops Owl
The Oriental Scops Owl is a small, migratory Asian owl with cryptic bark-patterned plumage occurring in grey and rufous color morphs, and tiny ear tufts.
owl
Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker
A small East Asian woodpecker with a softer, browner overall tone than its pygmy woodpecker relatives, common in wooded parks and gardens in Japan and neighboring regions.
woodpecker
Ortolan Bunting
The Ortolan Bunting is a migratory Eurasian farmland bird notable for its gray-green head, yellow throat, and pinkish underparts, breeding across open, warm agricultural landscapes.
songbird
James's Flamingo
The smallest of the high-altitude Andean flamingos, showing pale pink plumage and a notably reduced area of black in the wing.
wading bird
Ornate Hawk-Eagle
A powerful Neotropical forest raptor with a bold black crest, rufous cheeks and neck, and crisp black-and-white barring across the underparts, built for hunting within the forest canopy.
raptor
Olive Sparrow
The Olive Sparrow is a shy, thicket-dwelling sparrow of south Texas brushland, identified by its olive-green back and chestnut-striped crown.
songbird
Pacific Parrotlet
The Pacific Parrotlet is one of the smallest parrots, a compact green bird from western South America in which males show patches of blue on the wings and rump.
parrot
Olive-sided Flycatcher
A large-headed, big-chested flycatcher whose dark olive-gray flanks and white central stripe create a distinctive vest-like appearance.
songbird
Pacific Golden-Plover
A slender, long-legged golden plover breeding on Siberian and Alaskan tundra and wintering widely across Pacific islands and coastal Asia, closely resembling the American Golden-Plover.
shorebird
Ocellated Turkey
A striking Central American turkey with vivid blue-bronze iridescent body feathers and tail feathers marked with distinctive eye-shaped spots.
gamebird
Olive-backed Sunbird
A widespread and adaptable sunbird found from South Asia to northern Australia, with olive-green upperparts, yellow underparts, and a glittering blue-black throat in breeding males.
songbird
Oak Titmouse
The Oak Titmouse is a plain, uniformly grayish-brown California relative of the Tufted Titmouse whose lack of bold markings is itself a key identification clue.
songbird