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.
Redwing
The smallest widespread European thrush, easily told from its relatives by streaked (rather than spotted) underparts and bright reddish-orange flank and underwing feathers.
songbird
Pied Imperial Pigeon
The Pied Imperial Pigeon is a striking black-and-white pigeon of coastal forests and islands, easily recognized by its creamy white body and bold black flight feathers.
dove pigeon
Pin-tailed Green Pigeon
The Pin-tailed Green Pigeon is a green forest pigeon distinguished by its long, needle-like central tail feathers that extend well beyond the rest of the tail.
dove pigeon
Himalayan Monal
A high-altitude Himalayan pheasant whose male gleams with iridescent green, purple, and bronze plumage, topped by an unusual crest of wire-like, spatula-tipped feathers.
gamebird
Mottled Owl
A medium-sized, ear-tuftless wood owl of Neotropical forest, its feathers finely mottled in dark and pale brown, with whitish eyebrows and buffy, streaked underparts.
owl
Mallard
The world's most familiar duck, identifiable from almost any single wing feather by its glossy blue speculum bordered in white, shared by both sexes.
waterfowl
Long-billed Hermit
A large hermit hummingbird of Central American rainforest understory, identified by its long decurved bill, buffy underparts, and elongated white-tipped central tail feathers.
hummingbird
Green Jay
A vividly patterned jay with a green back, blue-and-black head, and bright yellow outer tail feathers, found in two widely separated populations across the Americas.
corvid
European Starling
An abundant introduced songbird whose feathers change appearance through wear alone, shifting from spotted in fresh winter plumage to glossy and unspotted by breeding season.
songbird
Eurasian Wigeon
The Old World counterpart to the American Wigeon, with a rich chestnut head, pale cream crown stripe, and grey axillary feathers that distinguish it from its American relative.
waterfowl
Eurasian Blackcap
A plain grey-brown warbler whose crown feathers immediately reveal its sex: solid glossy black in males, warm reddish-brown in females and juveniles.
songbird
Eastern Meadowlark
A chunky grassland songbird with a bright yellow breast crossed by a bold black V, camouflaged brown-and-black upperparts, and white outer tail feathers flashed in flight.
songbird
Cinereous Vulture
One of the heaviest flying raptors, with uniformly dark brown plumage, a dense dark ruff, and broad flight feathers adapted for soaring across open Eurasian terrain.
raptor
Booted Eagle
A small, buzzard-sized eagle occurring in two distinct color forms, both showing feathered legs down to the toes and pale patches at the base of the primaries in flight.
raptor
Black Crowned Crane
A West and Central African crane closely related to the Grey Crowned Crane, distinguished by darker neck feathering and the same striking golden crest and boldly patterned wings.
wading bird
Black-bellied Plover
The largest and most widespread of the golden-plover group, told from true golden-plovers by white-and-black (not golden) upperpart spangling and diagnostic black underwing feathers.
shorebird
Baltimore Oriole
A vividly colored eastern songbird whose adult males show a striking contrast of flame-orange and black feathers, best known for weaving an elaborate hanging nest.
songbird
African Fish Eagle
A strikingly tricolor eagle of African waters, with a crisp white head, chest, and tail set sharply against rich chestnut body plumage and black flight feathers.
raptor
Yellowhammer
The Yellowhammer is a farmland bunting whose males show vivid yellow head and underpart feathers against a chestnut-streaked back, one of the most colorful seed-eating songbirds of open countryside.
songbird
White-breasted Nuthatch
The White-breasted Nuthatch is a tree-climbing songbird whose clean blue-gray back and pure white face and breast feathers are easy to separate from most other backyard species.
songbird
House Martin
The House Martin is a small aerial songbird with glossy blue-black upperpart feathers, a bright white rump patch, and clean white underparts, built for a life spent almost entirely on the wing.
songbird
Ferruginous Hawk
The Ferruginous Hawk is the largest North American buteo, with rich rufous ('ferruginous') back and leg feathers, a pale head and underparts, and a whitish tail, adapted to hunting over open, arid grassland.
raptor
Blue-and-yellow Macaw
A large, brilliantly two-toned macaw with deep blue upperparts and golden-yellow underparts, a green forehead patch, and bare white facial skin crossed by narrow lines of small feathers.
parrot
Yellow-rumped Warbler
One of North America's most abundant warblers, easily known by small bright-yellow patches on the rump, sides, and crown set against streaky gray-brown feathers.
songbird