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.
Red-cockaded Woodpecker
A southeastern pine specialist woodpecker best known for its large white cheek patch and its habit of excavating cavities only in living pine trees.
woodpecker
Plumed Guineafowl
A dark rainforest guineafowl finely speckled with white spots, identified by its forward-curling black crest plume and patch of bare blue facial skin.
gamebird
Horned Puffin
The North Pacific counterpart to the Atlantic Puffin, similarly patterned in black and white but named for the small fleshy "horn" of skin above each eye in breeding adults.
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
Green-tailed Towhee
The Green-tailed Towhee is a striking western sparrow relative with olive-green wings and tail, a rufous cap, and a bold white throat, found in mountain shrublands.
songbird
Mourning Collared Dove
A widespread African dove with a pale grey head, warm pinkish-brown breast, and a crisp black half-collar edged in white across the back of the neck.
dove pigeon
Little Auk
The smallest auk of the North Atlantic, a dumpy, tightly packed little bird with a black-and-white pattern and a stubby bill, breeding in immense colonies in the high Arctic.
seabird
Great Grey Shrike
A pale gray Eurasian predator songbird with a black mask and long tail, often seen perched conspicuously atop bushes or wires while watching for prey.
songbird
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
Black Phoebe
A dark, tail-wagging flycatcher almost always found perched near water, easily told by its sooty black body and clean white belly.
songbird
Collared Inca
A dark, glossy Andean hummingbird easily recognized by the bold white patch across its chest, contrasting sharply with its otherwise blackish-green plumage.
hummingbird
Cockatiel
A slender, crested Australian parrot with soft grey plumage, a bold white wing patch, and, in males, a yellow face marked by a bright orange cheek spot.
parrot
Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker
A small South Asian pied woodpecker whose warm, buffy-fulvous breast streaking sets it apart from the whiter underparts of related pied woodpeckers.
woodpecker
European Turtle Dove
A small, warmly colored migratory dove with a tortoiseshell-patterned wing and a neat black-and-white striped neck patch found in no other common European dove.
dove pigeon
Crested Tit
The Crested Tit is a small European woodland bird easily recognized by its pointed, black-and-white speckled crest, a feature unique among the continent's tits.
songbird
Bufflehead
The Bufflehead is a tiny, big-headed diving duck whose male sports a bold white bonnet-like patch across an iridescent black-green head.
waterfowl
Brahminy Kite
A handsome coastal raptor with a crisp white head and breast set against warm chestnut wings and body, common along tropical shorelines of Asia and Australia.
raptor
Black-capped Vireo
The Black-capped Vireo is a small, energetic vireo of shrubby oak habitat, with males showing a bold black cap set off by striking white spectacles.
songbird
Band-tailed Pigeon
A large forest pigeon of the western mountains, identified by a crescent-shaped white patch on the nape and a broad pale band across the tip of an otherwise dark tail.
dove pigeon
Barnacle Goose
A small, sharply patterned goose with a bold black-and-white face and finely barred silver-gray flanks, breeding on Arctic cliffs and wintering on coastal grassland.
waterfowl
Barn Swallow
The classic long-tailed swallow of barns and bridges, with glossy steel-blue upperparts, a rusty throat, and elongated outer tail feathers tipped with white spots.
songbird
Buckley's Forest Falcon
A large, rarely seen forest-falcon of the western Amazon, with dark upperparts and bold, wide white barring below that helps separate it from smaller relatives.
raptor
Grey Crowned Crane
An African crane instantly recognized by its stiff, golden bristle crown, red throat wattle, and boldly patterned wings combining white, chestnut, and black.
wading bird
Black-faced Spoonbill
The smallest and one of the rarest spoonbill species, an all-white East Asian wading bird with a black bare face and a slender black spoon-shaped bill.
wading bird