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.
Blackpoll Warbler
A small wood-warbler famous for its extremely long migratory flights, showing a black cap and white cheeks in breeding males and a plainer streaked plumage in fall.
songbird
Carib Grackle
A small, glossy grackle common around towns and farmland in the southern Caribbean and northern South America, recognized by its keel-shaped tail and noisy flocking habits.
songbird
Brant
The Brant is a small, dark sea goose marked by a black head, neck, and breast broken by a fine white necklace, closely tied to coastal estuaries and tidal flats.
waterfowl
Bourke's Parrot
Bourke's Parrot is a small Australian parrot with unusually soft, muted coloring for a parrot, combining brown-grey upperparts with a pink-washed underside and blue wing highlights.
parrot
Sulphur-crested Lesser Cockatoo
A smaller relative of the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, white overall with a bright yellow crest and a subtle yellow tinge on the ear coverts.
parrot
Hooded Crane
A small, dark East Asian crane with a white head and upper neck resembling a hood, contrasting sharply with its otherwise slate-grey to blackish body.
wading bird
Balsas Screech-Owl
A little-known small owl endemic to Mexico's Balsas River basin, with subdued grey-brown, finely vermiculated plumage suited to dry tropical forest.
owl
Semipalmated Plover
A small, compact North American plover with a single black breast band and orange-based bill, closely resembling the Old World Common Ringed Plover.
shorebird
Variable Sunbird
A small, widespread African sunbird whose plumage pattern varies geographically, generally showing an iridescent green or blue-green throat and yellow underparts in males.
songbird
Palestine Sunbird
A small Middle Eastern sunbird whose males appear almost entirely glossy dark blue-black, with hidden orange tufts flashed during display.
songbird
Little Bunting
The Little Bunting is a small, compact Eurasian bunting with a rufous-chestnut face bordered by dark stripes, breeding across the boreal taiga and wintering in southern Asia.
songbird
Blue Ground Dove
A small, strikingly dimorphic dove-pale powder-blue in males, warm rufous-brown in females-both patterned with bold blackish spots across the wings.
dove pigeon
Common Ringed Plover
The Eurasian counterpart to the Semipalmated Plover, a small brown-and-white plover with a single black breast band, breeding across the Arctic and temperate coasts of the Old World.
shorebird
Helmeted Guineafowl
An African savanna gamebird with a bare, helmeted head and dark plumage covered in small pearl-white spots, now farmed and kept ornamentally around the world.
gamebird
Black Guillemot
A small, sooty-black auk of northern rocky coasts, easily told by a bold white oval patch on each wing and bright red legs and feet.
seabird
Bell's Vireo
Bell's Vireo is a small, active, plain-plumaged vireo of dense riparian scrub, more often detected by its scolding, jumbled song than by sight.
songbird
White-winged Scoter
The White-winged Scoter is the largest of the scoters, a heavy black sea duck distinguished by a bright white wing patch and a small comma-shaped white mark around the eye.
waterfowl
Spinifex Pigeon
A small, richly reddish pigeon of Australia's spinifex deserts, sporting a pointed crest and bold black-and-white facial markings that stand out against its cinnamon plumage.
dove pigeon
Puerto Rican Screech-Owl
The Puerto Rican Screech-Owl, locally known as the mucaro, is a small island-endemic owl with soft reddish-brown or grey-brown plumage and a rounded, nearly tuftless head.
owl
Grey-headed Lovebird
A small lovebird from Madagascar showing strong sexual dimorphism: males have a pale grey head and breast against a green body, while females are entirely green.
parrot
Nashville Warbler
A small warbler with a gray head, bold white eye-ring, and bright yellow underparts, plus a hidden chestnut crown patch usually visible only at close range.
songbird
Kentish Plover
A small, pale Old World plover of sandy and saline flats, closely resembling the Snowy Plover of the Americas, with dark side-breast patches rather than a complete band.
shorebird
Budgerigar
A small, gregarious Australian parakeet whose wild-type plumage combines bright yellow-green underparts with a finely scalloped black-and-yellow pattern across the nape and wings.
parrot
Grey Partridge
A dumpy, farmland gamebird with finely vermiculated grey body feathers, a bright orange face, and a distinctive chestnut horseshoe marking on the underparts.
gamebird