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.
Little Spotted Kiwi
The smallest kiwi species, this flightless bird has pale grayish, finely mottled plumage and now survives only on predator-free islands and fenced sanctuaries in New Zealand. Its long, sensitive bill helps it find invertebrate prey at night.
other
Northern Goshawk
The Northern Goshawk is the largest accipiter, a powerful forest hawk with slate-grey upperparts, a bold white eyebrow stripe, finely barred pale underparts, and fluffy white undertail feathers, built for powerful pursuit through mature forest.
raptor
Little Penguin
The world's smallest penguin, with slate-blue upperparts and white underparts, nesting in burrows along southern Australian and New Zealand coasts.
seabird
Northern Giant Petrel
An enormous, bulky tubenose with a massive pale bill, showing mottled brown plumage that lightens on the head and neck as birds mature.
seabird
Northern Flicker
A large, brown-barred woodpecker best identified by the bright yellow or salmon-red shafts of its flight feathers, along with a black chest crescent and spotted underside.
woodpecker
Little Gull
The smallest gull in the world, a delicate Eurasian species with rounded wings, a buoyant tern-like flight, and strikingly dark underwings that flash as it wheels over the water.
seabird
Northern Fulmar
A stocky, tube-nosed seabird that glides on stiff, straight wings low over the waves, occurring in both pale and uniformly dark color forms.
seabird
Little Eagle
Australia's smallest booted eagle, occurring in pale and dark color morphs, identified by a pale patch at the base of the outer primaries and a short, square tail.
raptor
Northern Carmine Bee-eater
A brilliant pink bee-eater of the African Sahel, closely resembling its southern counterpart but with a green crown rather than blue.
other
Little Corella
A predominantly white cockatoo of Australian open country, the Little Corella has a short, low crest and a faint pinkish tinge at the base of its head feathers, visible only when raised.
parrot
Kakapo
A large, flightless, nocturnal parrot with soft, moss-green plumage patterned for camouflage on the forest floor.
parrot
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
Jungle Crow
A robust, all-black crow of the Indian subcontinent, closely related to the Large-billed Crow but generally found in more southerly regions.
corvid
Little Bee-eater
A small, brightly colored bee-eater of African grasslands, lacking the long tail streamers of its larger relatives.
other
Ivory Gull
A pure white, high Arctic gull closely tied to pack ice, whose all-white adult plumage and short black legs make it unmistakable among northern seabirds.
seabird
Lineolated Parakeet
A small, stocky green parakeet finely marked with dark barring across the back and wings.
parrot
Japanese Grosbeak
A large, heavy-billed finch of East Asian forests, recognized by its black head, gray-brown body, and oversized pale-yellow bill.
songbird
Lineated Woodpecker
A widespread Neotropical woodpecker with a shaggy red crest and bold white stripes running down the sides of its neck, common in forest edge habitats from Mexico to northern Argentina.
woodpecker
Juniper Titmouse
The Juniper Titmouse is a plain gray, crested songbird of the arid pinyon-juniper woodlands of the interior West, notable for its unmarked plumage and persistent, repetitive song.
songbird
North Island Robin
The North Island Robin is a dark, upright-perching forest bird of New Zealand's North Island, known for its tame curiosity around ground disturbance.
songbird
Lilac-crowned Amazon
The Lilac-crowned Amazon is a Mexican parrot marked by a red forehead fading into a soft maroon-lilac crown, distinguishing it from other similarly sized Amazons.
parrot
Indian Roller
A brilliant blue-winged bird of South Asian farmland, revealing dazzling blue flight feathers when it takes to the air.
other
Lidth's Jay
A richly colored jay found only on a few Japanese islands, combining a chestnut head and neck with a deep blue body and black face mask.
corvid
Indian Robin
A small, confiding songbird of dry open country in South Asia, glossy black or brown with a chestnut patch under the tail that flashes as it forages on the ground.
songbird
Lesser Spotted Eagle
A compact, dark brown migratory eagle of eastern European forests, distinguished from its larger relative the Greater Spotted Eagle by narrower wings and a paler crescent at the base of the outer primaries.
raptor
Henslow's Sparrow
A secretive grassland sparrow with an olive-tinged head and a distinctive short, hiccup-like song.
songbird
Lesser Scaup
The Lesser Scaup is a widespread diving duck with a peaked crown and subtle purple gloss on the male's head, most often found on inland lakes and reservoirs during migration and winter.
waterfowl
Helmeted Hornbill
The Helmeted Hornbill is a large, distinctive Southeast Asian rainforest bird best known for its solid casque and greatly elongated central tail feathers, which extend far beyond the rest of the tail. Its dark body plumage contrasts with white leg feathers and a long, banded tail.
other
Lesser Kestrel
A colonial, steppe-loving falcon closely resembling Common Kestrel but smaller and more social, with males showing an unspotted chestnut back and pale claws that separate the species from its more familiar relative.
raptor
Hooded Siskin
A small South American finch whose male sports a jet-black hood set off by bright yellow underparts and wing flashes.
songbird
Lesser Flamingo
The smallest flamingo species, often showing the most vividly saturated pink plumage of any flamingo.
wading bird
Horned Screamer
A large, turkey-sized waterbird of South American wetlands, unmistakable for the long, slender horn-like spine projecting from its forehead. Its blackish, white-speckled plumage and loud trumpeting calls carry across open marshland.
other
Least Sandpiper
The smallest sandpiper in the world, distinguished from other tiny peeps by its yellow-green legs and finely mottled brown upperparts.
shorebird
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
Le Conte's Sparrow
A small, brightly colored grassland sparrow with an orange face and finely streaked, buffy underparts.
songbird
Iberian Magpie
A pastel-toned corvid of the Iberian Peninsula, near-identical in plumage to its Asian relative but found only in Spain and Portugal.
corvid
Lazuli Bunting
A small western North American bunting, the male Lazuli Bunting pairs a turquoise-blue head and back with a warm orange breast band and clean white belly.
songbird
Iberian Green Woodpecker
The Iberian Peninsula's counterpart to the Eurasian Green Woodpecker, recently recognized as its own species, sharing the same green plumage and strongly ground-feeding habits.
woodpecker
Laughing Kookaburra
A large, heavy-billed kingfisher relative famous for its loud, cackling call that resembles raucous laughter.
other
Himalayan Snowcock
The largest of the Himalayan alpine gamebirds, marked by a bold white face and throat patch bordered with chestnut and black, and heavily streaked chestnut flanks.
gamebird
Laughing Gull
A noisy, familiar coastal gull of the southeastern and Gulf coasts, easily told by its dark slate mantle, drooping red bill, and raucous, laughing call.
seabird
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
Laughing Falcon
A distinctive Neotropical falcon named for its loud, laughing call, with a bold dark facial mask set against a pale cream head that makes its feathers easy to recognize.
raptor
Hooded Crow
The grey-and-black counterpart of the Carrion Crow, easily identified by pale ash-grey body feathers contrasting sharply with a black head, wings, and tail.
corvid
Laughing Dove
A small, warm pinkish-cinnamon dove named for its bubbling, laugh-like coo, with a distinctive speckled black patch across the upper breast.
dove pigeon
Honey Buzzard
The Honey Buzzard is a highly variable Eurasian raptor specialized in raiding wasp and bee nests, recognizable by its small, pigeon-like head, dense scale-like facial feathers for protection, and boldly banded tail.
raptor
Lark Bunting
A North American prairie songbird whose breeding males turn nearly all black with a bold white wing patch, a striking contrast to the streaky brown females.
songbird
Hoffmann's Woodpecker
A common Central American woodpecker with a black-and-white barred back and a small patch of yellow on the nape, adaptable to gardens and open plantations.
woodpecker