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.
Eastern Towhee
A large, ground-dwelling sparrow relative with bold black (or brown), white, and rufous plumage, often first noticed scratching noisily through leaf litter in dense thickets.
songbird
Elegant Tern
A slender, crested Pacific coast tern with a notably long, thin, slightly drooping orange-yellow bill, intermediate in size and appearance between the Royal and Sandwich Terns.
seabird
Gray Hawk
A slim, pale gray hawk of cottonwood-lined streams in the borderlands, notable for its finely barred plumage and slender, accipiter-like proportions among the buteos.
raptor
Short-eared Owl
A wide-ranging owl of open grassland and marsh, notable for hunting in daylight on buoyant, moth-like wingbeats, with streaked buffy-brown plumage and ear tufts so small they are rarely visible.
owl
Patagonian Conure
A large, earth-toned South American parrot notable for nesting in burrows dug into cliff faces, identified by its olive-brown upperparts and a bright yellow-and-red patch across the lower belly.
parrot
Thick-billed Longspur
The Thick-billed Longspur is a shortgrass prairie songbird whose breeding males show a black cap and breast crescent set against gray-brown plumage, identified partly by its notably stout bill.
songbird
Congo Peafowl
Africa's only peafowl species, endemic to the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, notably smaller and shorter-tailed than its Asian relatives with no elaborate fanning train.
gamebird
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
Great Knot
The largest of the knots, this East Asian-Australasian Flyway specialist shows a densely spotted blackish breast in breeding plumage and a notably longer, heavier bill than its close relative the Red Knot.
shorebird
Sun Parakeet
A vividly golden-yellow and orange parrot of the Guiana Shield in South America, with green and blue accents in the wings, prized in aviculture and now endangered in the wild.
parrot
Wahlberg's Eagle
A slender, migratory savanna eagle of Africa notable for its variable plumage color morphs, ranging from pale cream-brown to dark chocolate, all sharing a distinctive narrow-winged, small-headed silhouette.
raptor
Tropical Kingbird
A common and widespread tyrant flycatcher recognized by its pale gray head and throat fading into lemon-yellow underparts, paired with a notched, dark tail. It favors open habitats with scattered perches from which it sallies for insects.
songbird
Saddleback
The Saddleback is a glossy black New Zealand wattlebird with a bold chestnut saddle across its back, now largely restricted to predator-free islands and sanctuaries.
songbird
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
Common Myna
A bold, adaptable brown songbird with a glossy black head and bright yellow bare skin patch around the eye, now established in cities across much of the world.
songbird
Eleonora's Falcon
Eleonora's Falcon is a slender, long-winged falcon of Mediterranean sea cliffs, notable for breeding unusually late in the year to feed its young on autumn-migrating songbirds, and occurring in both pale and dark color morphs.
raptor
Eurasian Collared-Dove
A pale, stocky dove readily identified by the black half-collar on its nape and its square tail's bold white terminal band, now common across much of North America.
dove pigeon
Greater Adjutant
A very large, rare Asian scavenging stork with a bald head, a huge bill, and a pale throat pouch, now restricted to a few strongholds in India and Cambodia after severe historical decline.
wading bird
Australian White Ibis
A common Australian ibis with white body plumage and a bare black head and neck, now a familiar sight scavenging in city parks and rubbish bins as well as its native wetland habitats.
wading bird
Laughing Owl
An extinct New Zealand owl known for its odd, laughter-like call, with soft brown mottled plumage and a paler facial area; now known only from museum specimens.
owl
Great-tailed Grackle
The Great-tailed Grackle is a large, adaptable blackbird known for the male's exceptionally long, keeled tail and glossy iridescent plumage, now common across much of the southern and central United States and beyond.
songbird
Rose-ringed Parakeet
A slender, bright green parakeet with a long pointed tail, best known for the males' narrow black-and-rose neck ring, and now familiar as a naturalized bird in cities well beyond its native range.
parrot
Black-tailed Godwit
A striking Eurasian godwit with a bold black tail band, broad white wingbar, and rich chestnut breeding underparts, closely associated with lowland wet grasslands and meadows now much reduced across parts of its range.
shorebird
African Sacred Ibis
An African wading bird with white plumage, a bare black head and neck, and loose black plumes on the lower back, historically revered in ancient Egypt and now also established as an introduced species in parts of Europe and North America.
wading bird