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.
Cirl Bunting
The Cirl Bunting is a farmland songbird of southern Europe, with males showing a bold black-and-yellow striped face and an olive breast band, now a conservation success story in parts of its range.
songbird
Canvasback
A large diving duck with a distinctive sloping forehead profile, whose male shows a deep chestnut-red head and black breast set against a strikingly pale, almost white body.
waterfowl
Bonaparte's Gull
A dainty, tern-like gull of the North American boreal forest, notable as one of the few gulls that nests in trees, and identifiable by its crisp black hood and bright white wing wedge.
seabird
Blue Jay
The Blue Jay is a large, vocal corvid whose bold blue, black-barred, white-tipped wing and tail feathers are among the most instantly recognizable of any North American songbird.
corvid
Hudsonian Godwit
A long-distance migrant godwit with deep chestnut, heavily barred breeding plumage and distinctive black underwing coverts, known for undertaking one of the longest nonstop overwater flights of any shorebird.
shorebird
Grey Butcherbird
A boldly patterned Australian songbird, the Grey Butcherbird shows gray upperparts, a black head marking, and clean white underparts, paired with a strong, hooked bill used to catch and impale prey.
songbird
Golden-winged Warbler
A striking blue-gray warbler with a bright yellow crown and wing patch, set off by a bold black throat and facial mask in adult males, known for hybridizing with the Blue-winged Warbler.
songbird
Edwards's Pheasant
A rare, glossy dark blue-black pheasant native to the forests of central Vietnam, marked by a short white crest and vivid red facial skin.
gamebird
Piping Plover
A pale, sand-colored North American plover with an often broken black breast band, closely tied to open sandy beaches and alkaline lakeshores.
shorebird
Zebra Dove
A small Southeast Asian dove covered in bold black-and-white barring across the neck, breast, and flanks, giving it a distinctly zebra-striped look.
dove pigeon
Willet
A large, plain-looking shorebird that transforms in flight, revealing a bold black-and-white wing pattern unlike any other North American sandpiper.
shorebird
Southern Red Bishop
A small African weaver whose breeding males turn brilliant scarlet and black, one of the most vividly colored birds of Africa's wetland grasses.
songbird
Southern White-faced Owl
A small grey African owl with a strikingly white facial disc rimmed in black and small ear tufts, known for dramatic threat and concealment postures.
owl
Spot-breasted Woodpecker
A South American woodpecker with a yellow-green barred back and a breast marked by bold black spots, favoring open and semi-open wooded habitat.
woodpecker
Scarlet Tanager
A jewel of the eastern deciduous forest canopy, the breeding male Scarlet Tanager combines brilliant scarlet body plumage with jet-black wings and tail.
songbird
Puerto Rican Woodpecker
An island-endemic woodpecker found only in Puerto Rico, showing a bold black chest band across an otherwise pale, cream-colored underside.
woodpecker
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
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
Mountain Chickadee
The Mountain Chickadee is a western conifer-forest specialist whose black cap is broken by a bold white eyebrow stripe not seen in other common chickadees.
songbird
Malachite Kingfisher
A jewel-toned African kingfisher with an electric-blue back and a shaggy blue-and-black crest, often seen perched low over quiet water.
other
Gray Catbird
A slim, uniformly slate-gray songbird named for its cat-like mewing call, with a black cap and a hidden rufous patch beneath the tail.
songbird
Gambel's Quail
A desert-dwelling quail of the southwestern United States, closely related to the California Quail but distinguished by a chestnut crown patch and a black belly patch on males.
gamebird
Common Green Magpie
A vividly green forest corvid with a bold black mask and chestnut wing patch, whose color can fade toward blue in old feathers.
corvid
European Golden Plover
The Old World golden plover of moorland and tundra, showing bold gold-spangled upperparts and, in northern breeders, black underparts bordered by a white band.
shorebird