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.
Shining Sunbeam
A warm cinnamon-toned Andean hummingbird whose wings and back flash with a distinctive coppery-bronze iridescence in flight or sunlight.
hummingbird
Galah
A distinctive two-toned cockatoo with a rose-pink face and underparts contrasting sharply against pale grey wings and back.
parrot
Lineolated Parakeet
A small, stocky green parakeet finely marked with dark barring across the back and wings.
parrot
White Woodpecker
An unusually pale South American woodpecker, mostly white with contrasting black wings and back and a patch of bare yellow facial skin.
woodpecker
Varied Bunting
A small desert bunting whose male plumage looks nearly black in shade but reveals shifting purple, blue, and reddish tones in good light.
songbird
Eurasian Blackcap
A plain grey-brown warbler whose crown feathers immediately reveal its sex: solid glossy black in males, warm reddish-brown in females and juveniles.
songbird
Woodchat Shrike
A boldly patterned southern European shrike with a rich chestnut crown and a crisp white shoulder patch that contrasts sharply with its black wings.
songbird
Violet-green Swallow
A small western swallow with iridescent green upperparts, violet-tinged rump and wings, and white extending unusually high onto the face and flanks.
songbird
Green Heron
A small, stocky, solitary heron of the Americas with a dark cap, chestnut neck, and greenish-backed wings, often seen crouched at the water's edge.
wading bird
Magnificent Frigatebird
A large, aerial seabird with long angular wings and a deeply forked tail, glossy black in males and marked with a white breast patch in females.
seabird
Double-crested Cormorant
A widespread, glossy black waterbird with a bright orange-yellow throat patch, often seen perched with wings spread to dry after diving.
seabird
Berylline Hummingbird
A coppery-green montane hummingbird whose folded wings show a flash of rufous not typically visible in similar species until it takes flight.
hummingbird
Yellow-breasted Greenfinch
A Himalayan finch with bright yellow underparts, a greyish head, and yellow flashes in the wings and tail visible in flight.
songbird
Fox Sparrow
A large, richly colored sparrow whose reddish tail and heavily spotted breast make its feathers among the most distinctive of any North American sparrow.
songbird
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
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
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
Green Imperial Pigeon
The Green Imperial Pigeon is a large forest pigeon whose back and wings show a metallic bronze-green sheen contrasting with pale grey underparts.
dove pigeon
Glossy Ibis
A widespread, richly colored ibis with deep chestnut body plumage and an iridescent green-and-purple sheen on the wings, found in wetlands across much of the world.
wading bird
Black Heron
An African heron cloaked entirely in slate-black plumage, famous for spreading its wings into a feeding "umbrella" over the water to lure fish into shade.
wading bird
Willow Ptarmigan
The largest of the ptarmigan species, showing warm reddish-brown summer plumage in males, a pure white winter coat, and a black tail retained throughout the year.
gamebird
Ruddy Quail-Dove
A plump, reddish-chestnut forest-floor dove marked with a distinctive pale stripe below the eye, more often heard than seen in dense tropical undergrowth.
dove pigeon
Northern Saw-whet Owl
One of the smallest owls in North America, with soft reddish-brown, white-streaked plumage, no ear tufts, and a distinctive whitish facial disc bordered by a dark rim.
owl
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