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.
Blue-fronted Amazon
The Blue-fronted Amazon is a stocky green parrot from central South America best known for the pale blue patch across its forehead and its loud, far-carrying calls.
parrot
Blue-footed Booby
A tropical seabird best known for its bright blue feet, with brown mottled upperparts, streaked head and neck, and a clean white belly.
seabird
Blue-crowned Motmot
A striking green forest bird with a blue crown outlined in black and a long tail ending in distinctive racket-shaped tips. It perches quietly and is best known for slowly swinging its tail like a pendulum.
other
Blue-crowned Conure
A robust green conure identified by a pale blue wash across the crown and forehead, larger and stockier than many similarly colored South American parakeets.
parrot
Yellow-billed Blue Magpie
A Himalayan blue magpie closely resembling its red-billed relative, distinguished mainly by its yellow bill and slightly higher-elevation habitat.
corvid
Red-billed Blue Magpie
A long-tailed, blue-grey Asian corvid with a black head, red bill and legs, and a spectacular graduated tail tipped in white.
corvid
Greater Blue-eared Starling
A dazzling African starling with metallic blue-green plumage, a darker blue ear patch, and violet-tinged flanks that shimmer in sunlight.
songbird
Cocoi Heron
The South American counterpart to the Great Blue Heron, with a bold black cap and crisp white neck.
wading bird
Blue-throated Mountain-gem
A large mountain-canyon hummingbird known for its deep blue throat patch and an unusually broad, dark tail edged with bold white corners.
hummingbird
Black-throated Blue Warbler
A striking deep-blue wood-warbler with black face and flanks in the male, breeding in eastern deciduous forests with a dense shrub layer.
songbird
Blue-tailed Bee-eater
A slender green bee-eater with a distinctive blue tail and rump, common across South and Southeast Asian lowlands.
other
White-faced Heron
The most widespread heron in Australia and New Zealand, easily recognized by its soft blue-grey plumage set off by a clean white face.
wading bird
Bluethroat
The Bluethroat is a small, ground-dwelling songbird whose breeding males display a strikingly iridescent blue-and-chestnut throat patch, set off by warm rufous tail feathers.
songbird
Western Bluebird
A small western thrush whose males show rich cobalt-blue upperparts and wings against a rusty chest, making shed body feathers easy to spot on the ground under nest boxes and fence lines.
songbird
Greater Scaup
A robust diving duck of open water, the Greater Scaup shows a glossy green-black head and finely vermiculated gray back that give it a clean, pale appearance from a distance.
waterfowl
Pinyon Jay
A uniformly blue, short-tailed, crestless jay of the western pinyon-juniper woodlands, famous for its large nomadic flocks and close relationship with pine seeds.
corvid
Eastern Bluebird
A small, vividly colored thrush whose blue feathers are produced by feather structure rather than pigment, giving them a shifting brightness depending on the angle of light.
songbird
Mountain Bluebird
A slender, sky-blue songbird of western North American high country, the male appearing almost entirely blue with no rusty breast patch, unlike its bluebird relatives.
songbird
Snow Goose
An abundant white goose with crisp black wingtips, occurring in a darker "blue" morph as well, that breeds on Arctic tundra and winters in enormous flocks on farmland and marshes.
waterfowl
Azure Jay
A richly blue-bodied jay of South America's Atlantic Forest, with a black head and breast that sharply set off its azure plumage.
corvid
Eurasian Bittern
A large, superbly camouflaged heron of Old World reedbeds, more often detected by its deep booming call than seen in its dense marsh habitat.
wading bird
American Avocet
An elegant black-and-white wader with a distinctive upturned bill, showing a rusty cinnamon head and neck in breeding season.
shorebird
Dusky Grouse
A large montane grouse of the interior Rocky Mountains, males dark slate-grey overall with a fanned dark tail and inflatable yellow-orange neck sacs used in display.
gamebird
King Quail
One of the smallest quail species in the world, with males showing a smart slate-blue breast and a bold black-and-white barred throat.
gamebird