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.
Marsh Tit
A plain-plumaged woodland tit with a small, neat glossy black cap and bib set against pale buff-brown body feathers, with plain wings lacking any wingbar.
songbird
Crested Guan
A large, dark guan of tropical American forests, its dusky brown plumage marked with pale-edged feathers that create a scaled pattern on the underparts and wings. A bright red throat wattle and small crest add distinctive accents.
gamebird
Nankeen Kestrel
The Nankeen Kestrel is Australia's common small hovering falcon, named for the pale rufous-tan 'nankeen' color of its back, with a pale grey head and lightly spotted whitish underparts.
raptor
Pacific Screech-Owl
A small eared owl of Pacific lowland Central America, with greyish-brown streaked plumage and pale eyebrows meeting above the bill.
owl
Cassin's Auklet
A small, drab, sooty-gray auklet lacking the bold facial ornaments of its relatives, most easily told by its stubby bill with a small pale spot near the tip.
seabird
Black-winged Kite
The Old World counterpart of the White-tailed Kite, a small pale gray-and-white raptor with a black shoulder patch and striking red eyes.
raptor
Maned Goose
A stocky, pale grey Australian goose with a small dark bill and mostly terrestrial habits, grazing on grasslands near the coast.
waterfowl
Leach's Storm-Petrel
A small, erratic-flying seabird with a forked tail and a pale bar across the upperwing, larger than most other storm-petrels in its range.
seabird
Peaceful Dove
A small, gentle Australian dove with fine dark barring across the neck and breast and a soft, pale blue ring around the eye.
dove pigeon
Whistling Kite
A common, pale kite of Australia and New Guinea best known for its far-carrying whistled call, with buff-brown body feathers contrasting against darker flight feathers in flight.
raptor
African Grey Parrot
A medium-sized grey parrot with pale-edged scalloped body feathers and a bright red tail, native to equatorial Africa.
parrot
Eastern Imperial Eagle
A large steppe eagle recognized by small white patches on the shoulders (scapulars) contrasting with otherwise dark brown plumage and a pale, creamy nape.
raptor
Picui Ground Dove
A small, pale ground dove of open southern South American country, marked by neat blackish spots on its wing coverts and flashes of blue-grey in flight.
dove pigeon
Collared Scops Owl
The Collared Scops Owl is a small Asian owl named for the pale buffy band across its hindneck, set within an overall brown, finely mottled plumage.
owl
Common Buzzard
The Common Buzzard is a medium-large soaring raptor with broad, fingered wing feathers and a highly variable brown plumage, ranging from very dark to pale, that makes each individual's feathers somewhat distinct.
raptor
Grey-headed Lovebird
A small lovebird from Madagascar showing strong sexual dimorphism: males have a pale grey head and breast against a green body, while females are entirely green.
parrot
Kentish Plover
A small, pale Old World plover of sandy and saline flats, closely resembling the Snowy Plover of the Americas, with dark side-breast patches rather than a complete band.
shorebird
Vesper Sparrow
A streaky grassland sparrow best identified by white outer tail feathers and a small chestnut shoulder patch.
songbird
White-tailed Kite
A pale, falcon-shaped kite known for hovering over open fields, with soft gray-and-white feathers and a distinctive black shoulder patch.
raptor
Willow Tit
A plain woodland tit closely resembling the Marsh Tit, distinguished by a duller matte-black cap, a larger bib, and a pale panel across the folded wing formed by pale-edged secondary feathers.
songbird
Blue Ground Dove
A small, strikingly dimorphic dove-pale powder-blue in males, warm rufous-brown in females-both patterned with bold blackish spots across the wings.
dove pigeon
Blue-winged Teal
A small, long-distance migrant dabbling duck with a pale blue wing patch shared by both sexes, and males showing a bold white facial crescent on a slate-grey head.
waterfowl
Ring Ouzel
A blackbird relative of upland Europe, told from the Eurasian Blackbird by its bold white crescent across the breast and pale-scaled wing feathers.
songbird
Pharaoh Eagle-Owl
A pale, sandy-toned eagle-owl of North African and Middle Eastern deserts, its feathers finely streaked and vermiculated to blend with rock and sand.
owl