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.
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
Wilson's Plover
A stocky coastal plover best known for its thick, heavy black bill, distinctly larger than that of similarly patterned ringed plovers.
shorebird
White-throated Swift
A boldly patterned black-and-white swift of western cliffs and canyons, easily recognized by its striking contrast and remarkably fast, direct flight.
other
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
An unmistakable flycatcher with an extremely long, deeply forked black-and-white tail and soft salmon-pink flanks against pale gray plumage.
songbird
Robust Woodpecker
A large, striking woodpecker of the Atlantic Forest region of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, marked by a prominent red crest and bold black-and-white pattern.
woodpecker
Red Junglefowl
The wild ancestor of the domestic chicken, with males displaying glossy orange-gold neck hackles and long, curved, iridescent black tail feathers.
gamebird
Pied Falconet
A strikingly pied falconet with clean black-and-white plumage and no rufous coloring at all, found across southern China and northern Southeast Asia.
raptor
Passerini's Tanager
A Central American forest-edge tanager, the male Passerini's Tanager is glossy black overall except for a vivid scarlet-red patch on the rump.
songbird
Northern Royal Albatross
One of the largest albatrosses, a mostly white southern seabird with a predominantly black upperwing edged in white, closely related to the Wandering Albatross group.
seabird
Himalayan Snowcock
The largest of the Himalayan alpine gamebirds, marked by a bold white face and throat patch bordered with chestnut and black, and heavily streaked chestnut flanks.
gamebird
Green Junglefowl
An Indonesian junglefowl covered in glossy, scale-patterned green-black feathers, with a rounded, multicolored comb unlike any other junglefowl species.
gamebird
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
Copper Sunbird
A widespread African sunbird whose males appear almost entirely black at a distance but glow coppery-purple and bronze-green in good light.
songbird
Citril Finch
A small mountain finch of southwestern Europe with plain greenish-yellow plumage and a grey nape, lacking the black facial markings of related siskins.
songbird
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
Crested Pigeon
A common Australian pigeon topped with a slender, upright black crest and marked by bold iridescent green-and-purple patches across the folded wing.
dove pigeon
Bullock's Oriole
The western counterpart to the Baltimore Oriole, identified by its orange cheeks, black eyeline and throat stripe, and an unusually large white wing patch.
songbird
Broad-billed Hummingbird
A desert-canyon hummingbird with a bright coral-red, black-tipped bill and a male plumage that glows blue-green from throat to breast.
hummingbird
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
Asian Koel
A vocal, sexually dimorphic cuckoo found across South and Southeast Asia, males glossy black and females brown with dense pale spotting.
other
American Three-toed Woodpecker
The North American counterpart of the Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker, a boreal conifer specialist with a yellow-capped male and barred black-and-white flanks.
woodpecker
Spectacled Eider
The Spectacled Eider is a large, localized arctic sea duck named for the male's bold white, black-rimmed eye patches that give the appearance of goggles set against a pale green head.
waterfowl
Red-shouldered Hawk
The Red-shouldered Hawk is a woodland buteo with rufous-barred underparts, reddish shoulder patches, a boldly black-and-white banded tail, and a translucent pale crescent near the wingtip visible in flight.
raptor
Steller's Eider
Steller's Eider is the smallest of the eiders, a compact sea duck whose male shows a white head with a bold black eye patch, warm cinnamon underparts, and a glossy blue wing patch.
waterfowl