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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Eurasian Oystercatcher
A large, boldly pied shorebird of European and Asian coastlines, black above and white below, with a striking white wing bar and rump revealed in flight.
shorebird
Egyptian Vulture
The smallest and most lightly built Old World vulture, with creamy-white body feathers, black flight feathers, and a distinctive wedge-shaped tail.
raptor
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
Crimson-crested Woodpecker
A striking South American woodpecker whose entirely crimson head and crest stand out sharply against its black-and-white barred body.
woodpecker
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
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
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
Capped Heron
A softly colored South American heron with creamy buff-white plumage, a glossy black cap, and long pale plumes trailing from the crown.
wading bird
Canada Warbler
A slate-blue-gray warbler with bright yellow underparts crossed by a distinctive necklace of black streaks, along with a bold yellow spectacle around the eye.
songbird
Barbary Partridge
A North African partridge distinguished from its close relatives by a chestnut necklace speckled with white spots rather than a solid black gorget.
gamebird
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
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-breasted Nuthatch
The Red-breasted Nuthatch is a small conifer-forest nuthatch whose rusty-orange underside feathers and bold black eye-stripe set it apart from its white-breasted relative.
songbird
Magpie-lark
A common Australian black-and-white songbird, the Magpie-lark shows bold facial and body markings that differ between males and females, and is frequently seen foraging near water on open ground.
songbird
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