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.
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
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
The Chestnut-backed Chickadee is a Pacific coastal chickadee whose warm chestnut-brown back and flank feathers set it apart from every other North American chickadee.
songbird
Brown-headed Nuthatch
The Brown-headed Nuthatch is a tiny southeastern pine specialist whose warm brown cap feathers, rather than black, set it apart from other nuthatches.
songbird
Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker
One of the smallest South Asian woodpeckers, told from other pygmy woodpeckers mainly by its brownish, rather than blackish, crown.
woodpecker
Black-faced Spoonbill
The smallest and one of the rarest spoonbill species, an all-white East Asian wading bird with a black bare face and a slender black spoon-shaped bill.
wading bird
Brown Kiwi
A flightless, nocturnal New Zealand bird with shaggy, hair-like feathers and a long probing bill used to find invertebrates in leaf litter.
other
Tawny Owl
A stocky woodland owl whose bark-patterned, silent-edged feathers make it one of the most cryptically camouflaged birds in the forest.
owl
Dark-eyed Junco
A familiar winter feeder bird, the Dark-eyed Junco flashes bright white outer tail feathers against a slate-gray or brown body when it flies.
songbird
Vasa Parrot
A large, dark, unusually plain-plumaged parrot from Madagascar known for its loose, almost vulture-like feathering.
parrot
Great Curassow
A large, turkey-sized forest bird, with males glossy black and white below and topped by a curly crest and bright yellow bill knob. Females occur in several distinct color morphs, ranging from barred to rufous to blackish.
gamebird
Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker
A small South Asian pied woodpecker whose warm, buffy-fulvous breast streaking sets it apart from the whiter underparts of related pied woodpeckers.
woodpecker
Great Kiskadee
A large, boldly patterned flycatcher named for its loud, ringing call, with a black-and-white striped head, sulfur-yellow underparts, and rufous edging on the wings and tail. It is a common and conspicuous bird from Texas to Argentina.
songbird
Mute Swan
An enormous, entirely white waterbird whose large, gently curved feathers are unmistakable simply by their sheer size among freshwater birds.
waterfowl
Grey Junglefowl
An Indian forest gamebird whose males have neck hackle feathers tipped with an unusual glassy, wax-like yellow spangle unlike any other bird.
gamebird
Chimney Swift
A cigar-shaped aerial bird with uniformly sooty gray-brown plumage and stiff, spine-tipped tail feathers used to brace against vertical surfaces.
other
Rifleman
The Rifleman is New Zealand's smallest bird, a tiny, almost tailless forest species that creeps up tree trunks probing bark for insects.
songbird
Demoiselle Crane
The smallest of the world's cranes, a blue-grey bird with a black head and breast set off by long, drooping white ear-tuft plumes trailing behind the eyes.
wading bird
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
Mandarin Duck
An East Asian perching duck famed for the male's uniquely upright orange 'sail' feathers on the wing, among the most distinctive single feathers of any bird in the world.
waterfowl
Blue Crane
South Africa's national bird, a pale blue-grey crane with unusually long, trailing wing-tip feathers that can nearly brush the ground when the bird is standing.
wading bird
Tufted Titmouse
The Tufted Titmouse is a common eastern woodland bird known for its jaunty gray crest feathers and soft, plain-gray body feathers washed with rust along the flanks.
songbird
Swallow-tailed Kite
A graceful, boldly two-toned raptor with a deeply forked tail, whose sharp black-and-white feathers are unlike almost any other North American bird of prey.
raptor
Canada Goose
A large, familiar goose whose black neck feathers set off by a bold white chinstrap patch make it one of the easiest waterfowl to recognize from a single feather cluster.
waterfowl
White-breasted Nuthatch
The White-breasted Nuthatch is a tree-climbing songbird whose clean blue-gray back and pure white face and breast feathers are easy to separate from most other backyard species.
songbird