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.
Yellow-throated Vireo
The Yellow-throated Vireo is a canopy-dwelling songbird with a vivid yellow throat and spectacles set against an olive-green back and clean white wing bars.
songbird
Tropical Screech-Owl
The Tropical Screech-Owl is a small, widespread Neotropical owl with cryptic grey-brown or rufous plumage and small ear tufts that help it blend against tree bark.
owl
Yellow-rumped Warbler
One of North America's most abundant warblers, easily known by small bright-yellow patches on the rump, sides, and crown set against streaky gray-brown feathers.
songbird
Spotted Flycatcher
The Spotted Flycatcher is a plain grey-brown songbird best recognized by behavior rather than bold color, its subtly streaked feathers built for a life of short aerial sallies from an open perch.
songbird
Yellow-naped Amazon
The Yellow-naped Amazon is a large Central American parrot recognized by the bright yellow band across the back of its neck, set against otherwise all-green plumage.
parrot
Speckled Chachalaca
A grayish-brown, chicken-like bird of South American forest edges, marked with fine pale speckling on the breast and a long tail broadly tipped in cinnamon. It is best known for its loud, raucous dawn calls that give the chachalaca its name.
gamebird
Yellow-hooded Blackbird
A marsh-dwelling blackbird of northern South America, with males showing a bright yellow hood and breast against an otherwise black body, often seen perched on reeds and grass stems.
songbird
Speckled Wood Pigeon
The Speckled Wood Pigeon is a richly colored Himalayan pigeon with a deep maroon body and a patch of fine white speckling across the back of its neck.
dove pigeon
Yellow-headed Blackbird
The Yellow-headed Blackbird is a large, striking marsh bird easily identified by its bright yellow head and breast contrasting sharply with glossy black body plumage and a bold white wing patch.
songbird
Speckled Pigeon
A large African pigeon with striking reddish-brown wings covered in bold white spots and a patch of bare red skin around each eye.
dove pigeon
Yellow-headed Amazon
A large green amazon parrot of Mexico and Central America, named for its yellow-washed head, with a red shoulder patch and blue in the wing visible in flight.
parrot
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
Yellow-eyed Junco
A montane junco of the southwestern borderlands, distinguished from its dark-eyed relative by a striking pale yellow eye.
songbird
Southern Ground Hornbill
The Southern Ground Hornbill is a large, mostly terrestrial hornbill of southern African savanna, easily told by its black plumage, bare red facial skin, and heavy dark bill. It walks in small family groups across open grassland hunting for animal prey.
other
Yellow-fronted Canary
A small African finch with a bright yellow face and underparts set off by a bold black malar stripe and streaked olive-green back.
songbird
Spinifex Pigeon
A small, richly reddish pigeon of Australia's spinifex deserts, sporting a pointed crest and bold black-and-white facial markings that stand out against its cinnamon plumage.
dove pigeon
Yellow-collared Lovebird
A small lovebird with a dark, mask-like head, a bright yellow collar and breast, and a green body, native to north-central Tanzania.
parrot
Spectacled Owl
A large Neotropical rainforest owl named for its bold white 'spectacle' markings around the eyes, with a dark chocolate-brown hood and chest band contrasting sharply against a warm buffy-yellow belly.
owl
Yellow-breasted Greenfinch
A Himalayan finch with bright yellow underparts, a greyish head, and yellow flashes in the wings and tail visible in flight.
songbird
Southern Double-collared Sunbird
A small southern African sunbird whose males show iridescent green upperparts and a narrow red breast band bordered by a thin dark band, giving rise to the 'double-collared' name.
songbird
Yellow-breasted Chat
The Yellow-breasted Chat is an oversized, thick-billed relative of the wood-warblers with a bright yellow throat and a habit of hiding deep in tangled thickets.
songbird
Southern Cassowary
A large, flightless rainforest bird, the Southern Cassowary has coarse, hair-like black plumage and a tall bony head casque, with its vivid blue-and-red coloring confined to bare skin rather than feathers.
other
Yellow-breasted Bunting
The Yellow-breasted Bunting is a strikingly colored Eurasian songbird, once abundant but now critically endangered due to unsustainable historical trapping pressure along its migratory routes.
songbird
Spanish Imperial Eagle
A rare Iberian eagle marked by a bold, creamy-white leading-edge patch on the upperwing that stands out sharply against otherwise blackish-brown body plumage.
raptor
Yellow-billed Spoonbill
An Australian endemic spoonbill with pale yellow bill and legs, generally less gregarious than the Royal Spoonbill and often found alone or in small groups at inland wetlands.
wading bird
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
Yellow-billed Magpie
A California endemic magpie nearly identical to its black-billed relative in plumage, but distinguished by a bright yellow bill and yellow skin patch around the eye.
corvid
Southern Screamer
A large, gray, goose-like bird of southern South American wetlands, marked by a dark collar around the base of the neck and a short crest. Despite its bulky build it is an agile flier, often seen soaring on thermals over open marshland.
other
Yellow-bellied Siskin
A tropical montane finch with a black head and back offset by warm yellow underparts, found in cloud-forest edges and clearings.
songbird
Spotless Starling
A glossy black starling of Iberia and northwest Africa closely resembling the Common Starling but lacking the pale spangling in breeding plumage.
songbird
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
A migratory eastern woodpecker known for drilling neat rows of small holes in tree bark to feed on sap.
woodpecker
Spot-winged Falconet
A small, distinctive South American falcon of arid scrub and Chaco woodland, showing white-spotted wings against brown-grey upperparts and streaked buffy underparts.
raptor
Wood Stork
A large white stork with sharply contrasting black flight feathers and tail, and a bare, dark gray-black head and neck rather than feathered skin.
wading bird
Spot-breasted Woodpecker
A South American woodpecker with a yellow-green barred back and a breast marked by bold black spots, favoring open and semi-open wooded habitat.
woodpecker
Wonga Pigeon
The Wonga Pigeon is a plump, ground-dwelling Australian pigeon known for the bold black chevron markings across its white lower breast and belly.
dove pigeon
Song Thrush
A warm brown thrush with cream, finely spotted underparts and a distinctive buff-orange wash under the wing, smaller and more delicately marked than its larger thrush relatives.
songbird
Winter Wren
A tiny, rounded, rufous-brown wren of dense eastern forest understory, told from its close relatives mainly by voice and range, given its very similar plumage.
songbird
South Polar Skua
A powerfully built Antarctic seabird closely resembling the Great Skua but often paler and grayer overall, ranging across some of the most remote polar and pelagic waters on Earth.
seabird
Wilson's Warbler
A small, bright yellow warbler with an active, flitting manner, males topped with a neat, glossy black cap and no wing bars or streaking anywhere.
songbird
Song Sparrow
The Song Sparrow is a widespread, geographically variable sparrow whose brown-streaked feathers often converge into a distinctive central dark spot on the breast.
songbird
Willow Warbler
A tiny, long-distance migrant warbler nearly identical to the Chiffchaff, best separated at the feather level by slightly yellower tones and pale pinkish (rather than dark) legs.
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
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
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
A Siberian-breeding sandpiper with a rufous cap and chevron-streaked underparts, closely related to the Pectoral Sandpiper but favoring wetter, grassier habitats along its migration route to Australasia.
shorebird
Willow Ptarmigan
The largest of the ptarmigan species, showing warm reddish-brown summer plumage in males, a pure white winter coat, and a black tail retained throughout the year.
gamebird
Smew
The Smew is a small, striking Eurasian merganser whose male appears almost entirely white, marked with a bold black eye patch and delicate black lines along the back and flanks.
waterfowl
Willow Flycatcher
A plain, olive-brown Empidonax flycatcher of willow thickets, best distinguished from close relatives by its faint or absent eye-ring and voice.
songbird
Slate-throated Redstart
The Slate-throated Redstart is a highland forest warbler known for its slate-gray plumage, reddish belly, and habit of fanning white-edged tail feathers while foraging.
songbird